The March 2010 issue of 'IT Next' celebrates community-driven content creation inspired by Wikipedia, showcasing contributions from over 40 IT managers. It discusses technology trends and challenges faced by IT leaders, emphasizing the importance of collective knowledge in shaping industry insights. The edition reflects the successes of collaborative content creation while highlighting key articles on emerging technologies and management practices.

1. MARCH 2010 / Rs. 150
VoluMe 01 / Issue 03
WE
JUST
LOST
OUR
EDIT
TEAM!
A 9.9 Media Publication

2. MARCH 2010 / Rs. 150
VoluMe 01 / Issue 03
SO WHY
ARE WE
HAvIng
SO MUcH
FUn?
A 9.9 Media Publication

3. Because
We got
you!
The IT Next team was overwhelmed —and overjoyed—by
the deluge of interesting stuff you sent in. Our thanks to everyone
who made this special edition happen.

4. 40 IT
practical
10
influencers
10
IT decision
managers on on Best makers
Tech Trends Practices as Editors

5. 15,000+ 300+
passionate & the
subscribers members Journey
on LinkedIn has just
begun...

6. 4 Edu TEch December 2009

7. Editorial
The power of
collective
It was in 2001 that Jimmy Wales and
Larry Sanger decided to harness the
power of the collective and launched an “This issue is based
online encyclopaedia called Wikipedia. on the Wiki model—
The collaborative model would let any netizen contribute
and edit articles put up on the Web.
ideated, shaped,
The whole idea seemed preposterous at the start. Why would people
driven and created by
attempt writing pieces on wide ranging topics, and even if they did, how the community of IT
would the write-ups match up to the standards of encyclopaedias like
Britannica and Coliers? (Britannica has around 100 full-time editors on managers”
its rolls and over 4,000 expert contributors, with a history that dates back S h u b h e n d u Pa r T h
to the 18th century.)
Today, Wikipedia is one of the leading reference sites, with over three
million pages and over 11 million registered users. So far, there have been
over 372 million page edits done by users themselves. Available in 262
languages, 24 of these editions have more than 100,000 articles and 81
have over 1,000 articles.
If anyone ever doubted the power of collective, Wikipedia has put them
to rest.
As for the quality of content, according to a survey done by Nature there
were 162 mistakes in Wikipedia versus 123 in Britannica on 42 randomly
selected general science articles. This, by all means, is comparable.
This issue of IT Next is based on the same Wiki model—ideated, shaped,
driven and created by the community of IT managers.
Here are some stats: around 40 IT managers shaped the Tech Trend
pieces, 10 managers wrote the Best Practices, and there was an edit panel Blogs To Watch!
of 10 senior IT experts who helped select and shape the content. The end Knowledge sharing communities
http://www.toolbox.com
result has been astounding.
Martin McKea’s blog
I am genuinely surprised and humbled by the response that we received http://www.mckeay.net
after we invited you to create this special issue. And I believe, you too will
Your views and opinion matter
appreciate and savour this Wikified issue. to us. Send your feedback
This experiment has worked, just like the Wikipedia experiment did at on stories and the magazine
at shubhendu.parth@9dot9.
the beginning of the decade, where the reader of the content is also its creator. in or SMS us at 567678 (type
Let me know what you will like to create next! ITNEXT<space>your feedback)
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 1

8. Content
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.
com/home.php#/group.
php?gid=195675030582
Twitter:
http://t witter.com/itnext
linked in
http://www.linkedin.com/
groups?gid=2261770&trk=myg_
For the l atest technology uPDates go to itnext.in march 2010 V o l u m e 0 1 | I s s u e 0 3 ugrp_ovr
SOCIAL
BI & BA MEDIA XaaS
Page Page Page
16 48 44
SECURITY
Page
12
P E O P L E
W H O
DATA CENTRE
TRANSFORMATION
Page
20
VIRTUALISATION
Page
24
M A D E I T
H A P P E N
UNIFIED GREEN PRIVATE
ENTERPRISE
COMMUNICATIONS IT CLOUD
MOBILITY
Page
Page Page Page
Page
28 32 36 40
10 IT NEXT | M A R C H 2 0 1 0
10 M A R C H 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 11
insights 15-Minute regulars
Manager Editorial _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 01
10 Technology Trends 53 Dare to lead? | In these Inbox _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 04
From the myriad and complex technology landscape, here is a days of cut-throat competi- Industry update _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 06
selection of ten technologies that are not only seeing traction tion, it is tough to become a
Open debate _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _75
in the enterprise space, but will also possibly dominate in the leader. Here is a primer for the
My log _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _76
years to come. These technologies have been assiduously cho- aspirants
sen by a select panel and subsequently evaluated by a panel of
c ov er des ign: anil T and Bi nesh sre edharan
40 IT managers, who have also crafted and shaped the content 54 Office Yoga | Meditate for advertiser index
for the same. success iBM reverse gate fold
eMC iFC
59 Best Practices 55 team Management | The
Wipro 13-50
None knows the pain of a shoe better than who wears it. Similarly, traditional ways of leadership
the challenges, the consequences, the headaches, the pitfalls of will not work with techies who Consumer Mate 52
different technologies can only be known by the IT manager who are talented, hands-on and re- industry 2.0 58
has been involved in either seting it up or managing it. Insights and spect doers, not preachers sigma Byte 60-71
experiences of 10 IT managers on different technologies—articles Quest iBC
that not only provide tips on troubleshooting, but also on how to 56 Manage it | 5 simple steps to
Wipro BC
avoid implementation challenges. going open
2 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

9. itnext.in
eDitOrial aDVisOrY BOarD ManageMent
IT experts who helped us shape the March 2010 issue of IT Next Managing Director: dr Pramath raj sinha
Printer & Publisher: vikas gupta
eDitOrial
group editor: r giridhar
editor: shubhendu Parth
Consulting editor: Pravin Prashant
1 2 associate editor: shashwat dc
sr Correspondent: Jatinder singh
Design
sr Creative Director: Jayan K narayanan
art Director: Binesh sreedharan
associate art Director: anil vK
Manager Design: chander shekhar
3 4 sr Visualisers: anoop Pc, santosh Kushwaha
sr Designers: Prasanth Tr & anil T
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(09971794688)
Brand Manager: siddhant raizada (09990388390)
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national Manager Online: nitin Walia
(09811772466)
gM south: vinodh Kaliappan(09740714817)
gM north: Pranav saran(09312685289)
gM West: sachin n Mhashilkar(09920348755)
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Printed and published by Vikas gupta for
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Max Healthcare Group Fullerton Securities & Wealth New Delhi–110 001, India
Advisors
editor: vikas gupta
S K Goel Shailesh Joshi
Vice President, Om Logistics CIO, Godrej Properties K-40, Connaught Place, Outer Circle,
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Please
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© a ll righ Ts reserved: reProducTion in W hole or in
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Head—IT, Sheela Foam Head—IT, Honda Motor India MediaWorx Pv T lT d is ProhiBiTed.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 3

