IT Next - April 2010

4 Edu Tech December 2009
Editorial
Gates open
On July 20, 2006, Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation made it mandatory
for all researchers accepting its grant for
HIV/AIDS research to share their scientific findings. Here
was a man whose company had reaped rich dividends from proprietary “Making individual
IPs, and his foundation was now applying the ‘commons’ philosophy to work accessible to the
another area.
It indeed had come full circle! larger community is in
The Foundation’s frustration stemmed from the fact that decades of
professional secrecy among researchers had impeded development of an
interest of larger goals
AIDS vaccine. and benefits”
Apparently, the Foundation considered that if researchers piggy-backed
on each other’s works, it would speed up the development process. S h u bh e n d u Pa r t h
That exactly is what ‘open’ is all about: making technologies and
researches accessible to the larger community towards larger goals and
benefits. Examples include the 1960s’ collaborative telecommunication
project (ARPANET) that led to the birth of the Internet in 1969, and the
more recent human genome sequencing project.
To quote Open Source Initiative president Michael Tiemann: “…free and
open source… has opened innovation, and helped the world transcend the
limits of conventional industrialisation.”
In fact, the modern day growth of automobile sector also owes it to the
‘open’ initiative led by Henry Ford, who challenged the two-cycle gasoline
engine patent owned by George B Selden and won it in 1911.
That led to the setting up of a new association (now Motor Vehicle
Manufacturers Association), which instituted a cross-licensing agreement
among all US auto manufacturers. While companies filed patents for
the technologies developed by them, these would be shared without any Blogs To Watch!
financial consideration among all manufacturers. Economic impact of FOSS in India
Closer home, India’s White Revolution is yet another amazing story of www.iimb.ernet.in/~rahulde/
RD_FOSSRep2009.pdf
how a ‘community’ led work shaped a massive success story called Gujarat
Open source software web site
Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation or better still, the brand called www.sourceforge.net
Amul.
Your views and opinion matter
What could be more telling of the shift to ‘open’ than the fact that the world to us. Send your feedback
is already talking about ‘open source politics’ and ‘open source governance,’ on stories and the magazine
at shubhendu.parth@9dot9.
in what amounts to having direct citizen inputs into the governance. in or SMS us at 567678 (type
Gates all over are swinging inwards for ‘open.’ ITNEXT<space>your feedback)
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For the l atest technology u PDATES Go to itnext.in april 2010 Volume 01 | Issue 04 ugrp_ovr
Gaps are
closing! The support system has been stable
on the server for quite some time,
and now the story gets better on the
Page client front too
16
insights boss talk interview
22 On a roll with openware
A do-it-yourself open source framework from an IT manager who’s
been there, done it—successfully
24 No more expensive upgrades!

c ov er des ign/illustratio n: bines h sh rid haran
The leading foam maker is glad it switched to open source. The

new system runs 50% faster, is easy to scale and saves Rs 40 lakh
per annum
28 Can it get any cheaper?

This retail financing major saw its loan-and-collection system go live
at one-fourth the cost of a proprietary solution
36 Run social media in safe mode 06 To be a CIO, think like one 30 “Linux is getting better on
With enterprises planning to use Web 2.0 tools in a big way, internal | Use the ASK scale to measure the desktop” | Prakash Advani
compliance is becoming the key to keeping silent threats posed by when you are ready for the debunks the numerous myths
social media at bay CIO’s role that surround Open Source
2 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
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MANAGEMENT
Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha
Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta
EDITORIAL
Group Editor: R Giridhar
Page tech race all win! | Zero legacies gave
Editor: Shubhendu Parth
Consulting Editor: Pravin Prashant
44
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tracks too—now both are eyeing mobile banking
Sr Correspondent: Jatinder Singh
opinion 54 Security | 5 trends that will DESIGN

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11 Money Wise: On the move storage can be tapped to create Sr Designers: Prasanth TR & Anil T
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INBoX
SPINE
explained very well in today’s
IT NEXT
MARCH 2010 / RS. 150
VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 03
BI & BA
SOCIAL
MEDIA XaaS context, and ‘Beyond e-mails’
Page Page Page
WE
16 48 44
JUST which talks of the fast emerging
SPECIAL ISSUE
SECURITY
LOST trend of social networking have
OUR
Page
12
EDIT been put across very well. Also,
P E O P L E TEAM!
VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 03
A 9.9 Media Publication
experience sharing through
W H O
DATA CENTRE
articles like ‘Dare to lead’ reiterates

TRANSFORMATION
march 2010
Page
20
the core values and ethics.
VIRTUALISATION
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24
M A D E I T The concept of sharing 10 best
H A P P E N practices brings in encouragement
IT NEXT thanks and also provides a platform to
its Readers
for the warm share the best of the industry. It
GREEN PRIVATE
response
not only motivates the doer but
ENTERPRISE UNIFIED
COMMUNICATIONS IT CLOUD
MOBILITY
Page Page Page
Page
28 32 36 40
also illustrates the best initiatives
www.linkedin.com/
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PERTISTH MANKOTIA
Head-IT | Sheela Foam
The design and visual effect of this issue are good. read this Really innovative and amaz-
issue online
Content wise, the magazine has definitely made an ing The March 2010 issue was
impact. However, it is difficult to go through the soft copy really innovative and amazing,
http://www.itnext.
both in terms of concept and con-
in the format made available on the Net. While it’s always a in/resources/
magazine tent. The participation of such
pleasure reading the magazine in a hard copy format, can you do a large number of IT managers
something to make the digital issue more readable? itself is the proof of the pudding.
S K PALUSKAR In fact, I was a little sceptical
GM—Marketing & IT | Excel Industries when the IT Next edit team called
me with the request to join one
Information ahoy! The 9.9 Media team has outdone itself. The maga- of the editorial panels. After all,
zine is so rich in content that I could not figure out how to prioritise and this was only the third issue
read. Do I look at virtualisation first or do I read the BI article? It was a and the plan that the entire
good problem to be confronted with, but that also brings up something magazine would be written by the
to think about—how will the average reader prioritise and how will readers themselves sounded too
they go through the magazine. ambitious. However, I am happy
While there is a deluge of good and useful information in the magazine, to see that you guys have really
my suggestion is that IT Next should device a way to make it easier for the pulled it off very well.
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Maybe one subject area can be covered in detail while another one can be Director-IT | Epoch Expo
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ANAND KUMAR PADMANABAN Erratum The price of Fujitsu
Founder Director| Career Weaver & SurgeForth Technologies fi-6800 production scanner as
reported on page 65 in the Feb-
Congratulations! The March issue of the magazine has come out ruary 2010 issue of IT Next was
very well. The cover is extremely eye catching and innovative. The inadvertently mentioned as Rs
manner of introducing the magazine and ‘people who made it happen’ 15,995. The company has clarified
in different categories—‘40 practical IT managers on tech trends,’ ‘10 that it is yet to announce its India
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<your feedback>
really exceptional. and send it to —Editor
All the articles are admirable and very well related to the current
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boss talk | PA Kalyanasundar
leadership
To be a CIO,
think like one
E
verybody yearns for professional
growth and promotion. I’m sure
you as an IT manager also aspire
to be in the CIO’s role at some point
in your career, sooner the better.
In today’s agile organisations, experience and
knowledge alone do not guarantee a journey
to the top of the IT organisation ladder. There
are other important factors that distinguish a
budding CIO from the rest of IT managers.
Sure, ambition is one of the important factors. “Use the ASK scale of attitude, skill and
Yet, in the course of my long professional career,
I have seen many ambitious and technically
knowledge to measure when you are
competent persons who did not succeed in ready for the CIO’s role”
making it to the big club.
Often, I have pondered over the subject and the top-line while working to reduce the expenses.
have come to believe that while ambition is The CIO today is a business leader, who is often a
important, there is a trait more that is perhaps face of the organisation dealing with customers,
even more important. That’s attitude or the vendors and employees. Thus IT managers must
mindset. It plays a very vital role in developing not only have sound technology knowledge, they
leadership traits in a person. should have good people management skills. They
What exactly is attitude and how does one get it? also need to measure actions in terms of financial
Well, attitude can be defined as a behavioural Suggestion BOX considerations and scales like RoI and TCO.
trait of individuals as which they come to exhibit So, how will you know that you are ready?
as they carry out day-to-day affairs at work or Actually, it’s not very difficult. Keep weighing
at home. Often these traits are either genetically yourself on the ASK scale—attitude, skill and
coded or imbibed early in life, at home and during knowledge. While knowledge and skill can
the school days. These traits mean that faced be gained over a period of time, one needs to
by the same set of problems, different people consciously work to acquire the right attitude.
react differently. While some take a problem as Just like a good mentor can help you pick up
an opportunity many others tend to see it as a skills fast, a mentor can give you tips to develop
challenge. Now that is what I call an attitude. the right attitude too. And most often, an indulgent
How do you get an attitude, or the right The book ‘Who boss is a good mentor too. So if you have such a
attitude? Like I said, part of it is encoded and part Killed Change’ is a boss, maybe you have already got what you need.
of it is imbibed. So go, work on it, if you lack it. business parable Once you have imbued the right attitude too,
Let me illustrate. that teaches it is often a matter of time that you step into the
The CIO’s role has changed dramatically over the organisations how CIO’s shoes. Remember that to be a CIO, you
past decade or so. No longer is he the technologist to cope success- have to think like one.
who looks after the company’s IT infrastructure. fully with change
The author, GM—IT at Bank of India, has over three
The CIO is now more of a confidante of the Writer: Ken Bl anchard
decades of experience and prefers to be known more as a
Publisher: Harper Collins
CEO, who keeps finding new ways to increase Price: INR 150.00 banker than a technologist
6 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
tech talk
Opinion Vadiraj Aralappanavar
Head-Mobile Applications, MindTree
the customer care team, allowing

the customer care reps to focus on
addressing complex customer issues.
As per a survey conducted by
Forrester, mobile sales force automation
On the move now

(SFA) systems are on the radar of the
companies and 25% of them are either
piloting or using some kind of mobile
SFA systems. Another 23% appear to
be considering mobile SFA in some
manner in the coming year. This
E
indicates that there is a tremendous
nterprises have been interest in this mobile line of business
waiting for technologies application compared to rest of the
to reach high functional mobile applications that can be
standards and want to deployed in an enterprise context.
understand how mobility Mobile SFA solutions have existed
can impact their business processes. So for quite some years now in different
far, it’s mostly been a few early adopters forms. Earlier, they were deployed
that have been deploying mobility solu- on the rugged proprietary handheld
tions, with mobile e-mail leading the devices. However, certain smartphones
way. However, this is set to change over are now gaining acceptance as a device
the next few years with mobility grow- option for field forces, in part because
ing from just a good-to-have factor to an they offer higher functionalities for a
essential part of the IT infrastructure. relatively lower cost.
Companies take two different These smartphones are typically
approaches to justifying their mobility the ones based on newer versions of
initiatives. Some organisations focus operating systems that are open to third-
on cost-cutting measures and benefits, party application development. Their
while others focus on mobility solutions mass market availability has created a
to achieve larger business benefits like wide variety of affordable form factors
productivity increase or customer “Multi-pronged benefits that span the continuum of voice and
service improvements. and newer platforms data-centric features. Enterprises are
Interestingly, a recent Forrester evaluating smartphones as the main
analysis says that approximately 40% make enterprise device for certain types of field workers
of firms are planning to cut the number mobility viable and a for three reasons:
of employees who qualify for corporate- l To show an always-connected status
liable mobile data services, and a similar must have” l Their ability to act as the user’s
percentage of organisations will decrease primary communication terminal
the number of employees who qualify for l As a platform for mobilising
corporate-liable mobile voice services. productivity improvements. enterprise applications
This is an indication that Mobile applications are also being From an Indian perspective,
organisations expect productivity used by some companies to maintain Blackberry has gained a good
improvements with the use of mobility. and improve customer relationships acceptability as a platform of choice
Firms continue to use mobile and satisfaction levels. The applications because of the functionality that RIM
investments to enhance the productivity in this area can range from mobile provides. However, companies are also
of employees who are truly mobile such CRM solutions and mobile inventory evaluating lower-cost solutions and even
Photog raphy: girees h gv
as sales professionals, field service management solutions to mobile asset home-grown solutions that can meet their
professionals, and logistics personnel. management solutions that can provide specific enterprise mobility needs.
Then there are also categories of real-time data to the employees and in
employees who work out of their turn the customers.
The author is a hands-on communications and
desks. There are mobile applications This has resulted in significantly wireless expert with over 12 years of experience
that can serve this category as well for decreased calls from field reps to in the mobility space
8 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
money wise
Opinion Venkatesh Hariharan
Corporate Affairs Director, Red Hat
intelligence, enterprise portals, content

management systems and many others.
On the service front, everything
boils down to how well the software
Pocket-wise, is implemented and supported. In

OSS, commercial vendors usually sell
otherwise too
their services in the form of annual
subscriptions that have to be renewed.
And the quality of services rendered
to the client determines whether
Q
subscriptions are renewed or not.
“ uality. Price. Service. Pick

any two,” said a very suc-
This gives OSS vendors an inherent
incentive to offer good quality services.
cinct placard at Damo- This gives IT mangers the confidence to
dar’s tailoring shop. actively consider OSS while procuring
Damodar was among the software, especially where the OSS
best in the tailoring business and he def- option is mature and meets their
initely knew what he was talking about. functional requirements.
However, in the software industry, At a macro level, OSS is also becoming
the emergence of open source software a key component in IT solutions. A
(OSS) no longer allows a vendor to Gartner study estimates that by 2012,
dictate terms. The new catch phrase is 80% of all commercial software will
‘pick all three’ and not ‘pick any two.’ have some OSS components embedded.
Take quality for a start. Studies by Market research group IDC said
Coverity have found that the number that open source software is gaining
of defects per thousand lines of code is ‘enormous momentum’ and constitutes
lower with OSS than with proprietary the ‘most significant all-encompassing
software.
One of the most famous sayings in the
“To be moneywise, and long-term trend that the software
industry has seen since the early 1980’s.’
OSS community is that ‘many eyes make IT managers should A study done by Prof Rahul De
bugs shallow.’ The open, transparent,
community driven development model
focus on all three of IIM Bangalore, on the economic
impact of OSS in India says that OSS
of open source has lead to the creation aspects—quality, can help India save Rs 10,000 crore.
of some of the most robust software
systems ever built.
price and services” These factors necessitate a shift from
opportunistic, piecemeal, tactical
Those who have migrated from adoption of OSS to making OSS an
proprietary server operating systems to around service and support for OSS integral component of the overall IT
open source systems will happily testify deployments. strategy.
to this fact. Is it any surprise that 466 out Many top-notch system integrators Given the recent downturn in the
of the top 500 supercomputers in the around the world routinely incorporate economy, cost has been one of the
world run on Linux? Or that mission OSS in the solutions they offer to drivers for organisations turning to
critical applications like telecom billing their clients. Unlike their proprietary OSS. However, to be moneywise, they
solutions, stock exchanges and others competitors, OSS vendors do not have should focus on all three aspects—
are increasingly moving to Linux and to incur huge development costs and quality, price and service.
other OSS systems? this enables them to offer high quality In this context, I cannot resist quoting
On the price front, the industry has software implementations at prices lower from another placard in Damodar’s tailor
had to deal with the forced upgrade than proprietary software vendors. shop. “I have no quarrel with competitors
cycles, vendor lock-ins and hugely The good news for IT managers who charge less. They know the value of
bloated software licenses imposed by is that OSS is no longer restricted to their goods and services.”
proprietary software vendors. While infrastructure software categories like
the development model of OSS is operating systems and middleware, but The author is a journalist turned open source
community driven, many commercial has expanded to encompass application evangelist who works on policy issues like open
standards and collaborative innovation
vendors have built business models areas like CRM, ERP, business
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 11
update
Update
I n d u s t r y
trends
deals
products
services
people
can harness online versions

of familiar tools, including
Crystal Reports for reporting,
Web Intelligence for query
and analysis, Xcelsius
as a dashboard and data
visualisation, and SAP Business
Objects Explorer for fast,
in-memory data analysis.
According to SAP, the new
offering delivers a very intuitive,
guided workflow for people
of any expertise level. “The
backbone of the service is a
simple to explore report-share
workflow. In the exploration
phase, users can find and
blend data from their own
desktops and corporate sources
without being an information
SAP revamps BI on The new BI