10. INBoX
SPINE
COVER STORY | TECH TRENDS TECH TRENDS | COVER STORY It is comprehensive and has
IT NEXT
FEBRUARY / RS. 150
VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 02
27 30 52 THE BIG Q
covered most of the IT challenges
SECURITY: Is your GREEN IT: Can you STRATEGY: How do
enterprise ready for cut the power cost you define IT project How to ensure adequate
mobile devices? in the data centre? requirements? bandwidth? Page 55
The robust performance of the Indian of IT managers evaluate and rank them on
and pain points. Keep up the good
economy over the past few months has rein- four dimensions:.
forced the belief that downturn, at least in 1. Leverage of existing IT assets: With
India, is well and truly behind us. IT bud- increased organisational emphasis on cost
TEN HOT TECHNOLOGIES
gets that were hurriedly slashed a few quar- control, the ability to reuse and leverage exist-
ters ago are being slowly reinstated. Shelved ing technology and infrastructure is a huge
project plans are being revived, and IT man-
agers are once again being tasked to iden-
tify and evaluate technologies that can help
plus since it not only helps optimise capital
expenditure but also reduces the difficulty of
transitioning to a new paradigm.
YOU work!
VOTED!
their organisations capture and monetise 2. Maturity of technology: Technology
new opportunities, and improve operational maturity often has a direct correlation to ease
efficiencies. of installation, deployment and management. IT MANAGERS IDENTIFY
rahUL mEhEr
TEN HOT
The beginning of a new year is also the IT managers responsible for ensuring appli- TECHNOLOGIES
10
time when industry experts and vendors cation and infrastructure reliability tend to
VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 02
A 9.9 Media Publication
managing Director | LEON computers
INDIA’S IT MANAGERS REVIEW, ANALYSE
ITNext Cover with Spine.indd 1 2/10/2010 7:06:27 PM
february 2010
AND REFLECT ON THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGIES TRENDS—AND VOTE ON THE ONES THAT Congratulations! The maga-
THAT WILL MAKE THE CUT THIS YEAR.
BY DEEPAK KUMAR IT NEXT ThaNKS zine has a lot of interesting arti-
MATTER I L LU ST R AT I O N : A N I L T
identify the latest technology
trends and make predictions for
value technology maturity over
novelty.
ITS ReadeRS
for The warm cles and good coverage.
the year. This is also the time when
IT managers responsible for creating,
3. Potential benefits and utility:
Evaluating a trend or technology on this param- respoNse
SUrENDra rEDDY
maintaining and operating corporate eter helps organisations sift hype from reality.
infrastructure and services recommend Issues like return-on-investment and time-to-
and select the technologies and solutions market are important considerations here.
for their organisations. A big challenge for 4. Cost of implementation: Superior or
IT managers making these decisions is to new technologies often come at a significant
Founder | Bluekaw, cloud Open Innova-
www.linkedin.com/
cut through the hype and hyperbole—and cost, or can become expensive to deploy. A dis-
tion Labs
identify the ideas that will matter. crete assessment (of the technology) on cost
The IT Next team identified a range of considerations ensures its relevance.
groups?gid=
technologies that have the potential to make We now present the Top 10 Technologies
a mark in 2010—and asked the community that will matter this year.
2261770&trk=
myg_ugrp_ovr
12 IT NEXT | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 13
Congratulations on the
300 members
IT NEXT VaLUES YOUr FEEDBacK launch of IT Next magazine. I
We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it liked going through it and would
www.scribd.com/
a better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the pre- doc/27254589/ say that you have picked a very
IT-Next-Vol-1-
ferred publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, Issue-2-
good target audience, which is
complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@itnext.in. february-2010 the IT manager and CIO frater-
518 views nity. The choice of articles is very
apt—cloud, enterprise mobility,
virtualisation, etc. I also liked the
I must say that you guys have done a fantastic job. Read ThIs layout of the magazine, which is
Issue oNlINe
Sections like Insight, Indulge, and Cube Chat appealed me easy to read and catches attention.
However, on the mobility
the most. I suggest you also do some stories on management http://www.itnext.
in/resources/ front, I think one of the top
issues that IT managers are facing. Best wishes! magazine enterprise mobile applications
raNJaN JUNEJa today is the one for mobile sales
Engineering manager | Persistent Systems force, which probably got missed
out in the article “Top 5 Mobile
Applications”.
Is India CaaS ready? I am impressed by both the content and the Besides, since the magazine is
design of the magazine. The story on communication as a service meant for IT managers, and one
(CaaS) is noteworthy. However, I doubt if Indian enterprises are ready of the rightly identified areas is
to adopt it in a big way. If I have got it right, CaaS translates into renting how they can progress in career,
or leasing out of software / communication / IT services. In a layman’s it may be a good idea to provide
terminology, I will probably not be required to maintain a server, or some IT manager and CIO-
a dedicated bandwidth. Can one (ITNext) talk about the security chal- related job sections.
lenges that will arise in such a scenario, and are we ready to deal with Also, information on
those? To draw an example scenario, Chunghwa Telecom is all set to movement of CIOs across the
launch a cloud-based CaaS for enterprise users in April 2010 as a first industry and IT spending across
step to tapping the Taiwan cloud computing market. industry verticals, will add to the
LaVaNYa KUmar overall impact.
Editorial assistant | The Economist Group VaDIraJ araLaPPaNaVar
head-mobile applications | mindTree
Well done ITNext. The magazine looks awesome in terms of the con-
tent and its relevance, but it was the visual appeal that struck me first... I enjoyed reading the inaugu-
your design team has done a fantastic job. ral issue of IT Next. It has a good
maNISh JaIN interview and some very infor-
head communication | Dell Perot mative articles.
itnext<space>
<your feedback> aBhIJIT SINha
IT Next is the best KISS—knowledge and information sharing suite! and send it to advisor--communications | TErI
raTNaKar NEmaNI
cIO & head of IT Projects Wing | VST Industries Limited
56 78
76 *special rates apply
(Note: Letters have been edited mini-
mally, for brevity and clarity.)
4 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

11. 4 Edu TEch December 2009

12. update
Update
i n d u s t r y
trends
deals
Products
services
PeoPle
asset/liability management
forecasts with annual budgets and
rolling forecasts. They provide
the capability to go beyond
measuring bottoms up historical
performance to actively managing
future risks and results.
Oracle Financial Services
Balance Sheet Planning is
a budgeting solution made
specifically for bank planning,
budgeting and forecasting.
This application leverages
Oracle’s Hyperion Planning
as a foundation to allow banks
to plan future profitability
and risk adjusted returns. The
solution captures instrument
characteristics and nuances of
each customer relationship, to
Oracle extends The solution
makes best
accurately model balance sheet
behaviour and provide the most
EPM capabilities
use of the accurate net interest margin and
divergent earnings forecasts possible.
capabilities The solution makes best use
TEch TIDINGS | Oracle has refurbished its suite of financial services of OFSA, of the divergent capabilities that
and analytical applications for the enterprise performance manage- Hyperion, it has acquired over the past
ment (EPM) space. The new solution is based on the merged capa- Reveleus and few years—Hyperion, Reveleus
bilities of Oracle Financial Services Applications (OFSA), Hyperion, PeopleSoft and PeopleSoft. Meanwhile,
Reveleus and PeopleSoft Enterprise Performance Management. the Oracle Financial Services
The EPM Suite is designed to help institutions in planning future Asset Liability Management
performance and lowering anticipated risk. It also assists in planning Analytics is an updated
net interest margin, anticipate liquidity contingencies and reconcile version of the Oracle Asset
Liability Management business
intelligence application. It
emphasises upon the critical
teCh Global PC shipment is slated to touch US $223 billion by 2010, need to measure and manage
ket
mar a 2.6% rise from the 2009 market value interest-rate and liquidity
(fIGUrES arE IN US $ bIllIoN) risk. Building on the existing
majority of all 250 functionally-rich interest rate
new purchases $238 risk content, new metrics,
were driven by 200
$217 $223
reports and dashboards
Photo graPhy: Photo s.c om
introduction of
150
Windows 7 provide additional management
100 insight into “stressed” results,
including liquidity gaps,
50
funding concentrations, deposit
2008
2009
2010
0 distribution profiles, marketable
assets and liquidity ratios.
source: gartner
6 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

13. Green mOtherBOard seCure remOte FiLes triPLe yOur memOry
aSUS has launched Protect 3.0 mother- Symantec has launched the all new Norton Transcend’s new rDP7 multi-card reader
board that lowers emission and transmis- 360 suite that combines is a high-speed three-slot
sion of harmful radiation by 50%, security with remote reader. It can accommodate
minimising the negative impact access to safely backed- up to three USb peripherals
on users’ health. It also claims up data. It also includes and can read most memory
to deliver more stable features that helps card formats that are avail-
system operations. reduces boot-up time. able in the market.
Salesforce unveils visual compliance.
Being part of the Force.com
platform, enterprises can create
process manager dynamic and sophisticated
business processes within their
current sales cloud2 and Service
Cloud2 deployments, or in their
TEch TIDINGS | Salesforce.com custom Force.com applications.
has unveiled a new visual process The platform also aims to
manager—Force.com—a platform provide tools such as process
to help companies to rapidly designer, process stimulator and
automate any business pro- process wizard builder, which
cess. According to the company, may be added to a visual process
the platform enables custom- design diagram through a simple
ers to design complex business drag-and-drop action.
processes such as sales, service, Moreover, the engine boasts
finance, HR, legal and operations, of the capability to run all
with an intuitive visual-design sophisticated processes of a
tool. It allows processes to be run company, and automatically
instantly on the cloud. scale up to meet the needs of
The solution combines the any business size. Force.com
elegance of visual process Enables enter- platform enabling customers to Visual Process Manager will
design with the simplicity, low prises design continuously refine and enhance be available to Enterprise and
cost, and quick results of the complex busi- processes to improve operational Unlimited Edition subscribers
Force.com cloud computing ness processes efficiency or fulfill regulatory for $50 per user per month.
around the World quick Byte
Mobile, wireless industry
to touch $89 billion by 2015
The mobile and wireless industry in South Asia,
Middle East and North Africa is estimated to
cross the $89 billion mark by 2015. According to a
Frost & Sullivan report, India showed the highest microsoft ceo steve Ballmer on the
comPany’s alliance With yahoo!
subscription growth rate in South Asia, followed “i BeLieve that tOGether
by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The miCrOsOFt and yahOO! wiLL
PrOmOte ChOiCe, vaLue and
report suggests that the low penetration levels in Greater innOvatiOn FOr
South Asian countries indicate a large untapped Our CustOmers, as weLL
market that may translate into a high subscriber as, FOr Our advertisers
and PuBLishers.”
growth rate between 2009 and 2015.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 7

14. update
Demand for identity, access
management to grow by 20%
TEch TrENDS | A recent Gartner sur- adds that the IAM products will
vey projects that audit and analytics, continue to attract investment during
global identity and access management coming years, because it remains
(IAM) revenue is expected to reach the a critical technological area for
US $9.9 billion mark by 2010, bank- enabling businesses to improve and
ing on the rapidly-growing enterprise automate processes relating to access
requirement for compliance market. management. interview
The figure would be an 8% rise from It further mentions factors such marK rEGISTEr
the 2009 revenue of US $9.2 billion. It as merger and acquisition, economic VP—Information Management
asia Pacific, Ibm
is expected to rise further to US $11.9 downturn and consequent tightening
billion by 2013. of IT budgets as key bottlenecks in
According to the report, suite-based market evaluation. IT NEXT: what exactly is the iBm’s
IAM is the most preferred technology The report also predicts that public information agenda campaign?
by enterprises. Almost 40% cloud computing is expected
mark: We believe that an enterprise
of respondents indicated Global IaM to drive IAM standards.
Market to needs to adopt a holistic approach for
this preference, which is Gartner reasons that cloud-
9.9
touch managing its structured and unstructured
slated to continue for the next computing “construction” for
data. IT departments and managers can
couple of years, together with
an increasing reliance on
$ “private” clouds will require
specific IAM-as-a-service
best leverage existing information within
their systems by looking beyond just data
managed security services and functionality, to accommodate
IAM consulting services. by 2010 bn scale-and-standardised management or business analytics.
source: gartner
The research firm delivery needs. how big is the challenge of managing
unstructured data?
It is a huge puzzle that we are trying to
Dell unveils zero-client
solve. according to an estimate, there is
998 exabyte of data across the world, and
I am sure the number must have already
hardware for enterprises grown, considering the staggering pace at
which data is growing. close to 80% of this
data is unstructured in nature. You have
TEch TIDINGS | Jumping on the
the e-mails, blogs, tweets, videos, audio,
virtual desktop infrastructure
etc... and the stack is piling up.
(VDI) bandwagon, Dell has
launched its first zero-client what should the it manager do to
device for enterprises. Accord- cope with this challenge?
ing to the company, its existing
There are a few things that IT managers
FX100 will support the new
must do. first, put a data management
VMware View 4.0 app and PC-
policy in place. This would help decide how
over-IP streaming technology
to classify and store data. Second, there is
through a firmware upgrade.
a need for improvement in the data quality,
According to the company, the
Photo graPhy: Jaya n k narayanan
so that it can be meaningfully used. finally,
device that is expected to hit the It offers rich evolutionary successor
they can choose a solution that lets them
Indian markets by end of May multimedia sup- to thin clients with even
deal with such issues. for instance, Ibm
will minimise the chances of port and faster fewer chips inside. The
recently released cognos content analyt-
hardware failure, as compared to response as com- company expects it will
ics that brings the world of analytics to
the more traditional thin- or fat- pared to standard be able to penetrate the
unstructured data.
client desktop PCs that have been virtualisation and market with its attractive
converted for VDI use. streaming codecs cost option beginning US
Zero clients are the $500 (per device). by Jatinder Singh
8 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

15. update
Indian enterprises too
tech alliance
emC, intel
risk-averse, says ISACA to secure
Lack of
cloud
engagement rSa, the security division of Emc,
and budget is teaming up with Intel and
limiting Vmware to build a transparent
enterprises’ infrastructure for business-critical
ability to take cloud services. The partnership in-
IT-related tends to chart a way for technolo-
business risks gies to combine and boost security
in the cloud networks.
The proof of concept will be
used by service providers to help
customers build private clouds
within firewalls, or build cloud-like
services. It will combine authen-
tication technology inside Intel
processors with Vmware technol-
ogy that will collect data from
physical and virtual infrastructure
TEch TrENDS | One in three IT profes- management, 30% stressed that and then feed it to rSa’s security
sionals in India believe that companies business lines were not willing to fully platform, which, in turn, will iden-
should take bigger risks with IT busi- engage in risk management. tify potential threats.
ness projects. According to a recent The survey also revealed that lack The information will then be
ISACA survey, 34.4% of India’s IT pro- of engagement was the top hurdle handed to governance, risk and
fessionals believe that organisations while addressing IT-related business compliance software that have been
are too risk-averse and may be missing risks, followed by budget limits (29.6%) created by archer Technologies—a
out on opportunities to increase value. and uncertainty of how to tailor best company recently acquired by the
The global association of IT practices to the environment (18.1%). Emc. These controls will help com-
governance, security and assurance Interestingly, compliance with panies enforce differentiated policies
professionals, with over 5,000 government regulation did not emerge in private clouds such as formulate
members in India alone, recently as the top driver for organisations’ physical hardware types that may
conducted a survey of 463 IT risk management activities. Instead, help run virtual machines.
professionals. While more than 85% 41.1% respondents said that aligning according to the companies,
of these respondents indicated that current functionalities with business third-party vendors are expected to
their organisations were effectively needs was the primary reason for risk start offering services based on the
integrating IT risks into overall risk management programmes. proof of concept within six months.
News @ GooGleCHIEF EXECUTIVE CAROL BARTZ it be believed. She took a potshot at War?
Vs China: Was is to just a Word Google
bloG YES, IF YAHOO’S
while talking to the media at the company’s birthday bash | Miguel Helft in his blog <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.
com/2010/03/02/a-yahoo-birthday-party-with-carol-bartz>
Bartz suggested that Google flip-flopped on whether it would stay in China,
or not. “It looked to me like it was more of a statement than an action,” she
said commenting on Google’s January 12th threat to pull out of China. “If they
wanted to pull out, they should have pulled out,” she said categorically.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 9