OnDemand
management guru,” the
company said.
demand offerings unites Crys-

talReports.
com and the
The upgrade is also aimed
at enabling people with no
prior BI to experience access,
TECH TIDINGS | SAP has significantly upgraded its Business Objects previous explore, visualise, and share
(BO) BI OnDemand offering. The offering now consolidates SaaS version of BI data, without actually needing
offerings and presents simpler interfaces for new BI adopters. OnDemand to switch between applications.
The upgraded SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand unites and It also gives users the ability
replaces two formerly distinct offerings—CrystalReports.com and to access all on-demand and
the past version of BI OnDemand, which was based on the SAP on-premise data–including
BusinessObjects XI BI suite. SAP data and data from
The new service delivers a single environment in which users the Salesforce customer
relationship management
(CRM) application.
“It is an on-demand solution
opern Enterprises can save Rs 46,388 million in 2010 if they use for creating ad-hoc reports,
ce
sou FOSS in half of their new PCs conducting what-if analyses,
(Figures in Rs Million) and securely sharing this
Enterprise 70000 information inside or outside the
sales refer to 60000 company,” SAP said.
bulk orders 59,692
50000 55,257 The company also announced
Photo graph y: photo s.c om
from large 50,822

organisations 40000
41,953 46,388 that the offering will include
and govern- 30000 flexible pricing and ease
ments 20000 deployment scaling features.
However, SAP is yet to announce
2009
2010
2013
2012
2011
10000
0 the pricing and details of data

integration options.
Source: Economic Im pact of FOSS in I ndia by IIM- B (Sponsored by Red Hat India)
12 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
SECURE YOUR LAN UPGRADE YOUR MAC MEMORY portable storage solutions
Fortinet has launched new enterprise thin Strontium has introduced the new Mac Seagate has introduced new portable
access product line for high performance Memory module made especially for Mac- storage solutions under the
wireless networking. It enables businesses book, Macbook Pro and BlackArmor series. The solu-
to control network access, with a single iMac users. The new mod- tions are designed to meet
console and helps ules are available as 2GB the digital asset management
monitor regulatory single piece, 4GB single needs of enterprises, with no
compliance. piece, 4GB kit or 8GB kit. or limited IT support.
HP, Polycom to collaborate interoperable collaboration

solutions that give customers
greater flexibility and
on video conferencing investment protection for their

UC environment.
The deal, according to
industry sources, will intensify
TECH ALLIANCE | HP and the already heated competition
Polycom have decided to join between HP and Cisco. Notably,
hands to consolidate their video Cisco, which had been providing
conferencing market share. a range of video-based offerings
Under the agreement, while HP to HP, recently disengaged their
will sell Polycom’s video and reseller agreement.
voice solutions for unified com- Cisco has also been moving
munications. HP will deliver aggressively into data center and
its stand-alone solutions as part server fields, which traditionally
of the company’s Unified Com- have been strong areas for HP,
munications and Collaboration some years back.
Services portfolio. According to industry analyst
The partnership aims to firm Gartner, total demand for
enable enterprises leverage the Deal will investment. visual communication solutions
expertise of HP and Polycom for intensify the The strategic relationship and services is projected to reach
implementing and supporting competition will also support Polycom’s US $8.6B, with a compound
communications systems between HP open collaboration network annual growth rate of 17.8%
to achieve high return on and Cisco strategy to provide open and between 2008 and 2013.
Around The World quick byte
Tele-presence market to
grow by 64% in 2010
With large businesses increasingly turning to video
as an alternative to cut travel cost, tele-presence
solutions have been the major gainer. Revenues
for ready-built tele-presence suites in Asia-Pacific Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell at
the Nasscom-CEO conclave
grew an estimated 71.1% in 2009, up from 46.6% in “Our India business is
2008. For 2010, Frost & Sullivan expects a growth of growing 100%. We are
growing faster than the
64.4%, with revenues of just over US $73.0 million market, which is growing
by year-end. The market is expected to grow at at less than 100%. We see
a CAGR of 22.9% (2009-2015) per annum, before enormous opportunities
for growth in India”
touching US $110.1 million by end-2015.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 13
update
Microsoft to release
Office 2010
TECH TIDINGS | Microsoft has
announced that it will launch its
latest office version MS Office
2010 by this year. The software
major has confirmed that it will
begin shipping the product to
business users and partners Interview
from May this year. Prabha Aithal
The latest version of the office CTO, CanvasM
suite boasts of online versions of
IT NEXT: How would you rate the
MS Word, Power Point and One
enterprise mobile VAS offerings on the
Note. This move was perhaps a The latest version basic home productivity
maturity curve?
necessity, rather than the option includes online software.
for the company. The online versions of MS According to the Aithal: Although mobile VAS offer-
version would help the company Word, Excel, company, the Share Point ings are mature for enterprise customers
fight the growing popularity Power Point and Workspace 2010 will outside India due to availability of 3G, the
of Google Docs as an online One Note allow users reconnect same is not true of the offerings in India.
alternative to MS Office. their laptop to the However for enterprises, who are ready
Microsoft had already network with ease as the to extend mobility to their employees, the
released the beta version of MS changes they make offline same offerings can easily be customised.
Office 2010 and related web will get synchronised. The There are many innovative applications
applications in November 2009. consumer would have to like mobile conferencing, m-Commerce
The company has also announced shell US $499 for a box of support and SMS tracker to manage supply
that it will discontinue Microsoft professional edition, and chain issues that will see wide acceptabil-
Works platform, which will be US $279 for the home and ity amongst enterprises in coming years.
replaced by Office Starter 2010, a business edition.
How can IT managers leverage these
offerings to draw business benefits
for their organisations?
India bought 42% IT managers extending mobility to their

employees will see increased productivity,
more PCs in Q3: MAIT

loyalty, employee satisfaction by usage
of these applications. For instance, there
would be no need to come back to office to
download proposals, and upload sales data.
TECH TRENDS | Manufacturer’s Asso- taken together recorded a massive
What are the major deterrents in
ciation for Information Technology growth 27% and 90% respectively, on
adoption of mobile solutions?
(MAIT) has announced that the total a YoY basis. In terms of volume, India
PC sales in the country during the bought 0.66 million (6.6 lakh) netbooks Enterprises today understand the technol-
October-December (OND) 2009 quar- and notebooks during the period. ogy well. However, challenges like device
ter jumped 42% over the same The study was conducted provisioning, different browsers prefer-
Photo graph y: Jayan K Narayanan
period last fiscal to touch a PC sales by market research firm ences, lack of security mechanisms, and
for 2009-10
record 20 lakh volume. This expected IMRB and is a bi-annual ineffective management control can block
7.3
to cross
includes desktop computers, study conducted to address the acceptability of these solutions. It is
notebooks and netbooks. the hardware sector’s efforts hence crucial for an IT manager to make
According to the report, the to manage the business a comprehensive roadmap to make sure
sales of desktops stood at 1.35 environment, gauge the that the mobility projects are successful.
million (13.5 lakh) units, while units mn market potential and
Source: MAIT
netbooks and notebooks consumer trends. By Jatinder Singh
14 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
update
IBM announces cloud

NETWORKING
Ciena buys
plans Nortel’s
Ethernet
The new plans
will help in business
reducing Ciena has announced that it has
cycle time acquired the optical and carrier
and eliminate Ethernet business of Nortel. With
software over 1,000 customers spread
defects by up across 65 countries, Nortel had
to 30% been considered a leader in
this market. The acquisition is
expected to accelerates Ciena’s
position to leverage and innovate
in next-generation networks
The US $773.8 million, all-cash
acquisition, will create the world’s
largest supplier exclusively
focused on converged optical Eth-
ernet. The company, as part of the
integration process, has selected
TECH TIDINGS | IBM has announced The new development will help in a senior management for the new
plans to go online with its commercial reducing cycle times from weeks to entity.
cloud service for software develop- minutes and eliminate software defects Ciena further informed that it
ment and testing and is now allowing by up to 30%. Experts suggest that would retain 85% of Nortel em-
enterprise and government clients to while an average enterprise devotes ployees. Philippe Morin, previously
test and develop applications on IBM up to 50% of its entire technology president of Nortel MEN, has been
Cloud. infrastructure for development and appointed Ciena’s SVP, Global
Following a successful beta testing, up to 90% of it usually remains Products Group.
program, IBM is working with idle. Owing to its bankruptcy filing
partners in cloud management, cloud The new developerWorks Cloud and the economic downturn,
security, software development and Computing resources provide a Nortel’s Ethernet business has
testing support to provide businesses single point of entry to beta and suffered a decline of 21% from a
with a mix of flexibility, scalability, production cloud environments, as year ago.
enterprise-grade security and control well as a place for visitors to learn The company is expected to an-
for development and test on the IBM how to make the most of cloud nounce a comprehensive portfolio
Cloud. computing initiatives. update by the end of this month.
News @
blog
IBM loves its own cooking
“The company is doing what it preaches its customers: make computing environment
more efficient and less expensive,” says IBM CIO Pat Toole at an analyst meet | Sandy Kemsley in
<http://www.column2.com/>
The blog reports that IBM has consolidated 100 data warehouses into a single
Cognos environment for 80,000 internal users in their Blue Insight initiative.
It expects to add another 30 applications and double the user base in a year.
IBM also turned on LotusLive web conferencing for all employees to use for
internal and external meetings, logging 200 million minutes last year.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 15
<cover_story>open_source</cover_story>
gaps are
<head>
</head>
<h1>
the_support_system_has_been_stable_
on_the_server_for_quite_some_time,_
and_now_the_story_gets_better_on_
the_client_front_too
</h1>
<h2>
By S h ash wat D C
</h2>
The age old war between the two technologies—open source and pro-
prietary software is still very much on. Like the proverbial good versus evil
clash, one camp is eager to paint the other camp in black.
Lost somewhere in the debate is the real issue. The question one really
needs an answer for is which of the two is cheaper, secure, and easier to
maintain.
What is in a debate?
One of the issues that lot many experts often raise is: are open source and
proprietary comparable in the first place?
Open source has been around for several decades, thanks to the
mainframe legacy, where the computer belonged to the technologist.
A breed of technologists emerged who believed in technology for
the sake of technology. The proprietary software is a relatively later
phenomenon when the likes of Bill Gates and Paul Allen started dealing
in software for profit.
16 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
closing! 


a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 17
<cover_story>open_source Does open source work out cheaper
than proprietary software?
For the last three decades, the war between open
source and proprietary has continued, with the
Balwant Singh, Head IT, Indo Asian
technologists driving open source movements and
Fusegear
marketers gunning for proprietary stuff.
As such, the very characteristics of the two wares Definitely, open source gives you a lot of benefits
have been different, much like the chalk and the in terms of cost saving, lower downtime, robust
cheese. And yet, in the unending battle to be one-up, and secured system and better performance
both camps have also picked up some good features compared with the proprietary software. Our current operations
from the other side and improved their offerings. rely extensively on Linux and other open source software and solu-
However, for the IT managers, whose prime tions to provide state-of-the-art redundant services with unparal-
concern is to ensure that their IT infrastructure is leled reliability and the lowest possible TCO. At present, we have
safe, secure, up and running, what really matters 70 servers and 1,000 systems across 25 locations in Asia, and all
is what is affordable and causes lesser headache. of them are running on Linux OS and open source software.
Indeed, there has to be a comparison to arrive at SK Goel, Vice President, Om Logistics
the right IT decision, but the ideological debate is We have more than 3,500 desktops and around
frivolous. The two paradigms are to be compared 300 servers across the country in 450 locations.
only from an operational standpoint. All desktops are running on Fedora core and
Let’s do the comparison. servers on RHEL. We have eight IT executives,
who maintain all desktops across the country. Our desktops range
Is it TCA versus TCO? from PIII to Dual Core. Even PIII desktops are working fine with
One will certainly like to start with a cost compari- Red Hat 7.0 Linux without any problem. I personally feel that com-
son. So for example, how much does it cost to put paring Linux with proprietary is software is like comparing a BMW
up a Microsoft server versus a Linux server with with Nano. I see Linux as a BMW where safety, security and stabil-
similar sets of specifications? That should tell us the ity are prime concerns, along with other features.
story. Sadly, it does not.
Nikunj Karia, Assistant Manager-IT, NDTV
The devil apparently lies in the detail. So while
open source systems are indeed inexpensive to With unrestricted access to the source code to
implement compared to proprietary systems, run or modify at will, and support coming from
there are a lot of other costs involved, namely an ad hoc collection of software developers and
administrative and training costs. Because of the fellow users, the open-source model is very dif-
pervasiveness of proprietary systems like Microsoft, ferent from proprietary software. Whether open source software
getting people to work on MS Word is much easier is less costly to administer than proprietary software depends
than on an OpenOffice Word processor. And largely on a ready pool of resources trained on the system, the
therefore, often the argument is that rather than availability of administration tools that allow system administra-
focussing the total cost of acquisition (TCA), it is tors to manage a greater number of systems, and the number of
better to focus on the total cost of operation (TCO) version upgrades and patches that are issued by the developer.
over the system’s lifecycle. Satish Mahajan, Head IT-Infrastructure,
Yet, experts have noted that even on a TCO front, Raymonds
certain open source systems, especially on the server If you select open source software, it’s a chal-
side, work out to be cheaper. lenge to get the right updates for removing bugs
or adding new features. Another important fac-
How free is an open ware? tor is change management. This is one of the biggest challenges
It is a known fact that for proprietary systems, the that IT professionals face. Technically, everything is possible but
biggest cost component is the licensing. While there how about the acceptability at the users’ end. We need to look at
are some discounts for enterprise systems compared that as one of most important factors, while considering shifting to
to home and consumer systems, it still turns out to open source. Study has shown that enforcement of policy from top
be hefty. The basic argument is that this high cost has always helped in this change management.
ensures that companies are able to invest in R&D
Shiva Shankar, VP& Head-IT Infrastructure
and are thus able to release improved versions.
& Security-Operations & Engineering, Reli-
But then there are vendors in the open source
ance Communications
space too, who also come out with new releases of
their open source wares at a steady pace. They also Human psychology is to stay in a comfort zone.
provide support on operational fronts, for a fee, just When that’s challenged, there is a reverse-kick.
like the proprietary guys do. Nevertheless, if there is a sound back-end or an in-house system
These include the likes of Red Hat, Canonical,
>>Next
18 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
Microsoft Licensing Cost (IDSP) Novell and even IBM, and of