16. insight | technology trends
bi & ba
Page
16
security
Page
12
data centre
transforMation
Page
20
Virtualisation
Page
24
enterprise unified
coMMunications
Mobility
Page
Page
28 32
10 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

17. social
Media xaas
Page Page
48 44
p e o p l e
w h o
M a d e i t
h a p p e n
Green priVate
it cloud
Page Page
36 40
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 11

18. Security
Policy
revisited
A successful security implementation
must rest on the foundation of a sound
security policy, which in turn should not
just address the potential threats, but also
the compliance requirements
jo Jose, GM—Syste
Jo ms Un
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n
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in
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wa —i
an
B al t,
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an
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M, iDBi B
ank
12 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

19. Security | insight
Security has remained among the most challenging and perennial con-
editor’s cerns of IT managers for the last few years, increasingly so because of the
note
dynamically changing computing and communication paradigms, largely
initiated by the Internet and accelerated by a host of newer platforms and
devices.
As long as computing was largely desktop-dependent and notebook users were few, information
security concerns were limited too, until first the Internet and later the USB drives arrived to give
information portability disruptively new meanings. Ever since, security has been a nightmare for IT
managers. The surge in notebook adoption and the associated growth of wireless networks has add-
ed to the woes of IT managers, while the advent of smart phones has further complicated matters.
and just when IT managers were beginning to arm their enterprises with new security arsenals, the
mother of all breaches—the social networking sites and the ilk—surfaced, and then grew at a colossal
pace, making all ‘security controls’ go flying in the wild.
That’s right! Security controls don’t seem to work anymore in traditional ways! The answer to the
problem lies, to a large extent, in setting up a policy-based security infrastructure.
75
over
in today’s 2.0 world, how does one protect an
organisation’s information assets that are poten-
tially exposed to a cross-continent Facebook user
policy continue to be plagued with the
problem of its ineffectiveness.
In this background, let’s look at organisations globally
%
base of 400 million? some of the essential objectives that a experienced cyber attacks
A sound stepping stone to the answer, no security policy must be able to achieve. in 2009
doubt, will begin with a security policy that is Regulatory and legal compliance:
Source: STaTe of enTerprISe
thorough and relevant in today’s context. The IT (Amendment) Act 2008, which SecurITy 2010, SymanTec
But, a ‘security policy’ itself is no new got notified in November 2009, requires that
a concept and its importance has not been organisations must put due mechanisms in place
emphasised any less any time. Yet, a large to ensure information security and privacy. A
number of organisations still don’t have the new entry in the Act in the form of Section 43A
policy in place. In fact, many of them are yet reads: “Where a body corporate, possessing,
to fully grasp the seriousness and relevance of dealing or handling any sensitive personal data
having such a policy in the first place. or information in a computer resource which
Also, many organisations that do have a it owns, controls or operates is negligent in
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 13

20. insight | Security
red Per-record cost of data breach
t
Aler (average coST per-record of a daTa breach, 2005-2009 In $)
$250
$200
$150 182 197 202 204
$100 138
fy 2005
fy 2009
fy 2006
fy 2008
fy 2007
$50
$0
SOurce: PONeMON iNStitute/PGP
A security implementing and maintaining reasonable
security practices and procedures and
accepted and acknowledged security
framework as a benchmark that is best
policy thereby causes wrongful loss or wrongful in sync with your organisation’s and
document gain to any person, such body corporate industry’s characteristics.
should cleArly shall be liable to pay damages by way of
compensation to the person so affected.”
ISO 27001 provides a standard security
framework that has been implemented
stAte the Effective communication of objectives: by a large body of organisations. The
response For the policy to be effective, it should be Data Security Council of India (DSCI),
process to able to unambiguously define the security
objectives of the organisation and ensure
set up by Nasscom in August 2008, has
formed a framework for data security and
be followed that they are easy to read and understood privacy, listing 16 best practices that are an
in cAse of An by all employees. extension of the ISO 27001 standard.
incident Moreover, a process has to be put in
place to ensure that any changes in policy
The DSCI framework aims to address
needs of IT BPOs, service providers,
have not just been mailed to employees banking and financial services,
but also that the changes have been read manufacturing, e-Governance, telecom,
13
and understood by employees with a fair PSUs and e-commerce organisations,
amount of clarity. especially those dealing with overseas
Clear statement of responsibilities: clients. DSCI is also said to be planning
The policy should be able to clearly development of an implementation
state and define the m e t h o do l o g y t h at
various information addresses technical and
million
users in 190 countries and
security roles. Roles and
responsibilities could
operational information
needs.
range from preparing Risk assessment and
31,901 cities affected by security policy and response mechanism:
the mariposa botnet this making necessar y It is an important role
year changes, communicating of the security policy
and enforcing those document to state how
Source: panda SecurITy
changes, measuring risk assessments are to
the effectiveness of the be performed. Realistic
communication and the risk assessments
impact of any changes, are key to successful
response mechanism to be employed in information security implementations, as
case of a security incident, and even the the right assessment also sets the basis for
escalation procedure to be used by an establishing an effective control point in
employee in case a security incident is not the security infrastructure.
attended to within a stipulated timeframe. The policy document should also be
Adherence to security framework: able to clearly state the exceptions to be
It’s always a good idea to select a generally observed and the response process to be
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21. Security | insight
followed in case of an incident. especially in areas of social networking and
micro blogging. Password
tAking A fUnctionAl view of A popular solution under the STM length distribution
secUrity category is Unified Threat Management a study from data security
The manner in which security of infor- (UTM), offered as an appliance that serves firm Imperva that analysed
mation and IT resources is ensured in an multiple functions such as firewalling, 32 million passwords exposed
organisation should ideally have a direct intrusion prevention, antivirus and anti- in the shocking rockyou.com
correlation with the functions that it (secu- spam protection at the gateway level. breach, showed that only 40%
rity) is expected to perform. Security and vulnerability enterprises used mixed letters
So it’s important to first look at the management (SVM): In an enterprise and numerals to form their
functional genres of security and what context, SVM can be closely linked with the passwords.
they imply for today’s enterprises. Broadly, security policy for maximum effectiveness.
these can be classified under umbrella Specifically, security incidents as per the 3.81% 1.62%
segments: definition of the policy document can be
Identity and access management: recorded and classified under different
IAM systems are important from the point vulnerability heads. Further, policy-based
of defining a wide range of information actions can be taken to mitigate future
security and privacy controls across vulnerabilities. 36.94%
41.69%
the organisation. Typically, an IAM
system comprises four key components- over to imPlementAtion
-authentication, authorisation, user While a robust policy document will
management and central user repository, provide the necessary guidelines for
of which the last one is of paramount implementation as well, the actual imple- 15.94%
importance. mentation is a different ball game. And
An IAM system enables, for the benefit who will know this better than IT manag- Mixed letters and numeric
of the IT manager, IT users’ complete ers who, while not averse to an occasional Only numeric
organisational lifecycle mapping in a single indulgence in 30,000ft views of IT, always Only lower case
view—right from the identity creation to have an announced liking for operational Only upper case
authorisation awarding to the deletion of details in the regular course! contains special characters
identity in the event of the user leaving the A number of views to implementation
organisation. Controls such as user ID and exist and are practiced too, but the most
password authentication are taken care of methodical approach to addressing
by IAM. security concerns in today’s dynamic
IAM also allows implementation environment will be to view the entire
of department and role-based access gamut of security from the functional
authorisation to enterprise-wide segmentations:
information and database resources and Implementation of IAM, STM and
can be used for implementation of more SVM can be carried out using either
complex controls as well. an appliance, standalone software, or a
An increasingly important role and mix of both. In business environments
benefit of IAM is that it takes care of a with complex security requirements, IT
variety of compliance requirements on the managers may be better off roping in an IT
way. integrator.
Secure content and threat Another implementation view could be
management (STM): This department of of taking into consideration aspects such as
security includes enterprise firewall/VPN perimeter security, endpoint security and
products, wired and wireless network information security. It is important to note
intrusion and prevention products, here that given the rising regulatory and
resoUrces
messaging security, and web security, compliance-related mandates, a forward
among other such software and appliance looking security policy will need to information technology (Amend-
ment) Act, 2008
products. accord highest importance to information http://www.mit.gov.in/download/
There is a growing relevance of STM security, followed by endpoint security and it_amendment_act2008.pdf
systems, attributed in large part to the perimeter security. Developing information security
policy
unprecedented rise in Internet traffic and http://www.sans.org/security-
the phenomenal success of Web 2.0 sites, editorial coordination: deepak Kumar resources/policies/
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 15