course, Sun (now Oracle).
Item Unit Cost (US$) Quantity Total Cost (US$) Support for an open source
Operating System ware from an established vendor
helps address support-related
Server 3,999 15 59,985 issues from the IT manager’s
view and is indeed a welcome
Proxy Server 1,499 01 1,499
thing.
MSSQL Server 739 01 739 While this makes the cost
differential between proprietary
Client 125 134 16,750
and open source look a little less
Anti Virus 50 149 7,450 big, it increases the management’s
confidence in the solution.
Office Application 350 134 46,900
Total Cost US$ 1,33,323 The manageability
issue
PKR 79,99,380 Proponents of proprietary sys-
Source: PSEB-OSRC tems also highlight the fact that
managing an open source system
 to engage them with simplicity. So
Five Years TCO (US$) one need not be a geek anymore
to implement and operate an open
Microsoft OpenOffice
source system.
(2006-10)
More secure?
Operating System Server 2,36,460 0 A big factor that has worked in
Operating System Client 1,28,936 0 favour of open source systems is
that it is seemingly more secure
Anti Virus 37,250 0 and robust, as there have not
Office Application 2,26,622 0 been any major malware affec-
tive Linux-based systems. Since
Deployment Cost 12,750 18,000 Linux is a derivative of UNIX
which was built on the founda-
Total Cost 6,42,018 18,000
tion of robustness and security, it
Source: PSEB-OSRC is often dubbed as robust.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 19
<cover_story>open_source Does open source work out cheaper
than proprietary software?
Another thing that works in favour of open source engineering team which you can bank upon then you have won
is its higher uptime. It is hardly ever when one hears half the battle. There is a lot of perception which also needs to be
of a Linux crash. In Linux, the core operating system massaged on the way. I know it will make a CFO smile but IT has
(kernel) is separate from the GUl (X-Window) and to struggle a lot before it becomes business as usual. TCO will be
from the applications (OpenOffice, etc), so most little compared to owning a proprietary system and so there is will
of the problems in a Linux environment can be be a positive ROI.
fixed without requiring a re-installation. Another
Binu Lakshman, Manager, IT at Honda Siel
benefit is that all user preferences can be preserved
Cars India
even if the OS needs to be re-installed. The case
is quite different when it comes to proprietary I think what was previously considered as a
systems, as virus attacks are very common to such Linux hype has slowly and steadily become a
environments. successful and maturing phenomenon. With
the tough economic conditions and a focus on budget cuts, more
How pervasive is it? organisations started adopting open source. They have started
Proponents of proprietary systems stress that the exploring it as an alternative to proprietary software. With the
reason why open source is considered more secure open source community growing and maturing, it is definitely a
and why it hasn’t faced any major attacks is because safe and cost-effective alternative to be embraced. I can definitely
of its small scale of deployment. The open source vouch for open source products as ones that are here to stay. Open
universe is so small that no hacker bothers attack- source is winning the platform war for sure.
ing them, they argue. Alok Maheshwari, Head IT, Terex Vectra
But dive only a little deeper and this claim turns Equipments
out to be hollow. For instance, 60% of the Web servers Open source ERP is cheap. It’s not really free.
today run on Apache, which is open source. A majority You can download, install and use it for free.
of Smartphones are powered by open source operating But most companies using any ERP system
systems including Symbian, Android and Linux. A will want 24/7 support, bug fixes and free upgrades. Almost all
vast majority of websites are powered by open source open source ERP vendors offer some kind of support package. The
like Wordpress and 95% of the top supercomputers prices are very cheap, comparing to other offerings. Open source
run Linux. In fact, Linux can be found in Sony TVs, software delivers major cost and implementation advantages over
Linksys Routers, Tvios and Nokia phones. Even traditional software. Hardware costs such as servers can be up to
MacOSX has a kernel that is open source. 50% lower with open source software, because the open source
It will be a fallacy to say that the universe of open code is less storage and processing intensive.
source is small. In fact, it is very ubiquitous.
Ratnakar Nemani, Head IT & CIO, VST
One of the best things that open source still has is
Industries
a wide and highly diffused support base. Help on any
topic can be readily found on various forums that Open source is cheaper than proprietary initially.
propagate open source. Also there are numerous Licenses are free but they do not run on their
websites that list freeware and applications that can own. OS implementations require good in-house
be downloaded and installed immediately. team or consultants. We need to recruit skilled resources with
Unlike in a proprietary system, where you are regular trainings and pay high salaries to retain them. Potential
completely by yourself or at the mercy of the vendor, Loss in terms of Knowledge is high when IT member leaves the
there is a much bigger safety net for open source. All organisation. The cost will be three to four times even in case of
you have to go online and ask for help, like we did audits. Though the initial cost is zero, the operating expense (opex)
while working on this story. may be higher than TCO of proprietary software. That also puts
In fact, this story will not be over without a big RoI under question.
‘thank you’ to the respondents at IT Next’s LinkedIn SK Rudra, Manager (Group IT), Usha Martin
forum, after we put up the question if open source We at Usha Martin were perhaps first in eastern
was cheaper than proprietary software. Responses region of India to migrate in the scale of 700-plus
just started pouring in. Experts and professionals desktops from proprietary software to Linux in
were soon debating the issue intensely. Some were 2007. It was multi-location rollout consisting of
die-hard open source proponents others came from four manufacturing units and four marketing offices. I and SK Jala,
the proprietary camp. CIO, Usha Martin Group were project leaders. The implementation
All the responses have helped us analyse the team’s strength was five, including both of us. Yes, today we can say
issues and shape this story from an implementation that we are reaping the benefits of the open-source technology in
and operational perspective, steering largely clear of terms of TCO as well as better levels of IT security.
an ideological debate!
<< previous
20 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<insight>open_source</insight>
on a roll with
<head>
openware
</head>
<h1>
a_do-it-yourself_open_source_framework_from_
an_IT_manager_who’s_been_there,_done_it—
successfully
</h1>
<h2>
By M d. Jaw e d A h me d
</h2>
One has seen that the use of open source applications in large enterprises has been increasing over the years.
But there is a marked divide on the kind of organisations that venture into open source area. Mostly, the adopters
are the educational institutes and the R&D organisations. Commercial enterprises still give open source a wide
berth. And the reasons are clear: enterprises still continue to face challenges in using open source applications.
Lack of support: No commitments are possible since support is usually on a best-effort basis, and that too
by a set of invisible virtual people.
Lack of a single point of responsibility: Since it’s not purchased, there is no commercial contract or a
transfer of risk to the vendor.
Lack of continuity: Open source initiatives are usually driven by innovative individuals in the IT
department. When they leave, they take their expertise with them leaving the organisations at a disadvantage.
However, despite these factors, it’s still possible to use Open Source applications successfully if enterprises
and IT managers use a framework approach to select applications.
We, at Sterlite, have been using open source applications quite extensively for the past three years. At present,
our file servers, Internet acceleration servers, security firewalls, mail servers, document management systems,
project management systems, storage servers, and desktop-level backup applications run on open source. Here,
we are not talking of a single location, but multiple, large manufacturing locations on multiple servers.
And, we are not running them because they are free. That’s a misconception that many people have. The
TCO might be less but it’s certainly not free. The kind of uptime and performance that we get is, if not better,
22 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<insight>open_source</insight>
definitely as good as provided by frequent tweaking whereas  development got started. How
unlike commercial applications one small this can do. But generally many people are involved? Are
doesn’t have a support agreement when you are planning to deploy they from a common place or
to seek help from the vendor. So an application in an enterprise,  commercial support.
few updates are both problematic. Second, check that answers And while all this information
Frequent updates point to an should be provided by more than can be conveniently sourced from
unstable system that requires one person. It should not be that the developers’ site, do not forget to
share it with the entire eco-system
of your organisation. We have
developed this framework based
The
framework on our experience and have shared
it with other organisations as well.
Empirical evidence from them
also supports the framework.
By using the above mentioned
Identify the application area
criteria, IT personnel can take
informed decision regarding
the fitment of the particular
List down the available open source applications
application to an enterprise’s
requirements. If it does not have
a good fit, one can still use the
Filter them out based on their technical fitment with existing IT architecture
application, but in that case there
will be an impact on TCO. This is
because one needs to either take
Apply ‘enterprise litmus test’ (read complete text to understand) to shortlisted apps
external help or the IT department
will have to devote additional time
to the issues arising from the use
Implement of the application.
the
application
The author is Head IT (PTB) at Sterlite
Technologies
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 23
<strategy>Sheela Foam</strategy>
<head>
no more
expensive
upgrades!
</head>
<h1>
the_leading_foam_maker_is_glad_it_switched_to_
open_source._the_new_system_runs_50%_faster,_is_
easy_to_scale_and_saves_Rs_40_lakh_per_annum
Photo graph y: subhojit paul
</h1>
<h2>
By Jat i n d e r S i n g h
</h2>
24 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
In the midst of a recovering on the vendor to test and 
nies today are swiftly realising to improve functionalities. This Reflecting back, he also
<tr>{Total
the importance of aligning IT was proving to be costly and time- feels that the incident came
cost of
requirements with their core consuming. Rx series as a blessing in disguise and
business needs. Given that Moreover, the legacy system servers (in prompted the company to
organisations are no longer look- was of limited use and the IT Rupees)} consider migrating to an open
ing at IT as a support function, IT department of the company Server 1: source solution that could be
managers today are not hesitant was unable to introduce new 5,86,628 independently maintained by an
to evaluate technologies that are applications for scalability. “Since Server 2: internal IT team.
‘value for money’. The only catch the ERP solution was hosted on 5,52,285
is: it should not compromise the a proprietary product, there was Server 3: The solution
5,75,100
performance. very little room to customise With the proprietary solution, it
A year ago, Pertisth Mankotia, the home-grown ERP solution,” Maintenance was difficult to try things out and
cost/annum:
Head-IT at Sheela Foam was elaborates Mankotia. innovate even if one wanted to.
17, 14,013
thinking on somewhat similar Things like setting up a rack and
SAN storage:
lines. For his company, a Rs The problem 2,31,664 clone servers were cumbersome
950-crore group and among Prior to the migration to open and costly affairs. With the open
Annual
the top five manufacturers of source, the company was using maintenance source, there is always an oppor-
slab stock polyurethane foam in three Rx (Itanium) series servers cost: tunity to add new features and
south-east Asia, the challenge and a SAN storage solution. The 19,45,677 manage them at a much lesser
was to reduce dependence on approximate annual maintenance Three year cost.
Unix systems, improve the cost- cost with four hours of critical maintenance After a careful analysis,
cost:
efficiency ratio, and simplify support was more than Rs 65 Mankotia and his team consulted
58,37,031
systems management to improve lakh. And despite all that invest- Dell for a product performance
Three year
scalability for business growth. ment and cost, the performance demo. Through with the
up-gradation
was not getting any better. cost: successful trial, the company
The genesis And then, when on a 8,00,000 decided to go for Dell PowerEdge
Founded in 1972, the firm has a penultimate day, the company’s Total expense server with factory installed Red
number of manufacturing units system went down and took (in three Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
in India. Also, there are more more than 16 hours to recover, years): In April 2009, the company
66,37,031
than 70 distributors and 3,000 Mankotia decided to put his bet deployed its home-grown
dealers. In order to manage its on an open source solution. Dell Server mission-critical ERP application
with three
operations effectively, the com- “You can imagine my situation, ‘Greatplus’ that was hosted on
years Gold
pany ran an in-house ERP on a when my network got down for 16 Support: RHEL.
legacy server in a proprietary hours. And I was in no position to 4,00,000 Despite all enthusiasm for the
Unix environment. take any remedial action. It was Net saving in new solution, the core IT team
The custom-built ERP was really hurting the business” he three years: at Sheela Foam had its moments
integrated into Sheela Foam’s painfully recollects. 62,37,031</ of anxiety as well, for there was
tr>
distribution network. However, “At the end of the day, any still an iota of doubt. Since the
owing to the proprietary system, system downtime takes a heavy previous legacy servers based
there was too much dependency toll on the company’s goodwill on the Unix platform were very
“you can imagine my situation, when my

network got down for 16 hours. And I was in
no position to take any remedial action. It was
really hurting the business” P e rtist h M a n koti a , H e a d - I T at S he e l a Foa m
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 25
“there were certain

reports that used to
take lot of time to
analyse. Open source has
tremendously improved
ability of the system
to handle such loads”
C h a r u B h a r gava
B u sin ess A n a lyst at S he e l a Foa m
high-end machines, the team was  Mankotia says. wide array of storage solutions.
would be able to sustain the load.  help us to innovate and improve “Earlier the processing work
The load was increased to 1,000 
the load 50% faster than the Apart from offering reliability the deployment of open source
existing system.  “We had various units and the the company.
ings of Rs 40 lakh. Apart from  has tremendously improved the slashed costs and given
more, RHEL has helped the firm ability of the system to handle the company the ability to
 approximately 1,500 concurrent company has also integrated Open
an expensive upgrade. With users) from high-end Unix servers Office with its Greatplus ERP for
RHEL and Dell, incremental to the Red Hat Linux and Xeon 1,000 terminals and has achieved
load can be easily handled by server in less than three weeks. further cost savings.
26 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<strategy>MMFSL</strategy>
<head>
can it get any

cheaper?
</head>
<h1>
this_retail_financing_major_saw_
its_loan-and-collection_system_
go_live_at_one-fourth_the_cost_
of_a_proprietary_solution
</h1> 
{*Improve-
By S h ash wat D C ment in
customer
</h2> confidence
as the pay-
ments made
by them is
updated
Suresh Shanmugam, Head– confirming that their payments online and Also, since the aim was
BITS, Mahindra & Mahindra had been received? MMFSL acknowledg- to reduce cost and increase
Financial Services (MMFSL), needed all these, and much more, ment sent via productivity, it was decided that
SMS}
should have been a contented but at an affordable cost. open source would be used to
man with the robust growth that <! Elimi- achieve the objective.
nation of
his company was able to post on a Getting started duplica-
Exceptions were also defined.
year-on-year basis. Prior to deciding on a solution tion in data For example, it was decided that
Yet, even as hundreds of that would work best for the com- capturing those constituting top 10% of the
company agents from its around pany, Shanmugam asked his team (from manual management would be provided
500 branches went about the to map the users of the company documents), any system they required,
leading to a
country financing loans and on the basis of their roles and reduction of
based on their needs, closed or
collecting payments, Shanmugam requirements. An in-depth study back-office proprietary.
was constantly thinking of was also done to access how the manpower to “The next 20% (in terms
ways and means to automate or agents interacted with custom- half > of hierarchy) were also to be
‘technolise’ the whole process. ers, and what were the specifica- < Over 96% provided with solutions that
Could there be a mechanism tions of the transactions that were reduction in suited them. However, it was
connectiv-
by which collections by agents carried out. Based on the study decided to encourage them to
ity, power
instantly reflected in the central findings, the team put together and other use open solution,” Shanmugam
database? Also, could the central specifications that would best suit recurring informed. For the remaining
server send alerts to customers the organisation’s growth plans. costs > 70%, the decision was clear: the
28 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<strategy>MMFSL</strategy>
workforce would be moved on so far. Along with the partners,  record their voice affirmations
phased manner. development of software for  that while similar handheld
After much deliberation and on the feedback from the use of  intends to steadily replace the
 An open source enthusiast
now, Shanmugam along with his
Encrypted
XML for data core team is already thinking of
transfer
the next big automation project
SQLite3 as for the company.
database
“all the applications and software used in the

machine were open source, and that really
helped us significantly bring down the cost of
the handhelds” S u r es h S h a nm u gam Head – B I TS , M M FS L
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 29
<interview>prakash advani</interview>
<head>
“linux is getting
better on the
desktop”
</head>
<h1>

</h1>
How has the journey for Ubuntu been so far?

Ubuntu started five years ago when many of the Linux distributions were not even
focussing on the desktop, believing it would be unsuitable for the purpose. We started with
the desktop and today we are the No. 1 Linux distributor in the space.
We continue to evolve and focus a lot on providing a great user experience, which has been our
key strength. We have made a lot of investment in creating better user experience—there have
been lot of additions and enhancements from version 8.10 to 9.04, and the existing version 9.10.
We are now laying the foundation for the latest 10.04 version, which we call the long-term
supported Ubuntu. It will be supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the
server. One of the key driving philosophies behind Ubuntu is that it is free and will always
remain so; that has helped us a lot in terms of market share gains. It’s a good alternative to
the established players in the market. And today enterprises are deploying Ubuntu, and
governments and education sectors are also looking very seriously at Linux on the desktop.
30 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<interview>prakash_advani</interview>
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 31
<interview>prakash advani</interview>
While Linux has found

much acceptance on
the server front, how would
you describe the shift to the
desktop front?
Actually, Linux is getting bet-
ter on the desktop. The hard-
ware requirements of Linux are
decreasing with every deploy-
ment. We have done nine releases
of Ubuntu, and for the last eight
releases our hardware require-
ments have remained unchanged
at a 300 MHz computer with 256
MB RAM. And that’s a big value
addition, as people who deploy
it do not need to keep upgrading
their hardware with every new
release of the OS.
The second thing is the
licensing fees. Even for the long-
term Ubuntu release, where
customers can use it for five
years; they do not have to pay any
fee. Only if they want support
from Ubuntu, they pay for the
support charges. So that’s a big
plus and allows customers to try
and then commit themselves to
Ubuntu, unlike other OS.
It is run off a live CD or you
could even run it over a pen
drive. So we have reduced the
barrier to adoption. Also, what
has changed significantly is that
we work closely with all the top
OEMs, and we do a pre-installed
Ubuntu. What this essentially
means is that when customers get
a machine, it is ready to use with
the applications and OS, so there
is not much hassle in finding and
installing the OS.
But there is some hitch

associated with Ubuntu The evidence is in the way open  set-top boxes and all the routers
32 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
<interview>prakash_advani</interview>
“it’s a myth that anybody it actually does is, for instance, if

you are running a Web server and
can tinker with the Open assuming that someone manages

to break into it, Apparma builds
a firewall around the application.
Source code. Today, 99% of Generally, what happens is
when someone breaks into a
patches get rejected as they server he or she gets access to

everything on it. However, if I run
come from unknown an Apparma profile on Apache

and somebody breaks into it,
they will not get access to the rest
sources.” P r a k a s h A d va n i of the system. So Apparma acts
as a layer of security around the
system. We bundle Apparma even
on the desktop, so there is much
protection on that level as well.
run on Linux. Today, some very The fact that you need  Anybody can view the code or
tion of people who will not opt for have these old computers with make a suggestion, but it gets
your system, unless it is easy and 256 MB or 512 MB memory and accepted only after multiple lev-
simply to use and Ubuntu has they are just not able to transit els of checks. That’s why, while
been specifically built keeping in those machines, and they cannot the average industry standard
mind the needs and requirements upgrade the memory either. They is around 40-50 bugs per 1,000
of such users. have an OEM license, so they can- lines of code, a Stanford study of
So for instance, we have a seven- not port the OS to a new machine, the Linux Kernel suggests there
step installation process, there is a if they change the motherboard of were just 0.17 bugs for every
live CD, there is also the option of the machine, the license becomes 1,000 words of code. And the
automatically install, so if you don’t invalid. So they have no choice. interesting thing is that most of
know much about partitioning They can either continue with the these bugs were already fixed.
you can still install it. You can even same infrastructure or change the Today 54% of the Internet
install it in the Windows partition, applications. is driven by an Open Source
or run it from a pen drive. We application called Apache and
take lot of pains to ensure that What are the benefits if Apache was not secure some
the user does not have to face any of Ubuntu, apart from of the biggest websites would
sort of complexity when it comes the cost factor? not be using it. In a sense, Open
to installing and using Ubuntu. Security is a big plus, as we are Source has evolved much like
We even have Netbook Remix, well aware that Linux is very the Wikipedia, which even when
for people who use it on Netbook. secure. It is designed in a way being collaborative in nature
Besides, we have even learned to be robust and secure. We also has been able to maintain high-
to have fun and you can see a lot bundle a tool called Apparma, quality content that is universally
of games on Ubuntu, especially which provides the security available. More importantly, it is
educational games. along with the application. What free..
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 33
insight | Security
Run
social
media in
safe mode
Internal compliance is
the key when it comes
to keeping silent
Il lustrati on: Bi nesh S ree dharan
threats posed by social

media at bay
By D e e pa k K u m a r
36 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
Security | insight
Awareness up two-fold,
victims six-fold
While consumer awareness of phishing attacks has doubled
between 2007 and 2009, the number of consumers who
reported falling prey to this attack also increased six times
during the same period.
According to the EMC security division RSA’s 2010 Global

Online Consumer Security survey that polled more than
4,500 consumers on their awareness of online threats, while
thousands of people join social networking websites each day,
nearly two in three (65%) of respondents who belong to these
online communities indicated that they are less likely to inter-
act or share information due to their growing security concerns.
Social networking websites have become a hotbed for online

criminals because of their global reach and the participation
by hundreds of millions of active users from all walks of life.
This makes these communities prime targets for exploitation
by criminals who seek to steal personal information through
socially engineered attacks. Reflective of this trend, the
survey exposed that four out of five (81%) people using social
networking websites displayed concern with the safety of their
personal information online.
In a similar RSA survey in 2007, one in three (38%) consumers

reported they were aware of the threat of a phishing attack—
and this figure has doubled in two years when three out of four
(76%) consumers became aware.
Despite increased awareness, there have been a growing

number of online users that have fallen victim to a phish-
ing attack. In the 2007 RSA survey, only one in twenty (5%)
consumers cited they had fallen victim to a phishing scam;
this rate increased six-times in 2009 to represent three in ten
(29%) consumers.
This increase can be attributed to more advanced communica-

tions tactics and greater sophistication such as improved writ-
ing and web design skills on the part of the fraudsters. Phishing
attacks have also evolved in an attempt to exploit users in dif-
ferent ways and through a broader variety of methods including
offshoots known as ‘vishing,’ ‘smishing’ and ‘spear phishing.’
The sheer volume of phishing attacks launched in recent

months is also contributing to these trends. The RSA Anti-
Fraud Command Centre reported the highest-yet detected
rates of phishing attacks between August and October 2009,
as well as a 17% increase in the total number of attacks be-
tween 2008 and 2009.
50% consumers agreed that their identities should be better

protected than a simple username and password on social
networking.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 37
insight | Security
The biggest data losses of the decade

Five million
credit card
Hackers numbers and
announce the expiration dates 40 million credit
Travelocity theft of personal are stolen from card numbers
exposes data on data on 46,000 Data Processors are taken from
51,000 custom- customers from International— a hacked credit
ers on a company US web hosting an insider attack card processing
web server. firm ADDR.com. is suspected. firm.
nov 2000 apr 2001 mar 2003 jun 2005

Jan 2000 mar 2001 feb 2002 jun 2004 may 2006
300,000 credit Bibliofind.com, A former 92 million email Details of 26.5

card numbers an Amazon- employee of US addresses of AOL million US Army
are stolen from owned service financial services subscribers are veterans are sto-
online music website, is firm Prudential sold to spam- len by hackers.
retailer CD breached and Insurance Com- mers.
Universe—news records of pany is charged
is leaked to the 98,000 custom- with stealing
web after ransom ers are compro- a database of
demands are mised. 60,000 clients to
rejected. sell online.
Source: Security Threat Report: 2010
E
nterprise data security has just makes the IT manager’s work more they are not adequately adhered to or
since long outgrown and challenging. Besides, the almost sudden employees are able to understand and
evolved beyond the mere opening up of boundaries has led to a appreciate their benefits.
functions of antivirus, fire- state of action without responsibility. This has encouraged enterprises to look
wall and intrusion detec- And this has happened when at security less from a ‘control’ standpoint
tion. Endpoint security and network enterprises are still at a stage where and take a more inclusive approach.
security are also no longer all encom- security policies are not an integral part The way security policies are written
passing paradigms. And the rapid of their security strategies. Even in cases and observed is changing too. There is
adoption of social media at various lay- where policies have been implemented more emphasis on educating users at
ers has simply exploded the boundaries
that need to be monitored for potentially
countless breaches.
While the first leg of Internet’s
Major Firms citing malware as their number
growth into enterprise networks itself Concerns one concern with social networking tools
added a number of holes into the
Dec 2009 April 2009
security fabric, the 2.0 phase has been
15%
unnerving to say the least.
The traditional security paradigms 14
are just ineffective to this address
enterprise security in this era. No
12
10%
11
controls seem to work.
And the debate whether to open up
9.3
8.0 8.3
to the social media or not has long been
5% 6.5 6.9
put to rest. It has been accepted that
Facebook
MySpace
business benefits of social media far

LinkdIn
Twitter
outweigh their perils.

That, however, does not make those 0%
perils look less threatening. In fact, it Source: www.sophos.com
38 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
Security | insight
Two CDs contain-

ing records on 11 Networks at
million people Heartland Pay- Hard drives sent
Japanese tele- UK HM Revenue are found on a ment Systems for repair are
com firm KDDI & Customs loses Seoul scrapheap. are hacked, found to contain
admits data on 4 detailed records The data is traced exposing data data on 76 mil-
million custom- of 25 million tax- to oil refinery GS on 130,000,000 lion US Army
ers was leaked. payers. Caltex. credit card users. veterans
Jun 2006 nov 2007 sep 2008 Jan 2009 oct 2009
Jan 2007 mar 2008 oct 2008 may 2009
TJX Companies 12.5 million sets T-Mobile Ger- Secret informa-

Inc., the global of records on many loses a tion on the Joint
conglomerate backup tapes are hard disk con- Strike Fighter
that includes T.J. lost by BNY Mel- taining informa- and President
Maxx, T.K. Maxx, lon shareholder tion on 17 million Obama’s per-
Marshalls and services. customers. sonal helicopter
Winners, loses at were leaked
least 45 million through P2P net-
sets of credit works.
card details after
systems are
penetrated by
hackers.
various levels and making them aware reckon with. The live streaming of IPL3 provide a very rich haul of information
to the heightened need for protecting is a live testimony to the importance it to hackers, who can analyse these to
information and IT assets in the enterprise. has gained. guess user passwords. In particular, if
the users are not very password-savvy
But why social media? Tackling social media and have used names of their cities,
Social media is an increasingly impor- threats spouses, date-of-birth and celebrities
tant channel for marketing and brand- Access to a social media site poses risks they like as passwords, their SNS
ing, among other things. As such, that are manifold, and yet not so obvious, profiles will easily give away the clues.
corporate professionals are keen to use to the user. For, example, if you access a Worse, often users keep the same
it to their advantage. regular site and download an infected file, password for the public as well as
A bad post about a brand on a the antivirus will warn you or even better, enterprise logins. So if hackers crack
Facebook channel will probably do the firewall will block the site itself. users SNS logins, they effectively crack
more harm to the company than in In case of a social media, where the their enterprise logins as well.
another media, partly because it can user has opened an account and has It is therefore important that users
potentially be read by more number of added a certain set of people to the are adequately educated on these
consumers and also because it can be friends list and joined a few relevant aspects so as not to put themselves
posted to target those very readers who groups, the threat comes in different or their organisations at the mercy of
are also likely consumers of the brand. forms and from various quarters. cybercriminals.
It therefore becomes important for It can come in the form of an infected However, provisioning for measures to
brand managers and marketers to link from a friend, who would be merely address social media threats in the policy
remain updated about such posts and passing it on without knowing. But document is one step. The next step will
take corrective actions and duly address more importantly, the threat could lie be to create user awareness by way of
the concerns of the complainant. in the users’ profiles created and posted formal sessions as well as information
More importantly, one needs to by users themselves. communication channels.
proactively reach out to the existing and Cybercriminals are on the prowl to
potential customers on a regular basis, as harvest detailed personal information
How did you like this story?
part of a focused brand building exercise. posted by users on social networking Send your feedback at
Social media has become a channel to sites. Social media profiles often editor@itnext.in
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 39
Tech for banking
44 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
tech for banking
tech
race
all
Zero legacies gave private banks a
in!
jumpstart, but PSU banks got on IT fast tracks
too—now both are eyeing mobile banking
By S h ash wat D C
A
decade ago or so, banking was a rigorous and
time consuming activity. The hours were limited,
queues were unending and there were multiple
counters to be attended to. Even mundane things
30
like depositing and withdrawing money from
one’s own account could take hours.
To add to customers’ woes, banking staff was far from being
cooperative, partly also because the system encouraged them be so.
Today, most of the routine banking activities can be completed
from the perimeter of one’s home or office. All one needs is a
computer with an Internet connection and your terminal becomes Around
your window to banking. Even more, several banking operations
these days can be performed over the mobile as well—a few SMSs
back and forth and you are done.