22. BI & BA
enterprise
shArpeners
Bi and BA tools enrich decision-making
faculties in enterprises, helping them
analyse past business performance and assign
future targets by way of predictive analysis
Lakshman, Man
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16 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

23. BI & BA | insight
Only a few years ago, organisations existed, functioned and competed in an
editor’s age of information. Today, many of them struggle in an age of information
note
overload!
Information no longer provides a competitive edge. Too much of it in fact
leads to indecisiveness, and therefore a lack of competitiveness.
Dynamic and smart organisations no longer chant the information mantra; they practice the “in-
telligence” raga instead—business intelligence (BI) to be precise!
Various views of BI exist, but from a functional viewpoint it broadly covers querying, reporting,
online analytical processing (OLAP) and business analytics (BA). However, in recent times, the BA
genre has matured to a greater relevance than other BI functions.
While BI tools are typically more focused on measuring business performance using assigned metrics,
Ba takes a predictive approach to business performance, using insights gained from a relatively vast set
of data. Both, of course, serve as decision making tools.
The good news for enterprises is that IT managers are particularly aware of the need for BI/Ba
73%
deployments, as evidenced by the ranking assigned by them in the February survey of IT Next. BI/Ba
While
was adjudged No. 2 in the survey, second only to Security.
indian enterprises use
the global economic slowdown caught many help their organisations captivate on spreadsheets for generating
enterprises unprepared, resulting in dwindling new opportunities in the recovered reports and mIS, only 27% use
market share and exorbitant losses. Though economy. And here the role of an IT
BI tools
there were umpteen other factors responsible for manager is evolving from a provider to SouRCe: IT NexT, DeCeMBe R 2009
this sudden shock, many organisations suffered facilitator or enabler.
because of incorrect decisions made on the basis In a world that is flooded with data, BI
of incomplete or inaccurate information. and BA tools help compete better. Enterprises
Sure, lessons have been learnt. Enterprises therefore are deploying these tools for improved
that were not equipped enough to deal with CRM, better supply chain management, and
the disruptive changes spawned by the global enhanced marketing and financial performance
financial crisis have since warmed up to BI and management.
BA tools. From data generation being the focus area in
Market intelligence teams in enterprises are earlier days, the shift is now to a realisation of its
now placing greater emphasis on such tools to efficient and smart usage.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 17

24. insight | BI & BA
Why Bi/BA impLementAtions fAiL?
Lack of Lack of
Stressing
specialize communica-
Erroneous Poor govern- more on long
skills to align tion between
data quality ance models term produc-
business and analysts and
tivity benefits
IT objectives management
reALity checK integrity issues, which lead to incorrect
BI and BA tools help businesses to seg- projections, making a forecast go haywire.
ment their customers, as per the buying So it’s important to ensure integrity and
behaviour and individual preferences. This structural aspects of data and its storage.
Get a clear enables them to differentiate among vari- A key challenge seen by IT managers
understandinG ous customer levels and needs and align
their products and services accordingly.
is in terms of recognition for BI as a cross-
organisational initiative in the enterprise
from the However, any realignment should also and support from senior management.
vendor on be quick enough to reap actual benefits. For Another set of challenges is mainly due
the kind of instance, given the kind of opportunities
that exist in the Indian telecom market,
to the presence of heterogeneous systems
in the enterprise. BI projects are meant to
performance a telecom company cannot afford a integrate, analyse and deliver information
improvement timeframe of six months to analyse the derived from all areas of business. However,
the company customer behaviour for
a set of new value added
data warehousing and
CRM systems should be
will Get after services they intend to there in place to enable BI
deployment offer. It stands to lose out and BA implementations.
a fortune if the analysis- Many organisations
to-delivery cycle is more are still way behind in
than a month. terms of establishing the
So it’s not enough to core transaction systems
deploy the intelligence which is a deterrent to
Through 2011, organisa- and analytics tools. It is successful deployment
tions using applications equally important to first of BI applications. In
establish benchmarks the lack of a sound data
to support a perform-
and set goals that the organisation needs warehousing solution, BI tools will only
ance-driven culture will
to achieve by deploying such tools. serve the purpose of “garbage in, garbage
30
outperform their peers by Since BI and BA solutions are meant out.” Also, as organisations move to
for providing competitive intelligence and clouds for data storage, heterogeneous
improved performance management, it’s environments come into play and lead to
also important to find out the solutions that portability and integration issues.
are best suited for the industry in which It is important to remember that
% your organisations operates. Get a clear
understanding from the vendor on the kind
organisations are fast moving beyond the
traditional reporting and analysis tools. They
So uRC e: GARTNeR
of performance improvement the company are increasingly banking on capabilities that
will get after deployment. could assist them with targeted data mining,
True, you will not be able to figure out the dashboarding, collaboration, statistical
RoI by carrying out these checks, but some of analysis and dimensional analysis.
the yawning gaps between the need and the Moreover, there has been a growing uptake
offering will certainly get addressed. of customised analytical and intelligence
tools. Some enterprises have felt that
impLementAtion chALLenges standardised models are too complex and
A major reason for the failure of a BI imple- inadequate in meeting their needs effectively.
mentation is that data is often not stored in In order to reap desirable benefits from a
the desired way. Worse, there are also data BI and BA implementation, it is important
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25. BI & BA | insight
Check your deliverables while
Business requirements: Document the data that captures and formalises business-centric evaluatinG
requirements for the organisation’s BI solution. This will help in guiding all subsequent
phases and deliverables.
a solution it
subject area diagram: a high-level diagram of business-critical functional areas to make
is important
logical relationships between them. It establishes a topical framework for the information to have a
architecture of the BI solution. complete
Key performance indicators: This is an important document that specifies metrics to ad-
dress corporate or functional performance based on analysis of business-critical subject areas
understandinG
and identified areas of opportunity. of the vendor’s
reporting requirements: This will help articulate end user reporting requirements for targeted service level
intelligence, the associated delivery channels, frequency of updates and access methods. capabilities
current Bi architecture status: Document that identifies reviews and assesses the state of
organisation’s existing BI components and supporting infrastructure. It also provides a sum-
mary of the BI components that may be leveraged in subsequent phases.
conceptual Bi design: This document contains high-level design specifics and associated
processes for extension of the existing BI components and future components represented in
the organisation’s BI Framework. It also summarises the integration of source systems and
data and the client model into the BI solution.
pilot recommendation: Document recommending a limited-scope implementation of BI so-
lution targeted to a single functional area or data set with the goal of achieving a high-return,
low-risk result.
SouRCe: CGI
implementation plan: Document that proposes the next steps for implementation of the
pilot BI solution. Included in this document are the project plan, resource requirements and
cost estimates.
to ensure that the information flow happens hospitality, media and financial verticals,
to the right stakeholder in a seamless Oracle offers products for interactive
manner. It is also important to monitor and dashboards business intelligence and
review the process on a periodic basis, to analytic capabilities. In fact, the Oracle
effect any required changes, without which solution is aimed at providing capabilities
it will turn into a fruitless exercise. for ad hoc analysis, proactive detection and
alerts, advanced reporting and publishing,
WhAt’s in store? mobile analytics, and desktop gadgets.
BI tools are now widely used in indus- Sybase’s IQ analytics server is another
tries like insurance, telecommunication, interesting solution present in the market. It is
IT, healthcare and finance for competitive a column-based database management system
advantages. A number of vendors today for analytics-optimised query performance.
offer BI and BA tools and services, some When evaluating a solution, it is
of which are SAP, Oracle, Sybase, SAS, important to have a complete understanding
MAIA, Wipro, and IBM. of the vendor’s service level capabilities. The
One of the solutions designed for financial solution’s flexibility and ease of use are some
and business analysts is SAP’s Business other key parameters for selection.
Objects Voyager. The solution is aimed at online BI applications, no doubt have immense
analytical processing (OLAP) of data through pay-off potential if implemented effectively. resources
multi-dimensional data sets. Its Business They can help organisations increase their
Get your analytics right
Objects Set Analysis solution helps identify and business agility, decrease operation costs, http://www.sybase.com/files/
track good customers, bad suppliers, and at-risk and increase market share by improving White_Papers/analytics-from-the-
Start-WP.pdf
customers, and how they impact the business. customer acquisition and retention.
A vision for BI
While MAIA specialises in providing www.mwsug.org/proceedings/2009/
intelligence reporting solutions for Editorial coordination: Jatinder Singh appdev/mWSUG-2009-a08.pdf
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 19