The transition of the Indian banking sector from an archaic
crore banking
and rigid structure to a contemporary and flexible one has transactions are
been almost magical. Within the span of a decade or two, banks
have transformed themselves into business houses that are
done electronically
professionally run and managed. every year
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 45
Tech for banking
IT has played a pivotal role in

bringing about this transformation,
PSU banks invested “Around year 2000, the voluntary
retirement scheme (VRS) came
which has been rapid but certainly
Rupees into being and about 20% of the
17,897
not easy. workforce availed it. With the
In his book ‘Imagining India – volume of business going up, and the
Ideas for the New Century’, Nandan number of employees actually going
Nilekani notes an interesting incident down, the banking sector saw more
from the early 1990s, when he was reason in embracing technology to
Crore
making a pitch for ‘electronification’ at manage their operations efficiently
one of the banks. He received several and profitably. Year 2000 onwards,
hostile reactions from representatives business at our bank has increased by
of the bank unions in the audience about 3.5 times with reduced or same
and the chairman of the bank advised on ICT between staff, majorly because of the use of
him to stop preaching, warning that
‘The unions will gherao you in your
September 1999 to technology,” he states.
house.’ Today, even the union wallahs March 2009 Technology: A leveller
favour the use of technology. While public sector banks were tak-
ing baby steps towards the tech band-
Early catalysts wagon, private sector banks appeared
The big step towards use of technol- The ATM Spread on the scene. Though flush with
ogy was taken when the Rangarajan funds, these banks needed to be com-
Committee made recommendations
for the banking sector in the early 6% 2%
Foreign
petitive and profitable from the word
go. For them IT was not a choice, but a
1980s. It was then that some big Old private dire necessity. They quickly had their
sector banks banks
banks embraced technology and the IT departments up and running. With
branch automation or ‘electronifica- them, the new-age banking became a
tion’ got a headstart. reality in India, with innovative bank-
Quite a number of PSU banks 34% ing solutions and products designed
then took the first plunge and started
to automate select branches. On
29%
Other public
Nationalised
banks
to woo the consumer. IT played an
enabling role.
receiving positive feedbacks, the sector banks ING Vysya, which came into being
29%
automation was finally extended to in 2002 after Dutch giant ING took
all branches. Soon, banks decided to over Vysya Bank, was no exception.
New private
bring the whole system onto a single sector banks Almost from the beginning, the
centralised network and thus core- bank went on a hyper tech drive. By
banking came into being. 2006, the bank had networked all the
In the following years, competitive Despite the fact that nationalised banks are branches on the core and was offering
pressures posed by the global banks perceived to be lower on IT implementa- anytime, anywhere services.
as also the need to cut flab further tion, they are actually ahead in terms of CVG Prasad, CIO, ING Vysya,
compelled PSU banks to take the tech ATM spread across the country. feels that private sector banks that
path. According to a report released have entered late in the market may
by Reserve Bank of India (RBI)— have an edge over others. “This is
Trend and Progress of Banking in because they did not have to tackle
43,651
India 2008-09—from September too many legacy issues. Some of
1999 to March 2009, PSU banks the private sector and public sector
invested Rs 17,897 crore on ICT. SBI banks needed to invest in technology
was the largest spender, at as high to tackle these issues. In our case,
as Rs 4,290 crore. While no similar we made substantial investments in
report is available on private sector
is the total technology to modernise most of our
banks, ICICI and HDFC are the number of ATMs systems,” he states.
obvious big spenders in the category. Nonetheless, thanks to extensive
PA Kalyansundar, GM (IT), Bank
in the country, as infusion of capital by public sector
of Baroda, touches upon another of March 2009 banks like SBI, BoI, and others, the
aspect that accelerated the need for differentiating factors between the
IT adoption in the banking sector. Source: Reserve Bank of India public sector and private sector banks
46 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
tech for banking
have come down. An SBI or a BoI today

offers all the banking facilities that are
offered by the likes of an ICICI or HDFC.
Focus: Core banking

Not only in the foreground, there has
been much work happening in the back
end as well. The most telling proof of
that are the ATMs, which have made
it possible to withdraw cash from your
account while travelling to any other
city in the country.
A key factor that enabled this
convenience was the establishment of
the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS)
system. Because of that, credit push-
based fund transfers are settled on a real-
time basis. The facility for inter-bank
funds settlement through RTGS is today
“New-generation “Considering
available across more than 55,000 bank private sector the way mobile
branches, in more than 2,500 regional
centres across the country, up from just banks had a penetration is
4,800 branches in 2004.
“The rapid acceptance of RTGS by technology edge... increasing in India,
users can be measured by the daily
transaction volume: today, we settle
they did not have I am sure mobile
close to 100,000 transactions a day
in the RTGS mode, up from just about
to deal with too banking will
6,000 transactions a day in 2004-05. In
fact, quick, safe and efficient electronic
many legacy soon take off in a
movement of funds from virtually any systems” big way”
part of the country to any other location
is now almost guaranteed,” D Subbarao, —CVG Prasad, CIO, V Subramanian, DGM and CISO,
Governor, Reserve Bank of India had ING Vyasa IDBI Bank
stated at a public forum.
Another interesting development
is that Indian banks have started to Banks are also engaging the services around 30-40% through outsourcing.
outsource their non-core services of BPO companies for things like call- And these benefits are not just for the
in a much bigger way. Usually, the support services, help-desk support, big banks. Smaller banks are also able
services that are outsourced include credit card processing and printing, to draw the benefits of outsourcing
hardware and software maintenance, cheque processing and clearing, ATM (read interview) and thus are able to
hosting, data centre management, cash replenishment, cheque box compete in the market on even terms.
software application support, disaster clearing and collection, loan servicing Banks like SBI, HDFC, Centurion
management, and ATM networks and data processing. Bank, and others have outsourced the
management. It is estimated that Indian banks save management and maintenance of their
off-site ATMs to third-party service
providers. SBI has outsourced its
The facility for inter-bank networking services and maintenance
funds settlement through

of more than 1,500 branches and 3,000
ATMs in 49 cities to Datacraft.
rtgs is today available in BoI awarded its outsourcing contract

to India Switch in the year 2002. “We
55,000 branches across 2,500 are very happy with the results of
regional centres in India

outsourcing. In the end, it must be
remembered that we are bankers and
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 47
Tech for banking
Q&A with V Vijay Author of recently published study by IIT-B,

‘Technology-led transformation of Indian banking’
IT NEXT: What is the next big frontier for the banking sector in
terms of technology usage?
VIJAY: Banks have just been through multi-year core banking rollouts and there is no
appetite for large IT investments. Instead, the focus will be on information process-
ing—on improving decision making, based on data available in core banking. Banks
will also be looking at increasing customer usage of alternate channels. At present,
leading PSU banks have just 25-30% of transactions through non-branch channels, as
compared to 70% plus for private sector banks.
Do you feel that automation and data warehousing, will help

banks in India utilise business intelligence (BI) in a much
bigger, better way?
The issue is less about technology and more about people, culture and management
priorities. BI has to be made a strategic initiative in the bank and this message has
to be sent out clearly to bank staff. A culture that respects decision making based on
rigorous data analysis has to be created. BI initiatives fail to deliver in the absence of
this enabling environment.
banking is what we are best at doing,” accounts through DTH, is just one
quips Kalyasundar. example of banks’ keenness to reach
their customers through various
Mobile: The next frontier channels.
Considering that the market is awash Many feel that mobile banking is
with choices, a disgruntled customer going to be the next important frontier.
will just take his business to the next V Subramanian, DGM and CISO, IDBI
bank. This has put added pressure on Bank, is very bullish about it and is
the banks to keep their customers happy sure that it is only a matter of time that
at all possible levels, online or offline. mobile banking will be big.
All banks these days offer a “With the recent announcements
plethora of services from their ATMs, made by RBI that relaxed the limitation
and also from their online portals. on mobile transactions, I am very
Prasad of ING Vysya Bank highlights sure that in the next few years mobile
the importance of the customer
and the role played by technology.
“In the end, it must banking will take off in a big way.
Considering the exploding mobile
“Technology is the key differentiator
in these times, as all of them are
be remembered penetration in India, it is but natural
that it will be so. All the banks, including
now focused at providing high-level
of customer convenience through
that we are my own are testing out the platform to
build services that can be offered to the
innovative products and services. bankers and customer. In the near future, cheques
Photo graphy: Sures h Vanga pally
Right now, we are focusing on Internet will be obsolete,” he states.

and mobile banking platforms as part banking is what The wave of banking transformation
of our initiative to improve customer
convenience,” he says. we are best at is almost over, now a revolution is in the
making.
The recent launch of ICICIActive
by ICICI Bank and Dish TV, wherein
doing”
Find similar stories online
subscribers can access information PA Kalyansundar, GM-IT, on the website
and perform transactions from their Bank of India www.itnext.in/vertical
48 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
15minute
training
Education
workplace
Asanas
For
back
IT Strat Hiring? Use a rulebook page 52
manager
Security 5 trends that will shape information

compensation pain
workforce trends Page 50 security in 2010 Page 5 4
skills development Manage IT Sweat your storage assets page 55
personal development
By Moh i t C h h ab r a
R
ajiv Saxena sat with his
eyes closed, hanging on to
every word that his guru
chanted.
“Visualise your success,
don’t let the failures pull you down.”
“Visualise your success, don’t let the
failures pull you down,” guruji repeated.
“One of the biggest secret of success
lies in learning from failure,” continued
guruji.
While the words soothed, they
also created a twirling of conflicting
thoughts in Rajiv’s head as he was
battling the near failure of a major IT
implementation at work. Rajiv worked
as the GM (IT) for an FMCG company
that had a wide spectrum of food and
beverage products.
Sitting in a contemplative state, Rajiv
reflected upon the moment when he was
IT Strat
What fails
called by his boss Vikas Sharma five
months ago.
“Rajiv, we are battling with a waste
issue, a lot of our inventory is coming
a project
back, unused because it reaches retail
shelves late,” said Vikas.
“And the management feels that
deploying an ERP solution is the only

way out, so let’s get cracking.”
A ‘for the user, by the IT manager’
Sleepless nights
Rajiv had spent many sleepless nights
approach is guarantee for disaster;
in the last five months. Everything from user-navigators can keep it on track
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 49
15-MINUTE MANAGER
The FIVE
mantras
State specific requirements
1 clearly: At the very onset of
any IT project, clear and specific
requirements and deliverables of the
project must be chalked out. These
must be made distinct from the wish
list of deliverables ‘expected’ from a
project.
Involve the business users:

2 For assured success of any Office Yoga By Dr Naveen Arya | aryansclinic@gmail.com
IT implementation, it is imperative
to involve all stakeholders from the Asanas for BACK PAIN
very beginning. This means, business
managers and other user groups Reasons of back pain Practicing yoga regularly relieves back pain by
must play a pivotal role from the strengthening and stretching the muscles that
The primary cause of the back
word to. soreness felt by office workers support the spine and helps prevent future
are due to limited movement. In injury. However, it is best to do these exercises
Set realistic timelines:
3 The length of a film is often
fact, most office workers spend
hours typing or just answering
under the supervision of a certified yoga
instructor. If you encounter any problems in
discussed as a contributor to its suc- phone calls.
between, you should consult an expert.
cess. Similarly, IT project’s success Wrong sitting posture is the other
prime reason. Proper sitting pos- Here are some good yoga poses for relieving
too is dependent on its timelines. Too
ture is very important, especially
long or too short means the same back pain. Each pose should be held from five
for office workers because it
thing—unrealistic, and therefore, effectively lessens the strain and to ten seconds, depending upon your level
liable for failure. pressure applied on the spine. of comfort, and should be done on a mat or
At times, psychosocial factors other soft, supportive surface.
Let business users test it: such as on-the-job stress and
4 Technology and coding have dysfunctional family relationships Corpse position: Lie flat on your back in a
matured to a point where errors are may correlate more closely with relaxed position, arms resting at your sides,
back pain than any structural
often contained. The flexibility and palms down, and legs lying naturally, with
abnormalities.
robustness is thus best tested by knees turned out slightly. If it hurts your
business users, as it simulates the fi- back to have your knees turned outward, do
nal environment in which the project this pose with knees bent, feet flat on the
will function. floor. Breathe in and out for a few seconds,
allowing the body muscles to relax.
Get an internal sponsor
5 to drive it: The success of a Cat stretch: Start out on your hands and
project is directly dependent on the knees with a flat back. Your hands should be
conviction from the top manage- directly under your shoulders with fingers
ment. Thus getting the force of ex- spread. Knees should be directly under the
ecutive leadership behind the project hips. Head is held loosely so that you are
acts as a critical success factor. looking at the floor between your hands.
Inhale, and as you exhale, arch your back

Photo graph y: Jayan K Narayanan
toward the ceiling, tuck your chin in to your

chest so that you are looking at your navel,
getting the RFP in place to finally select-
and tuck your tailbone underneath. Hold, then

ing the vendor had been a challenge, but
release back into your original position.
the real downhill journey started when
the rollout began. According to British Chiro- (Stay tuned for more postures for relieving
“And the management feels that practic Association, office back pain in the next issue)
deploying an ERP solution is the only goers slouching in front of
way out,” was the one-line mandate their keyboards are more
The author is a Ayurveda and Yoga expert and Direc-
prone to develop back pain tor of ayuvrvedayogashram.com
50 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
15-MINUTE MANAGER
that Rajiv had been working on. “Hey Rekha, I will catch up later. Just
Now in retrospect, he realised that remembered that there is something
the requirement was very vague and important that I have to attend,” said
abstract. In a flash it came back to him. Rajiv, as he dashed to his work station.
With no real inputs from end-users, “Rajiv has been acting funny since
Rajiv and his team had been building morning,” thought Rekha.
what they believed was needed and Rajiv opened multiple files on his
not what was actually needed. The terminal and started to make detailed
other aspect that had compromised the notes on a sheet. After about 25 minutes of
project, he realised, was their limited alternating between typing and writing,
knowledge and understanding of the he leaned back with a definitive grin, his
62
real business issues. So, inevitably first in the last few tension-filled days.
when the system was delivered to It was the smile of an enlightened
business users, they only found limited man. He grabbed his small notebook
use of it. again and scribbled a few words in
Rajiv fished out his notebook and it. Immediately after finishing the
scribbled something. scribbling, he stood up and looked at
Delivering value
Rekha and said, “Thanks Rekha.”
“For what?” %
Rajiv continued his pursuit for answers “Nothing.” enterprise IT projects fails
and researched more on the Internet. “Hey, what’s with you tod…” Before to meet deadline
49
His second flash of enlightenment came Rekha could complete, Rajiv was out of
when he saw a survey report by UK- the room.
based advisory firm Dynamic Markets. “Rajiv has been acting funny since
The report indicated that while three morning,” thought Rekha again.
out of five IT projects fail to meet their
schedules, two out of five fail to deliver Does that fit?
%
the expected business value. “Boss, I need a couple of hours off after
The term ‘business value’ now struck lunch,” requested Vinayak.
a chord with him. Soon, everything was “Wedding shopping again?” asked IT projects suffer budget
falling in place for him. Rajiv. Vinayak was a young systems overruns
47
Rajiv’s hand instinctively went to his administrator who was getting married
breast pocket, the home of his notebook. the next week.
He took it out again and scribbled “Naah boss, suit fitting.”
something. “All right, but make that an hour-
“Hey, what do you keep writing and-a-half, we have some work to catch
in there,” asked Rekha, Rajiv’s desk up on,” said Rajiv.
%
neighbour who worked for the The thinker in Rajiv was active that
marketing department. day. And he started to see a thought in
“Nothing.” Vinayak’s request too.
“Come on, you can tell me.” The IT guys do a great amount of testing enterprise IT deployments
“It’s actually nothing.” during project development, but should have higher-than-expected
“All right, all right.” the users not run tests to see if the system maintenance costs
41
meets their requirements. If testing was
Timelines in place important for something like a wedding
After an awkward silence, Rajiv asked, suit then an IT project definitely needed
“So how is work with you?” more than just one ‘fitting session.”
“Don’t ask, man. I am under so much It was scribble time again for Rajiv.
pressure to deliver. My boss does not Rajiv leaned back, knowing he had
understand, he just throws unrealistic
deadlines at me.”
zeroed in on the problem. He picked up
his land line and called Vikas. %
“You are lucky, you don’t have to IT projects fail to deliver ex-
bear this burden of deadlines that are The lessons at last pected business value and ROI
unrealistic,” Rekha continued. Fifteen minutes later, Vikas was look-
Those words hit Rajiv like a rock. ing at a page in a small pocket notebook Source: Dynamic Markets, UK
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 51
15-MINUTE MANAGER
with five points scribbled on it.

“Rajiv, you will have to explain.”
“Boss, you know we are battling a
failing ERP and I did some research and
thinking,” said Rajiv.
“The IT implementation landscape
is dotted with many failures. While
technology has progressed and
advanced by leaps and bounds, IT
project implementation is still stuck in
quick sand—two steps up and one step
down,” continued Rajiv.
“I get that, but what’s your point?”
Vikas sounded a little irritated.
“Sir, I know why we are staring at
failure and I think if we set these five
things right even now, our efforts will
be a success.”
“And they are…?”
“One, poor requirement statement
from the management... we had only a
single-line mandate. It has to be more
detailed and precise for us to develop a
system.”
“Two, there is no user involvement.
Nowhere in our development cycles the IT Strat
business managers were involved on
what their needs from the system was.
We thus developed something from our
Hiring?
Use a
own understanding of the business,
and that sir, proved inadequate.” Rajiv’s
voice had a ring of command to it now,
rulebook
and yet Vikas seemed to like it.
“Three, the timelines are unrealistic.
I will not say too much on this. But they
have to be rational and realistic.”
“Four, lack of quality testing. While Standardised recruitment, prospect
our QA has done its job and the code is
clean, it lacks functionality that business benchmarking and risk mitigation will
users want. It is they who should be
testing the final product, not us.”
help make a robust IT staffing plan
Vikas was nodding in agreement.
By M o h i t C h h abr a
And he felt proud of Rajiv.
P
“And last and definitely not the least,
this project is a change issue and not rerna Rawat had been staring at her laptop screen for the last 15 min-
an IT project. So we need an internal utes and yet her mind drew a complete blank. She was expected to draft
sponsor, someone in the executive a detailed recruitment plan in view of an IT outsourcing project the
leadership to drive it for business company had landed with a new Fortune 500 client.
results.” She sat immobile, confounded by stark contradictions between
Vikas was dumb struck. “Can you organisations’ recruitment policies and the ground realities in the wake of a
repeat all of this in front of the CEO?” recessionary environment.
“Oh yes.”
Without a word, Vikas picked up his Contradictions galore
phone and called the CEO. “Boss, we Despite a global economic meltdown and layoffs, finding the right talent has remained
need to see you, now!” one of the biggest issues faced by organisations. Even in times of uncertainty, employ-
52 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
15-MINUTE MANAGER
Six steps to
IT staffing
1 Create the profile or job
description for an ideal
candidate
Develop a structured interview
2
plan. Focus on content and
method of selection
Assess the quantity and
3
periodicity of demand for new
employees
Develop and have access to a
4
pool of qualified prospects and
applicants
5 Screen the candidates “A structured “The benefits of
based on various pre-defined
parameters, including the job
description and qualifications/
interview a well structured
6
expertise
Do a reference check after the format ensures staffing plan far
final interview
that everyone outweigh the
hires to a consist- effort put in and
ees have remained far less loyal to their
organisations than in previous years.
And yet, “One of the biggest faith-
ant standard” the time spent”
shattering news (for employees) has —Ashish Chhillar, Director, Job —Sankalp Popli, Director, Absolute
been the mass layoffs by many IT Connect Recruitments
majors across the globe,” say HR
experts like Ashish Chhillar, director at
Job Connect. “This totally contradicts
the ‘people are assets’ philosophy that business objectives of her organisation is a niche recruitment company active in
most companies try to espouse these rather just serving as a recruiter. the BPO, KPO and IT areas.
days,” he adds.
Such prevailing contradictions End-to-end ownership Adopt best practices
had made Prerna indecisive about the Prerna set out to develop an integrated A key objective for Prerna now was to
recruitment line to be towed. staffing plan instead of just a recruit- implement the best practices to get a stra-
But with the customer delivery ment plan for the project. tegic plan that delivered value, in line
beginning soon, she was required to While on one hand the plan enlisted with the objectives spelt out by the client.
hire fast. She did not have the luxury of the steps to be taken, on the other hand But before she got cracking on the
waiting for a couple of months to get the it also listed out the deliverables and plan, she wanted some answers. Prerna
best talent on board. And she could ill milestones to be achieved corresponding picked her desk phone and reached out
afford a hiring decision that she would to each step of the process. for the account director of the project to
regret later. What if a new employee The approach adopted by Prerna set up a meeting.
failed to deliver? That could cost her is something that most professional “A variety of global staffing experts
organisation far more, both in terms of recruiters follow. “We help companies suggest that HR start with asking
time, money and delivery issues. develop a staffing plan that standardises questions that help create a singular
This set Prerna thinking. She felt the recruitment practices and ensures alignment of the HR’s efforts in getting
need to go far beyond the recruitment that the recruitment that happens the right candidates,” feels Popli.
plan she was asked to present. She is consistent and mitigates any risk Between the doodles on Prerna’s yellow
wanted to contribute strategically and uncertainty,” says Sankalp Popli, pad, the following key questions waited to
towards the achievement of overall director, Absolute Recruitments, which be answered by the account director.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 53
15-MINUTE MANAGER
Security hat are the deliverables of the proj-

W
5 trends that will shape ect as a whole?

How many new employees will be
information security in 2010 required to achieve the deliverables?

What skills, both technical and soft,
should these employees possess?
Why are these skills critical? Can
they be replaced with similar of other
skills?
When will these new employees be
needed?
Will all of them be needed on board
when the project goes live or can their
recruitment be staggered?
Also, there were questions related
to the length of the project and the
placement of the new employees (onsite
or offsite).
Global best practices suggest that
The convergence of these trends will radically reshape the IT staffing plans must use objective,
performance-based criteria as the basis.
future of information security—both the vendor landscape and
And that is possible only if the HR team
how we architect and manage information security internally
works to create job profiles for each
employee revolving around measurable
Convergence onto security platforms: We will see the movement
1 of related security controls into ‘security platforms’ capable of be-
criteria that is benchmarked against an
ideal performance.
ing adapted to new types of threats. We see convergence taking place in The benchmark should be a
multiple areas in information security—at the endpoint, at the e-mail security normalised average of the company’s
gateway, at the web security gateway, at the next-generation firewall and, standards and the standards of top
for small to mid-sized organisations, the multifunction firewall. performers in the IT industry.
Virtualisation: Beyond just deploying virtualisation securely, the vir- A clear deliverable in this phase should
2 tualisation of security controls will alter the information security land- be the development of a structured
scape. Beyond this, virtualisation offers a new platform to enforce security interview process, as it neatly helps to get
controls in new ways—such as introspection techniques for rootkit detection. the right information out of the applicant.
Two aspects of the structure must be
Cloudification: The enforcement of our enterprise security policy via
3 security controls and infrastructure that we don’t own. This isn’t nec-
attended to—content and method.
A sound planning is essential to get the
essarily new, but the other trends listed and adoption of cloud-based applica- right content and method for evaluation.
tions by enterprises is forcing this. Examples include the use of cloud-based Both, content and method must be aligned
web application firewalling or cloud-based filtering of web and email traffic. to check applicants’ past job performance
Externalisation: The tearing down of walls between businesses and on the measurable criteria.
4 the opening up of our information, processes and systems to outside “A structured interview provides
parties—whether these are contractors, outsourcers, partners and custom- a standard approach that ensures
ers. Nearly every enterprise is being asked to enable and foster secure col- everyone hires to a consistent standard,”
laboration with external entities. feels Chhillar. The company must
understand that the interview is the
Consumerisation: The use of consumer-oriented technology (systems most critical component of the selection
5 and software) for business uses. Examples include the connection process. In a few minutes, the interview
of iPhone to enterprise systems, remote access via personal machines and should be able to bring out all the inputs
employee demands for access to Facebook, LinkedIn and other consumer- needed to make an informed and correct
oriented sites in a business context. Combined with #4, this implies a large decision, one that will affect the fortunes
number of systems that we don’t own and don’t manage connecting to our of the company and the individual.
systems and networks. A structured interview brings the
required objectivity to clear all haze that
By Neil MacDonald (Source: http://blogs.gartner.com/neil_macdonald/) is often there in a subjective assessment.
54 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
15-MINUTE MANAGER
The next step is to create a pool plan far outweigh the effort put in by create consistency in the hiring
of potential candidates from across the organisation, and the time spent by decision-making process.
a variety of sources such as staffing it,” points out Popli. “A long-term benefit is that when
agencies, and also from the list Two key benefits of such staffing existing people leave, new hires come
comprising redeployment, promotion, plan accrue immediately and are into the system on the basis of processes
and reassignment candidates. very important for project-based and standards specified in the staffing
requirements. The plan not only plan. This results in an improvement in
Benefits outweigh effort significantly increases the odds of the quality of workforce over a period of
“The benefits of a well planned staffing hiring the right people, it also helps time,” points out Chhillar.
MANAGE IT space and storing data efficiently.

But in distributed processing, users
Sweat your
have more control over creating and
saving information. Given this scenario,
storage
most of the companies are shifting to a
centralised working model as this helps
in better data management and increased
assets
security. Besides, IT managers also need
more than ad hoc approaches and need to
understand the complete dataflow within
the company. Here are a few simple
Drifting islands of unused storage can approaches that can help you deal with
the data monster in your organisation.
be tapped to create a large pool and to Design, buy as per the need: A little
minimise new buys homework always goes a long way,

so diligently work out what you need
before actually jotting it down in the RFP
By Shaj y Th om as document. It is better to invest some time
at analysing the storage requirements so
as to identify a suitable solution.
Consolidate Get tools to help
The important factors to bear in
islands of storage Sanity move duplicate
mind are—capacity, throughput and
into a single stor- checks information to less
performance, IOPS, disk type, future
age pool expensive disks
requirement, scalability, application
compatibility, backup and DR,
Do away with management tools, and reports and alerts.
And then, make a
unwanted videos Since all solutions come with their own
fair assessment of
and music audios sets of pros and cons, this due diligence
how much storage
to free huge will help in deciding on the right solution.
is actually needed
chunks of storage Simple optimised design: Simpler
M
designs generally offer good performance
uch bigger than factors like video and audio stream- and more flexibility. Outline the growth
the human popu- ing, digital content creation, and statu- strategy upfront. As the data size grows,
lation explosion is tory requirements are also driving the how will you manage growth of data
the data explosion demand for storage. files, logic unite numbers (LUNs) and
that is continuing to Historically, the move from RAID groups? It is much better to design
take place. There are many factors that mainframes to distributed client/ for all this at an early stage than to do a
are responsible for this sudden spurt server environments has also added to rebalancing act later.
in enterprises’ appetite for data; from the complexity of storage requirements. Consolidate storage silos: As
the shift to a hyper-connected world When almost all data resided on a companies grow, they inevitably create
to an almost freefall in the cost of stor- mainframe and was supervised at a data islands of storage that are both costly and
age space and solutions. Other related centre, the focus was on conserving file inefficient. Consolidating these islands
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 55
15-MINUTE MANAGER
of storage or silos into a single storage

pool provides tangible benefits, such as
training
lower costs and improved operations.
There are other advantages as
well—centralised troubleshooting,
calender remote maintenance and centralised

administration.
Data management: The IT manager
Career booster should know how the information flows
courses for you within the organisation and how it is
stored. This helps minimise or eliminate
the data duplication and de-duplication.
To do so, one must put in tools that provide
relevant information on such issues to
be able to delete or move the duplicate
information to less expensive disks.
The tools should also provide
Program Venue Dates additional information on any unwanted
Managing Software Projects IMT Ghaziabad April 05 - 06, 2010 files, especially videos and music audios.
Armed with information like this,
Managerial Decision Making NITIE Mumbai April 05 - 07, 2010 managers can often defer the purchase
of more storage while boosting the
Enhancing Executive NITIE Mumbai April 05 - 09, 2010
utilisation of existing infrastructure.
Competitiveness Validate configurations: Before
Brand Equity and Brand Valuation IMT Ghaziabad April 08 - 09, 2010 going live, perform basic throughput
testing of the IO subsystem with some
Developing Emotionally IMT Ghaziabad April 08 - 09, 2010 benchmark tools like IOzone failover
Intelligent Leadership testing and policy testing.
Storage policies: It’s very important
Service Management using IMT Ghaziabad April 12 - 13, 2010
to create storage policies for efficient
Information Systems and management. A few examples of such
Technology policies are user or group quotas, file
access permissions, file type policies,
Project Risk Management IIM Ahmedabad April 12 - 14, 2010
backup and DR, file aging policies by
Business Intelligence NITIE Mumbai April 12 - 16, 2010 which the unused files are automatically
moved to virtual tape libraries.
Communication Skills for IIM Kolkatta April 15 - 17, 2010 Data backup and DR: Many
Effective Management companies store data in multiple locations
as a safeguard, but this increases the
Building Globally Competitive IMT Ghaziabad April 19 - 20, 2010
storage requirement, complexity,
Organizations maintenance and power utilisation. These
Balanced Scorecard: Design and IMT Ghaziabad April 22 - 23, 2010 hassles can be eliminated by designing
reliable online storage, nearline storage
Implementation
and a tape backup.
Negotiation Skills Workshop IIM Kozhikode April 26 - 28, 2010 Storage maintenance: To avoid or
minimise storage issues, one needs to
Effective Communication IIM Ahmedabad April 26 - 29, 2010 carry out pre-emptive maintenance like
Strategies: Men and Women @ updating the host bus adapter certified
Work drivers, storage array firmware, and
multipath IO. Always remember that
Advanced Financial Analysis IIM Lucknow April 28 - 30, 2010
a better managed rack is not only more
(NOIDA Campus) efficient but also easier to manage.
Business Modelling for Changing IMT Ghaziabad April 29 - 30, 2010
Business Scenario The author is Head, IT at Crest Animation
Studios
56 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
Project management
How to
deliver
the with a
soppy SLA?
big EXPERT PANEL
PRASAD KARANDEEP DOLLY BHASIN