26. Data Centre transformation
enter
Gen 3.x
the transformation is about getting rid of
silos, leveraging IT assets optimally and
having a data centre that is green and lean, to
respond to business needs on the fly
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20 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

27. Data Centre transformation | insight
In IT Next’s February survey, IT managers ranked data centre transforma-
eDitor’S tion as the third most important trend for 2010. But more significantly, they
note
ranked it No. 1 on the utility parameter.
So when it comes to the utility value, IT managers prioritise data centre
transformation even over security, which incidentally ranked No. 1 on an
overall basis.
That is not without reason. Data centre transformation has become a necessary primary step to sup-
port the dynamic IT needs of today’s increasingly 2.0 organisations. In fact, many IT managers would
have long kick-started this transformation and pushed it through, but for the sudden
onslaught of slowdown that pushed it off their priority lists, for economic considerations known to all.
also, the silo characteristics of IT organisations—courtesy an unavoidable fallback of the IT evolution
process—make it difficult for IT managers to align IT seamlessly to business needs.
Indeed, many data centres still exemplify an air-conditioned quagmire, or in better instances, a ware-
house of IT boxes. This range from servers, switches, and of course, intertwined bundles of patch cords.
Often, proprietary clusters of solutions are housed, aimed at serving specific requirements of specific
departments. By virtue of their being, these clusters in the data centre still champion the cause of removing a
Enterprise 1.0 characteristics, increasingly less relevant in the 2.0 era. single x86 server from a data
centre will save more than
An immediate question that comes to mind is
while talking about data centre transformation is
why 3.x, particularly when enterprises are yet to
fully transform into 2.0 entities. While there can be
multiple answers to the question, the simplest one
evolution and hence the term 3.x.
So let’s first look at some of the
key elements of data centre (DC)
transformation.
$ 400
a year in energy costs alone
SOurcE: GarTnEr
will be that a 3.0 data centre will provide a necessary UnifieD architectUre: no SiLo
foundation on which a 2.0 enterprise can be built. PLeaSe
Data centre vendors started propagating the This is the first and foremost part of an effective
transformation to a 3.0 set-up about three years transformation story, as a DC transformation is
ago, and now that sure signs of an economic essentially about moving on to a next-generation
rebound have been evidenced, IT managers can networking and computing environment that
very well paddle up the transformation process. enables and fosters convergence of different net-
Meanwhile, the key elements of transformation work views and hues.
have undergone continuous refinement and For such converged view to become a reality,
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 21

28. insight | Data Centre transformation
it is important that there is a unified unified data centre fabric will also be able
fabric in place that brings in an effective to provision for consolidation of voice and
consolidation among diverse network data networks in the enterprise.
environments such as the Ethernet,
InfiniBand, Fibre Channel and iSCSI. Data centre VirtUaLiSation: it’S
While with 10G, Ethernet holds aboUt money
the promise of addressing the speed There are clear and measureable benefits of
requirements of Fibre Channel (FC), it has carrying out virtualisation in a data centre or
still fallen short of addressing no-packet-loss across data centres in the enterprise. Given
and other important characteristics of FC that high redundancy levels of servers and
that are essential to requirements of mission- storage resources are common in data cen-
critical applications. tres, a virtualisation strategy can result in
With IEEE Data Centre Bridging immediate benefits in terms of server and
standards in place, storage rationalisations.
Virtualisation Ethernet is more robust Application virtualisation
of a data than before, but the
standards on their own
also leads to substantial
savings in data centre costs.
centre brings don’t ensure a loss-less Fr o m the IT
in a leVel of service, which is key managers’ point of
abstraction proposition of various
unified fabric solutions
view, virtualisation of a
data centre brings in a
and pooling of from the vendors. level of abstraction and
it resources, These solutions have pooling of IT resources,
which comes added specific network
components to make the
which comes handy in
aligning IT with business
handy in lossless feature a part of the data centre objectives. This is because virtualisation
aligning it and architecture. presents a view of IT resources that is more
business This unification not only simplifies
the network view but also provides
logic-oriented rather than operations-
oriented and hence is more amenable to
substantial savings in terms of operating such alignments.
and management costs for diverse sets of However, the most significant benefit of
networks. DC virtualisation is that it sets the basis for
An important aspect to be noted here data centre evolution in a well architected
5-20
is that of convergence, of voice and data. manner rather than an ad-hoc manner.
The unified data centre architecture and At the same time, there is often a risk of
networking should take into consideration falling for an ad-hoc approach to data centre
that voice is increasingly moving from virtualisation itself, which can defeat the
% TDM based environments to IP, which
is already the widely used protocol for
very objective of virtualisation and lead to
significant hidden costs—and complexities.
fewer servers being data communication. Going forward, the Instead, it is okay to have a phased approach
deployed due to rationalisation
and consolidation programmes
Data centre tierS
SOurcE: GarTnEr
tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 tier 3
Concurrently
Basic data maintainable Fault tolerant
centre Redundant The architecture This provides
This performs components supports multi- multiple active
the essential Has redundancy, ple distribution distribution
roles of a data but over a single paths, but has paths, along
centre but has no distribution path only one active with redundant
redundancy channel at a components
given time
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29. Data Centre transformation | insight
How to transform? it managers
Optimising data center for better business outcomes, key domains, people, process, and can draw
technology can rapidly become a complex exercise. hence, a critical success factor in measurable
transforming the data center is to have an integrated and structured approach. The proc-
ess can be catogorised into five logical and manageable phases, each of which add value
benefits by
and can be taken up as independent projects. installing
Strategy: This phase encompasses planning for current and future data centers and map- energy
ping out how the data center will grow with your business. monitoring and
Design: This stage refers to building the best possible facilities and IT infrastructure for management
your technology and business needs. software in the
transition: This stage involves shutting down redundant data centers and deploying new, data centre
more efficient ones.
operation: This stage involves the ongoing maintenance and enhancement of one
or more solutions.
soUr Ce: HP
continuous improvement: This phase is characterised by consistently improving service
levels and responding to new business requirements.
to data centre virtualisation, provided that The use of green cabling solutions, those
all the phases are well considered parts of a that lead to cables with thinner diameters or
thoughtfully defined transformation strategy, those that employ intelligent patch panels,
with a clear roadmap. can greatly improve air flow within the racks
as also across the data centre, thereby further
manaGinG heat: air eVerywhere reducing the cooling requirements.
Spiralling power and energy costs alone In case of new build-outs, ‘green’ has to be
are strong reasons for making ‘green’ a core grounds-up. The overall design and layout of
part of data centre transformation strat- the data centre has to be such that it facilitates
egy. While virtualisation also has some air flow and its management and reduces
by-products that add to the greenness of a dependency on artificial cooling.
data centre, standalone green strategies can While these three elements—unified
result in more significant and measureable architecture, virtualisation and green—
benefits for an organisation. form the core of a data centre transformation
For example, IT managers can identify strategy, the existing and prevailing best
inefficient and energy hogging servers and practices would continue to play their roles.
chart a phase wise plan to replace those by In fact, an effective data centre
smarter form-factor servers that are more transformation strategy can work in tandem
energy efficient. with several of the existing best practices.
Too often, data centres operate with Another important thing that can
more-than-surplus cooling equipment, drive data centre transformation to
which ironically is an accepted way of the extent of making it mandatory,
fighting off ‘hot spots’ that get built up without saying so, is compliance.
in certain zones, largely due to air-flow More particularly, in industries like
deficiencies in the data centres. Experts BFSI and Telecom, it is already a reSoUrceS
have pointed out that most of the data requirement to preserve customer data
Data centre efficiency calculator,
centres suffer from the problem of over- for a stipulated number of years. A with dashboard
feeding, and that the solution lies in policy and standards-based approach http://www.emerson.com/edc/calcu-
lator/default.aspx
identifying the hot spots and facilitative to data centre transformation will help
airflow in deficient zones. IT managers can organisations address such compliance Unified fabric: Benefits and architec-
ture of virtual i/o
draw measurable benefits also by installing and regulatory requirements. http://www.cisco.com/en/uS/
prod/collateral/ps6418/ps6423/
energy monitoring and management ps6429/prod_white_paper0900a-
software in the data centre. Editorial coordination: Deepak Kumar ecd80337bb8.html
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 23