RAJAPPAN SING H Managin g
Fou nder and Head IT, Director, SPH
Managing Fu llerton Consu ltancy
Director, Securities and eServ ices
Cnergyis
that you will do all this but I will pay you only as
The Situation... much,” added Raghav. Suhasini immediately under-
stood what Raghav was going through.
“Raghav, you seem to have lost all appetite,” The vendor was cutting corners to ensure the
said Suhasini. “Is something wrong at work?” deal was not loss making and Raghav was bearing
Raghav tried to avoid the conversation, but could the rap. “Why don’t you tell Mr Awasthi and your
not hide the tension that writ large on his face. MD,” said Suhasini sounding like an enthusiastic
He was a senior IT manager at RapCorp—one fifth grader.
of India’s largest real estate companies. But the “No Suha, it doesn’t work like that.” “I am
last few weeks at work had been difficult for him responsible for the smooth delivery of the project,
because of the repeated delays in the ERP project and the vendor is using our project as a training
that he was handling. And this had a direct bearing ground. All new recruits are being tested at Rap-
on a number of new projects that RapCorp was Corp by the vendor,” added Raghav.
betting its future on. “The management does not understand and
Photograph y: s ubhojit paul
“I’m being made the scapegoat,” said Raghav every morning, I dread the thought of picking up
wiping the beads of sweat off his worried forehead. the phone when it rings.” “It’s either the MD or the
“I came into the project only after the SLAs— sales head, and all they do is stop short of yelling.”
the contractual obligations—were frozen and “How do I explain?”
the price determined,” he said. “Mr Awasthi, our Raghav’s predicament is rather genuine. He is
CFO, then negotiated the price on behalf of Rap- being held responsible for the delivery of a project
Corp after the SLAs were determined,” Raghav that he has not negotiated. He has not negotiated
sounded exasperated. the SLAs, the deliverables or the price. He has no
“It’s like saying to Nirmala, your domestic help, say on the resources being deployed too.
from here
Your responses count. Log on

to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit
NEXT
Cut it
your replies. The best entry will be

published in the next print edition.
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 57
the big q
the big questions...

?What should Raghav do to ensure that the project is delivered
smoothly, without any further delays?
? What should RapCorp do to institutionalise the process of

deploying big ticket it projects in the future?
Here are the answers...
‘review, involve the vendor’
FIRST ANSWER
Raghav is in a typical position that most implementation managers
come across. Invariably, the price negotiations take place without
having a full perspective of the project dynamics and deliverables.
Having landed into such a situation, here is what Raghav can do:
Work with the vendor and document the deliverables against
each milestone and create a list of gap areas. This could be in terms of
deliverables or quality of service experienced so far. He should try and
understand the vendor’s concern in terms of his profitability; if possible,
identify internal team members to add to the vendor’s resources. If the
vendor has genuine issues, Raghav should help find the solution.
Having gained the support of the vendor, he should take the
analysis sheet to the CFO or the MD and present it as more of an
PRASAD attempt to ensure project success, rather than a complaint. Raghav
RAJAPPAN will have to impress upon the management on the need to revisit the
project resource allocation, in case he feels that the current one will
Founder and Managing not yield the desired quality and timeline targets.
Director, Cnergyis
Once he has succeeded in doing this, Raghav should present a periodic review and
About me: A status update to his management so that they are in sync with the actual challenges and
production engineer, achievements.
with experience in ERP,
operations, business
process reengineering SECOND ANSWER
and Information
Systems. Has been Ideally, the project or delivery manager has to be a part of the project planning and SLA
previously associated signoff. The vendor should be made accountable to the project manager from day one.
with Reliance, Mahindra
& Mahindra and Ernst Even if the manager is not privy to the pricing, he should have a say in the deliverables.
& Young RapCorp should also form a project directorate or steering committee for future
projects. This should include all the project sponsors and senior stakeholders. The
project manager should make a joint implementation plan along with the vendor that
should be presented to the steering committee before the kick-off. There should be a
weekly or fortnightly review process. Besides, the vendor payment should be linked to
the milestones and signed off by the project manager. Also, for any ERP implementation,
it is important to have strong internal domain and process experts in the team who can
measure and drive the outcomes. These internal process owners and power users should
start learning the ERP so that the organisation gets what it aspires for.
To summarise, RapCorp should follow the basics of any IT implementation project:
n Involve top management and ensure proper organisation-wide communication
n Induct team members from each of the business functions involved
n Set up a steering committee that should have have complete project plan in hand
n Chalk out deliverable-based payment schedule for vendors
n Conduct periodic reviews and set up process for mid-term course correction
58 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
the big q
‘inform bosses, involve them too’
FIRST ANSWER
Raghav should quickly take stock of the current stage of the project
and call a meeting of CFO, CEO and core team members. He should
apprise them of the background, current situation and stage-wise
update of the project. He should also update them on how the ven-
dor is treating the company and the kind of resources that are being
allocated by the vendor.
Raghav should then define the way the project is to be taken
forward so that it can be successful and implemented as per the
timelines. He should also split the project into phases and define
roles for each person of the core project team. The CEO should
acknowledge the same and inform the core team members to be
accountable for the delivery.
As a next step, Raghav should arrange for a meeting of his senior KARANDEEP
management with the vendor and discuss the current state of the SINGH
project, pushing them hard to have best resources working on the
project. He should redefine the timelines if required. All payments should be linked to Head IT, Fullerton
Securities
actual deliverables and strict penalties should be laid out in case of slippages.
With all this groundwork and focused approach, the project should come back on the track. About me: An MBA and
MCA by qualification.
Has over 14 years of
SECOND ANSWER experience. Worked
Moving forward, for all projects, a core team should be formed, drawing members from IT with firms like Lucent
Technologies and
and functional departments. However, the overall responsibility should lie with the depart- Fidelity Investments
ment wanting an application to be rolled out. The functional person should own the project
and the IT department should help coordinate with the vendor.
The entire requirement should be frozen at the earliest so that the SLAs can be defined
and commercials linked to them accordingly.
The project phases should be monitored closely by the project manager, followed by
a weekly update to all stakeholders and a monthly update to the steering committee.
No new changes to applications should be made unless there are regulatory changes
or other such exceptions. Any mid-term changes should be approved by the CEO and
a strict change management process should be adhered to. Any changes in time or cost
requirements (again, only in case of an exception) should also be signed by the CEO. NEXT
slas
7-step improvement process
A nalyze the
3
Process
the data
4 data Relations?
Trends?
Gather the
data Who?
Freq uency?
Format?
According
to plan ? 5
How? When? System? Tar g et met?
Integrit y of Accu racy? Correctiv e
Data? action?
2 Present
and u se the
D efine What information
you can
measure
goals assessment
summary
action plans,
etc.
1 6
Implement
Define What
you should Identify 7 correctiv e
action
measure
Vision & Strategy
Technical Goals Source: Oblicore, 2008
Operational Goals
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 59
the big q
‘Categories concern areas’

FIRST ANSWER
Raghav should list out the key areas of the SLAs and mark them by
the following categorisations:
Critical: Activities very crucial for the company (high risk and critical).
Compliance: Activities that need compliance (need to be done).
To watch: Activities that need to be monitored closely to prevent
recursive and repetitive negative effects.
Difficult to achieve: Activities which are difficult to achieve but
have been agreed upon in the SLA.
Raghav should then try to allocate time and resources to plan how
to monitor and keep close check on the activities in the above listed
manner, to ensure compliance to SLAs.
For the last category of activities, a realistic assessment should be
DOLLY done and adjustments made accordingly. The team working on the
BHASIN project need to be communicated the above and given incentives to
ensure compliance to SLAs. Taking a proactive approach to ensure
Managing Director, proper adherence to the SLAs in this manner will reduce the risks.
SPH Consultancy and
eServices
SECOND ANSWER
About me: IT The company should ensure that someone from the delivery team (project manager or
professional with
over 25 years of supervisor) is part of the team doing SLA negotiations. The person should either be a
experience in R&D, data direct signatory for the SLA document or should indirectly approve it through an inter-
communications, product
development, project nal document. Proper project management and governance system should be planned
marketing and consulting and implemented by the company in future to avoid such occurrences.
Notes
NOTEs
SLA Best Practices: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk869/tk769/technologies_white_paper-

More Resources 09186a008011e783.shtml
What about SLAs?: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/saas-bpo-convergence-what-about-
slas/?cs=38590
60 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
cube chat | Pushkar Raj
Learning is
golden
“Leadership comes from learning new
things and showing others how to apply it
to situations,” says Pushkar Raj, Manager
IT for Express Retail Services at Big Apple
By Jati nde r Si n g h
W
“ hy do we need God, if we
are doing our work reli-
building exercises and values the support of team
members to get the project done successfully.
giously?” said Pushkar Raj “It gives you lot of pain when your team
when asked if he was reli- members don’t give you the helping hand for
gious and God fearing. challenging projects. It’s the only thing that
As Manager IT, Express Retail Service, Big irritates me,” he recalls.
Apple, Raj believes in learning from every situation However, he feels fortunate that he doesn’t
that life provides and is not the one to be much have to deal with such situations very often,
perturbed with challenges that come in the way. and expresses his gratitude to all engineers and
Having started his career as System Engineer team-members with whom he has worked so far.
with Pantagon System in Mumbai, he is currently “I am fortunate to have got great support from
responsible for managing the IT infrastructure my team-members most of the time so far in my
of Express Retail Service. career,” Raj notes.
My sucess A leader is one who himself makes continuous He believes that the various challenging
mantra effort to learn new things and is able to teach assignments in his career have helped him
subordinates the art of applying the learning stay focused. He remembers the IT-enablement
Work hard and give your
when a situation arises, says Raj. project during his tenure at the Cafe Coffee Day
100% to whatever role
Armed with degrees in chemistry and as the most complex of all.
you are assigned
computer science, Raj stresses very much on team “During that time, I was responsible for
62 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
cube chat
Fact File
Name
Pushkar R aj
Curre nt desig natio n

Manager IT, Ex press
Retail S ervices, Big
Apple
Curre nt role
Managing and
taking care of IT
infrastruc ture
Expertise
ERP implementation ,
net work
infrastruc ture set up,
net work securit y
Work experienc e
2005 – present
Manager IT, Ex press
Retail Servi ces, Big
Apple
2001-2005
System
Admi nistrator, Caf e
Coffee Day--northern
region
“A good it manager should have 1999 -2001
strong team building abilities. He System Engi neer,

Pentagon System,
should encourage team members to Mumbai
think out of the box and innovate” Edu c ation

2000 -2002
M CSE, IAC M, Delhi
routing customer calls of different units to done, thus avoiding the mistakes and taking 1998 -2000
different call centres, with whom we were the right approach,” says Raj. PG Di ploma in
dealing with. Since I was the only person “A good IT managers should have Hardware Net working,
J etking, Mumbai
to manage it, the pressure was too much,” strong team building abilities. He should
he recollects. encourage team members to think out of 1996 -1999
“However, after a thorough discussion the box and innovate,” he adds. Bac helor in Commer c e
with different vendors, we successfully IT apart, he is an avid reader. “I am (Com puters), Cali cu t
managed to deploy a suitable software currently reading a book on Art of Living Universit y
solution,” he adds. for peace of mind,” he laughs. 1995 -1998