30. Virtualisation
Full
CirCle?
it uses the same concept that was applied to
the Big Irons of the much older computing era,
but the avatar is new and so are the application
areas, the users, and the implementers
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24 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

31. Virtualisation | insight
Virtualisation has an element of romanticism to it, being a technique first
editor’S used in 1960s—the early days of computing. Those days, it was used to
note
maximise the return on a mainframe computing investment, by way of
partitioning the heavily priced “Big” resource into several virtual machines
that could be used to run diverse application instances in parallel.
Then, with the advent of the PCs and the distributed computing era, mainframes gradually lost
their dominance and general relevance, and so did virtualisation.
Decades later, with the growth of the Internet and the subsequent dot-com boom, x86 server
environments mushroomed, to the extent that the data centres they populated got riddled with RoI
concerns akin to those associated with mainframes of the sixties.
and therefore, virtualisation got its relevance back, was reincarnated and dressed to serve a purpose in
today’s complex IT environments, often loaded with redundancies, particularly at the server, storage and
network levels. Today, a case for virtualisation for the desktop and the applications has also been estab-
lished and we hope to see more of these implementations as offerings get more robust, and successful
1.7
deployments are illustrated.
In the meantime, a phased approach to virtualisation—implementing it first in areas that are not
mission-critical, but could lead to measurable cost benefits, would be a recommended one.
million
servers will be shipped for
meeting virtualisation needs in
2010. This will be 14.6% of all
From a technology perspective, virtualisation computing environments today bear
physical servers expected to be
has crossed the big chasm of hype that segregates little semblance to those of the pre-
shipped in the year
an idea and its practical uptake. Unlike many yesteryears.
sourcE: GartnEr
other technologies that can drum up lot of poten-
tial in theory but fizzle out when it comes to a Saddled on the server,
ground-level implementation, virtualisation has desktop next
found a good number of takers in actuality. Virtualisation has already gained much credence
While from a global standpoint, it’s the on the server side, with many of the big data cen-
technology’s second coming, IT managers in tres already hosting virtual machines and the
India do not enjoy benefits of a legacy exposure needs for high availability, disaster recovery
of the sixties, though such an exposure would and consolidation driving home the case for vir-
anyways have little meaning, given that the tualisation. Concerns for rising costs of power
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 25