The solution helped the company to “Reading helps me take inspiration from B Sc (H) Chemistry, TMU
transfer all calls directly to the respective leaders from all walks of life,” he adds. Universit y, Bhagalp u r
centres seamlessly. Confident of achieving his dream to
Achievements
He loves to spend his Sundays with family become a CIO, he asserts that commitment 2005: Excelle nc e in
and is always keen to learn new technologies and coordination are the two key ingredients infrastruc ture and
and study lives of technology leaders. responsible for success. setu p, Express Retai l
“I always take inspiration from reading “You just give your 100% to whatever S ervic es
good and motivational stuff. You can role you are into. Follow this and I bet there 2002: All India best
essentially add to your experience by won’t be any looking back,” he shares as a admi nistrator awa r d,
reading and analysing what others have piece of advice. Cafe Coffee day
a p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 63
update
book For you

open Debate A platform to air your views on the latest
developments and issues that impact you Captain
courageous
Is green IT pressingly
The father of India’s low-cost
aviation tells the story of his life
Publisher : Harper Collins
urgent or can we go
Price : Rs 499
slow?
Most Indians used to treat airplanes
as some sort of identified flying objects
which they thought were almost alien
to them. They never thought they could
ever afford the luxury of flying, until
one fine day when Captain Gopinath
SK PALUSKAR VIRENDRA PRASAD REDDY stepped in with the country’s first no-
GM - MARKETING DESHPANDE MANAGER-IT & frills airline, Air Deccan, in 2003.
AND IT, EXCEL DGM IT, RELIANCE ADMINISTRATION, Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey is a
INDUSTRIES TECH SERVICES PRELUDE SYSTEMS from-the-horse’s-mouth story of a
I am very much in favour Considering the times Speaking from a holistic
village boy’s entrepreneurial overdrive,
of green and eco-friendly that we live in, I see little perspective, the issue of
which takes him through different
technologies. However, I doubt in green being a environment has gained
avatars—from Udupi Hotel owner to
do have a fair amount of pertinent issue not only much prominence during
agricultural consultant, politician, and a
reservation on the way the for now, but also in the the last couple of years.
dealer in motor bikes.
whole green IT movement days to come. As far as Hence, it is quite natural
is taking shape in India, as green IT is concerned, that the impact of IT infra- Interestingly, when Gopinath, launched
well as globally. It is driven because of the empirical structure on environment India’s first low-cost airline, a report
mainly by vendors to push instances in which it has is now coming under the called it an “Udupi Hotel in the sky”, re-
their wares under the garb helped companies save scanner, with talks about ferring to the low-cost business model
of green. One can spot on power, and thus reduce low-energy electron- of the self-service vegetarian eateries,
so many green products the carbon footprint, there ics gaining ground. The originally from Udupi in Karnataka, that
around, right from servers is little doubt in my mind focus on reducing energy have become a generic name for cheap
to cables. In fact, the first about the viability and the consumption is always but good quality meals in the country.
question we need to ask is: necessity of it. Green IT welcome. But we need Alongside the story of the rise and later
do we really need to invest is very much the need of to guard against the ten- the reversal of fortunes of Air Deccan,
in certain equipments? the hour. Considering the dency to over-focus on the the book, offers an inside view of India’s
Whether it is green or not is increasingly high amount economics of green. While aviation sector, with all its lobbies, cut-
the secondary question. We of power consumed by much of the talk is centered throat competition and backstabbing.
really need to assess the IT equipment, technolo- around RoI, we also need
need and impact of these gies like virtualisation are to look at the social and
IT NEXT Verdict
technologies. relevant in today’s time. environmental costs.
One reason why this book should be read is
that it is the story of a quintessential entre-
preneur who dared to innovate and changed
the rules of the Indian aviation sector.
Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the
magazine to the Editor at editor@itnext.in Star Value:
64 it next | a p r i l 2 0 1 0
Dr Chindu Sreedharan
my log Lecturer, The Media School,
Bournemouth University
The epic
pc
: anoop
centre
ion
r at
st
lu
Il
Storytelling lives on, with a
newfound tweeting and chirping
form, on micro-blogging sites
Honestly, this wasn’t my idea. I just Bhimsen, a reimagining of the Mahabharata.

rolled with it. The tale was perfect for the experiment.
Late last July, in the midst of a busy For one, it provided plenty of dramatic
workday, my colleague Bronwen turned tension—surely that should hold the reader. 3 Essential
to me. There was also the irony of fitting the world’s Reads
“Chindu, have you seen this?” longest and arguably most philosophical <strategy>SHEElA FoAm</strategy> <strategy>SHEElA FoAm</strategy>

nies today are swiftly realising to improve functionalities. This Reflecting back, he also
<tr>{Total
the importance of aligning IT was proving to be costly and time- feels that the incident came
cost of
requirements with their core consuming. Rx series as a blessing in disguise and
business needs. Given that Moreover, the legacy system servers (in prompted the company to
organisations are no longer look- was of limited use and the IT Rupees)} consider migrating to an open
ing at IT as a support function, IT department of the company Server 1: source solution that could be
managers today are not hesitant was unable to introduce new 5,86,628 independently maintained by an
to evaluate technologies that are applications for scalability. “Since Server 2: internal IT team.
‘value for money’. The only catch the ERP solution was hosted on 5,52,285
“This article about mobile fiction.” keep your friends updated about your non-
is: it should not compromise the a proprietary product, there was Server 3: the solution
5,75,100
performance. very little room to customise With the proprietary solution, it
A year ago, Pertisth Mankotia, the home-grown ERP solution,” Maintenance was difficult to try things out and
cost/annum:
Head-IT at Sheela Foam was elaborates Mankotia. innovate even if one wanted to.
17, 14,013
thinking on somewhat similar Things like setting up a rack and
SAN storage:
lines. For his company, a Rs the problem 2,31,664 clone servers were cumbersome
950-crore group and among Prior to the migration to open and costly affairs. With the open
Annual
the top five manufacturers of source, the company was using maintenance source, there is always an oppor-
slab stock polyurethane foam in three Rx (Itanium) series servers cost: tunity to add new features and
south-east Asia, the challenge and a SAN storage solution. The 19,45,677 manage them at a much lesser
Three year
It was about amateur novels being read activities (‘am in shower. shoot, phone got
was to reduce dependence on approximate annual maintenance cost.
maintenance
<head> Unix systems, improve the cost- cost with four hours of critical After a careful analysis,
no more
cost:
efficiency ratio, and simplify support was more than Rs 65 Mankotia and his team consulted
58,37,031
systems management to improve lakh. And despite all that invest- Dell for a product performance
Three year
scalability for business growth. ment and cost, the performance demo. Through with the
up-gradation
was not getting any better. cost: successful trial, the company
expensive
the genesis And then, when on a 8,00,000 decided to go for Dell PowerEdge
Founded in 1972, the firm has a penultimate day, the company’s Total expense server with factory installed Red
number of manufacturing units system went down and took (in three Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
in India. Also, there are more more than 16 hours to recover, years): In April 2009, the company
66,37,031
upgrades!
than 70 distributors and 3,000 Mankotia decided to put his bet deployed its home-grown
as SMS on mobile phones. Apparently, wet’). Plus, I really, liked the Mahabharata.
dealers. In order to manage its on an open source solution. Dell Server mission-critical ERP application
with three
operations effectively, the com- “You can imagine my situation, ‘Greatplus’ that was hosted on
years Gold
pany ran an in-house ERP on a when my network got down for 16 Support: RHEL.
legacy server in a proprietary hours. And I was in no position to 4,00,000 Despite all enthusiasm for the
Unix environment. take any remedial action. It was Net saving in new solution, the core IT team
The custom-built ERP was really hurting the business” he three years: at Sheela Foam had its moments
</head> integrated into Sheela Foam’s painfully recollects. 62,37,031</ of anxiety as well, for there was
tr>
distribution network. However, “At the end of the day, any still an iota of doubt. Since the
owing to the proprietary system, system downtime takes a heavy previous legacy servers based
<h1> there was too much dependency toll on the company’s goodwill on the Unix platform were very
Japanese teenagers were crazy about it. And so began the Epicretold (www.
the_leading_foam_maker_is_glad_it_switched_to_
open_source._the_new_system_runs_50%_faster,_is_
easy_to_scale_and_saves_rs_40_lakh_per_annum “you can imagine my situation, when my
p h oTo G r a p h Y: S u B h o J i T pau L
</h1>
network got down for 16 hours. And I was in
<h2> no position to take any remedial action. It was
really hurting the business” P E RT I ST H m A N KoT I A ,
BY JATINDER SINGH
Bronwen sent more news. While the twitter.com/epicretold). The first tweet had
</h2> HEAD-IT AT SHEEL A FOAM
24 it next | A p r i l 2 0 1 0 A p r i l 2 0 1 0 | it next 25
Japanese were, umm, thumbing through six-year-old Bhima standing wide-eyed at the No more expensive upgrades!
Hastinapur palace, “staring at the lady with What made Sheela Foam go open
‘portable novels’, elsewhere a very determined
source? Pg 24
bunch was making its way through similar the black cloth over her eyes”, “disturbed,
bursts of fiction, on Twitter. scared”, but unable to “look away”. INSIgHT | SeCuriTY
AWARENESS UP TWO-FOLD,
VICTIMS SIX-FOLD
SeCuriTY | INSIgHT
A new genre of narrative was emerging, A week later, he had his first confrontation
While consumer awareness of phishing attacks has doubled
RUn
between 2007 and 2009, the number of consumers who
reported falling prey to this attack also increased six times
during the same period.
According to the EMC security division rSA’s 2010 Global
SOCiAL
Online Consumer Security survey that polled more than
4,500 consumers on their awareness of online threats, while
thousands of people join social networking websites each day,
MeDiA
nearly two in three (65%) of respondents who belong to these
with Duryodhana: He is taller, bigger, but I am

online communities indicated that they are less likely to inter-
a different kind of storytelling, on platforms in

act or share information due to their growing security concerns.
Social networking websites have become a hotbed for online
SAFE mo
criminals because of their global reach and the participation
DE
by hundreds of millions of active users from all walks of life.
This makes these communities prime targets for exploitation
by criminals who seek to steal personal information through
socially engineered attacks. reflective of this trend, the
survey exposed that four out of five (81%) people using social
networking websites displayed concern with the safety of their
personal information online.
that discouraged the traditional format. stronger—born to the forest, not to palace maids.
in a similar rSA survey in 2007, one in three (38%) consumers
reported they were aware of the threat of a phishing attack—
and this figure has doubled in two years when three out of four
(76%) consumers became aware.
Despite increased awareness, there have been a growing

number of online users that have fallen victim to a phish-
ing attack. in the 2007 rSA survey, only one in twenty (5%)
consumers cited they had fallen victim to a phishing scam;
this rate increased six-times in 2009 to represent three in ten
This was ‘fiction-to-go’, for the tech-savvy I leave him against the wall.
(29%) consumers.
This increase can be attributed to more advanced communica-

tions tactics and greater sophistication such as improved writ-
ing and web design skills on the part of the fraudsters. phishing
internal compliance is
attacks have also evolved in an attempt to exploit users in dif-
ferent ways and through a broader variety of methods including
the key when it comes offshoots known as ‘vishing,’ ‘smishing’ and ‘spear phishing.’
The sheer volume of phishing attacks launched in recent

to keeping silent months is also contributing to these trends. The rSA Anti-
iL LuST raT i o n : Bin eSh Sr ee Dh a r a n
threats posed by social

Fraud Command Centre reported the highest-yet detected
audience, for the smartphone addict. In the months since, Bhima has captured
rates of phishing attacks between August and October 2009,
media at bay as well as a 17% increase in the total number of attacks be-
tween 2008 and 2009.
BY DEEPAK KUMAR 50% consumers agreed that their identities should be better
protected than a simple username and password on social
networking.
And this audience was growing, quite some media attention, including
Run social media in safe mode

demanding more micro-content; it was that from the Time. Importantly, the ‘new Set up right policies to keep the
only a matter of time before we produced new media’ has taken off: applications like silent threat at bay. Pg 36
micro versions of everything we put up on, Kobo, Stanza bring fiction to your mobile, TECH FoR BANKINg TECH FoR BANKINg
well, the old ‘new’ media. publishers put out Twitter versions of the new TECH
The question then was: what kind of work, the news media has climbed the mobile
RACE
All
narrative will work on micro-blogs, and bandwagon (mostly with shovelware— Zero legacies gave private banks a
IN!
jumpstart, but PSU banks got on IT fast tracks
too—now both are eyeing mobile banking
mobile sites? How should it be structured shame!), and armchair academics like me
BY SHASHWAT DC
A
decade ago or so, banking was a rigorous and
time consuming activity. The hours were limited,
queues were unending and there were multiple
counters to be attended to. Even mundane things
30
like depositing and withdrawing money from
one’s own account could take hours.
so readers stay with a story delivered in are paid to research topics such as ‘episodic
To add to customers’ woes, banking staff was far from being
cooperative, partly also because the system encouraged them be so.
Today, most of the routine banking activities can be completed
from the perimeter of one’s home or office. All one needs is a
computer with an Internet connection and your terminal becomes ArOUND
your window to banking. Even more, several banking operations
these days can be performed over the mobile as well—a few SMSs
ph oTo Gr a ph Y: ph oTo S. Co M
back and forth and you are done.

The transition of the Indian banking sector from an archaic
crore banking
and rigid structure to a contemporary and flexible one has transactions are
been almost magical. Within the span of a decade or two, banks
done electronically
episodes? storytelling in the digital world’.

have transformed themselves into business houses that are
professionally run and managed. every year
The best way to find out was to dive in. Excuse me, I need to go now. Bhima is PSU banks have got on IT fast track
Soon enough, I was reading Prem Panicker’s about to kill Baka. and are eyeing for more. Pg 44
66 it next | A p r i l 2 0 1 0

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4 Edu Tech December 2009

24 No more expensive upgrades!

The leading foam maker is glad it switched to open source. The

28 Can it get any cheaper?

opinion 54 Security | 5 trends that will DESIGN

RegulArs Office Address

Editor: Vikas Gupta

explained very well in today’s

articles like ‘Dare to lead’ reiterates

groups?gid= among the IT mangers’ community,

the customer care team, allowing

On the move now

intelligence, enterprise portals, content

Pocket-wise, is implemented and supported. In

“ uality. Price. Service. Pick

can harness online versions

SAP revamps BI on The new BI

demand offerings unites Crys-

from large 50,822

0 the pricing and details of data

HP, Polycom to collaborate interoperable collaboration

on video conferencing investment protection for their

Around The World quick byte

India bought 42% IT managers extending mobility to their

more PCs in Q3: MAIT

IBM announces cloud

closing! <!-- 60% of the Web

<!-- LIC, with an

Microsoft Licensing Cost (IDSP) Novell and even IBM, and of

“you can imagine my situation, when my

“there were certain

can it get any

“all the applications and software used in the

How has the journey for Ubuntu been so far?

While Linux has found

But there is some hitch

“it’s a myth that anybody it actually does is, for instance, if

can tinker with the Open assuming that someone manages

patches get rejected as they server he or she gets access to

come from unknown an Apparma profile on Apache

threats posed by social

According to the EMC security division RSA’s 2010 Global

Social networking websites have become a hotbed for online

In a similar RSA survey in 2007, one in three (38%) consumers

Despite increased awareness, there have been a growing

This increase can be attributed to more advanced communica-

The sheer volume of phishing attacks launched in recent

50% consumers agreed that their identities should be better

The biggest data losses of the decade

nov 2000 apr 2001 mar 2003 jun 2005

300,000 credit Bibliofind.com, A former 92 million email Details of 26.5

Source: Security Threat Report: 2010

business benefits of social media far

outweigh their perils.

perils look less threatening. In fact, it Source: www.sophos.com

Two CDs contain-

TJX Companies 12.5 million sets T-Mobile Ger- Secret informa-

back and forth and you are done.

IT has played a pivotal role in

have come down. An SBI or a BoI today

Focus: Core banking

funds settlement through

rtgs is today available in BoI awarded its outsourcing contract

Security hat are the deliverables of the proj-