32. insight | Virtualisation
and energy—the resources that a typical
Benefits of virtualisation
data centre guzzles by the gallons—further
strengthen the case for virtualisation.
The list of benefits starts building up in
no time... Lower physical Consolidation of
But, beyond these discretely servers disk space
measureable benefits, another significant,
and somewhat strategic, reason why
enterprises are increasingly warming up
to virtualisation is because it sets a basis Dynamic
Increase in Ability to run
for organisational agility and dynamism. provisioning of
server uptime multiple OS
For example, virtualisation makes hardware
provisioning of additional computing
resources, such as storage or new
The new kid applications a fairly seamless and quick
on The block process, usually achieved through a
dashboard. Little wonder that IT managers
a virtualised environment that, say, pri-
oritises cost benefits over high-availability,
is deskTop who have tasted the benefits are quick to also holds the potential to give an IT man-
or clienT recommend server virtualisation as an ager a sleepless night.
virTualisaTion, optimisation strategy.
Today, server virtualisation is a
So while virtualisation has gained a
foothold in the enterprise space, it is yet to
which is mature technology. Organisations that become all pervasive. That pervasiveness
mosT suiTed have reached a certain level of server can only come through technological
for larger redundancy but have not yet kick-started
the process may well be advised to go for
maturity. As that happens, IT managers
can get comfortable with the idea of end-
organisaTions it. The same holds true to-end virtualisation
for storage and network and the benefits that it
virtualisations, though will offer. Until then,
with somewhat lesser part virtualisation will
degree of priority. continue to make more
Meanwhile, the new business and IT sense,
50
kid on the block is desktop while also providing
or client virtualisation. a solution that can be
This is especially suited, trusted as fairly robust.
and is also cost effective,
for very large to large Vendor & liCenS-
of all x86 architecture
% organisations. Here,
typically, blade PCs are hosted in the data
centre, and users can access their desktops
ing iSSueS
Pricing and after-sales service are the two
biggest grouses that IT managers have with
logically from any thin client terminal. the vendors. It is not uncommon to hear IT
server workloads will run The blade PCs are virtualised such managers from smaller firms and com-
on virtual machines in 2012, that in case of a failure, another blade is panies complain of neglect bordering on
up from 16% in 2009 assigned to the desktop. This also takes unprofessionalism, as the vendor is com-
sourc E: GartnE r, 2009
care of a number of information security- pletely focussed at servicing big accounts.
related issues, as data no longer resides on Given that virtualisation is a new
the physical desktops at users’ ends. concept, IT managers expect a higher level
of involvement of the vendor during the
not yet miSSion-CritiCal implementation phase, and even during
There are still areas of concern when it the initial days of the post-implementation
comes to hosting mission-critical applica- phase. That has been lacking.
tions in a virtualised environment. Tra- Another area of concern is the ambiguity
ditionally, such applications have resided in licensing terms. The problem arises
on dedicated servers, so in case of any dis- when the IT manager has to manage
ruption, the issue can be isolated and the multiple licenses even when he or she has
impact can be restricted. By comparison, virtualised the infrastructure. Till recently,
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33. Virtualisation | insight
Key issues with virtualisation given ThaT
Like any other technology, virtualisation too comes with its own set of challenges, and IT virTualisaTion
managers are bound to face problems at different stages of implementation. is a new
Planning and analysis: IT managers and companies face tough task analysing the existing concepT, iT
IT infrastructure—hardware and software components—while planning the migration to a
virtual infrastructure. The next big task is to conduct a thorough examination of licenses of OS
managers
developers, as well as independent software vendors (ISV). expecT higher
running the virtual infrastructure:
vendor
companies usually experience prob- involvemenT
lem integrating the virtual infrastruc- during The
ture with the existing heterogeneous
elements of the physical IT infrastruc-
iniTial phases
ture. There is also a need to deploy
specialised servers to manage virtual
systems, monitor load, and allocate
servers for backup. Besides, at this
you might also experience problems
with using virtual platforms in SaN.
Not all platforms support a wide range
of equipment and the popular iScSI
protocol. also, you will find it difficult
to introduce virtualisation solution into
the data storage networks without a specialist.
maintenance of virtual infrastructure: Once the system is up and running, a big task for
any IT manager is that of scaling up the operation. The other major tasks at this stage include
maintenance, defining centralised control, security, and access right management. These on-
going and repetitive processes can be quite monotonous.
licensing has been an issue that has consumption of power, but the technology
resulted in virtualisation being a bumpy also raises a fresh set of challenges,
ride and not a smooth sail, though vendors especially in terms of greater cooling needs.
are now taking corrective measures. Since virtualisation enhances CPU
utilisation to nearly 80%, the heat
the green angle generated by a virtualised server is also
Virtualisation is also touted to be a green- comparatively higher than the server
promoting solution, so much so that many that runs only one application. This puts
enterprises gain a strong sense of being an additional load on cooling-led power
green simply by virtualising their servers. requirements.
VMware stated that for every server However, the industry is taking
virtualised customers can save about 7000 measures to address such concerns.
KW hours or four tons of CO2 emissions Overall, benefits of virtualisation are
every year. It said approximately six not just for the IT manager but promise to
million desktop computers and servers had make the CFO glad as well. And as energy reSourCeS
been virtualised using VMware software, prices continue to rise while IT budgets
Virtualisation energy cost calcula-
which saved around 36.9 billion kilowatt will probably never be the same again, tor: http://www.apcmedia.com/
salestools/WTOL-7B6SFc_r0_
hours of electricity each year—more than more and more enterprises will look to EN.swf
the electricity used for heating and cooling virtualise their servers and data centres.
How it management can ‘Green’
the entire country of Denmark. It’s surely a virtual street ahead! the data center: http://download3.
Undeniably, virtualisation does lead to vmware.com/elq/pdf/2530_how_IT_
management_can_Green_the_Data_
server consolidation and therefore reduces Editorial coordination: Shashwat Dc center.pdf
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 27

34. EntErprisE Mobility
Unwire for
Growth
enterprise mobility significantly boosts an
organisation’s efficiency and productivity
while offering immense flexibility to the
employees on any device any time
Agar wal, M
u rag ana
An ge ra
r k
—
es
it
h
,b
Mo
sEs
han
, project Man
age
Fl r,
yt
Push
Kumar, Manage kar
xt
k
e pa r—
it ra
De , j,
M
tr
an
iven
ag
i in
e r—
frastructure &
ret it, Express
De
ai
ve
ls
lop
er
m v ic
en es
t
28 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

35. EntErprisE Mobility | insight
There has been considerable debate as to what are the key components of
eDitor’s enterprise mobility. The broad agreement has it that it comprises the hand-
note
held device, the enterprise WLAN and the mobility applications.
Some stakeholders add peripheral input devices such as barcode scanners
and other input devices to the enterprise mobility portfolio, given enterprise
mobility’s vast adoption in businesses like retail, transportation and logistics and hospitality. And of
course, security remains a close-knit segment.
Enterprise mobility handhelds vary from vertical to vertical, not only in terms of form factors but
also in terms of the compute capability of the device and its ruggedness.
So while a Blackberry remains the better known face of enterprise mobility, and is also well suited
for the white collared employee, it is not a preferred choice in industries and businesses that relate to
hazardous environments such as oil and gas exploration or mining. Even manufacturing environments will
be better served by tougher devices.
Indeed, there are a variety of rugged and semi-rugged handhelds and notebooks that work well in such
environments. The enterprise mobility space has matured significantly in terms of offerings and there
is much for IT mangers to pick and choose, based on their organisations’ needs.
Enterprise mobility
market in India is projected
1,881
to reach
Over the last few years, mobile devices have in various form factors that can handle
Rs
rapidly and deeply penetrated enterprises at a both voice and data applications.
cRoRe
root level, thanks to their immense value as cor- Apart from notebooks that are getting
porate productivity tools. The competitive busi- more and more affordable, a host of
ness landscape has further prompted enterprises handheld devices are there to serve as
by FY 2015-16
to take strategic initiatives in making their work- key enablers of mobility.
SourcE: FroST& SullIvan
force mobile. A study by Frost & Sullivan says the
Devices like PDAs, smart phones and enterprise mobility market in India clocked
notebooks are rapidly being adopted by revenue of over Rs 346 crore in FY2008-09,
enterprises to support workers and help them and was estimated to reach Rs 1,881 crore in
stay productive while being mobile. And with the FY 2015-16.
help of various on-the-go applications built into
the devices, organisations are able to increase ChAllenGes for it MAnAGers
their efficiencies effectively. Indeed, enterprise mobility has freed employ-
There is no dearth today of functional devices ees from the inflexibility of a wired desk.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 29

36. insight | EntErprisE Mobility
What are the best
practises for im-
What are the
plementing a cost-
organisational and
effective mobility have all risk man-
processes changes
Planning strategy?
that will maximise agement aspects
such as programs,
enterPrise benefits?
controls, policies
mobility and procedures have
been thoroughly
Key questions that needs checked?
Is the infra-
to be addressed when
structure ready have the cost
going for an enterprise for deployment issues related to
mobility deployment. of enterprise infrastructure,
mobility? enterprise servers has proper training
and license fee and education with
has due been analysed? respect to the associ-
diligence been ated risks of using de-
conducted in a vices been provided
rigorous man- to employees and
ner? partners?
However, this new-found freedom has integrating new mobile applications with the
introduced a number of new challenges enterprise network.
Mobile data traffic on for the IT manager. Mobile enablement of business
wireless networks is These challenges are getting multiplied applications such as sales force automation
131
expected to witness with the growing adoption of wireless in (SFA), customer relationship management
the organisation. While (cRM), and supply chain
wireless was considered management (ScM) offer
to be an overlay network immense benefits for
in the past, enterprises enterprises. For attaining
% are now using it more and
more as a mainstream
these efficienc ies,
effective collaboration
CAGr between 2008 and 2013 medium, given that it is between the handset
quicker to deploy and manuf acturers and
SourcE: morgan STanlEY, FEBruarY 2010 promises lower overall application providers is
total cost of ownership also very crucial.
(Tco) than a wired An aspect of enterprise
network. mobility is also to connect
However, enterprise and integrate employees’
mobility is much more than the mere adoption mobile device to the corporate PBX. This
of wireless networks, PDAs, notebooks and brings in the benefit of a single number
other such devices. It is about a number of and voicemail box for the mobile employee,
applications being enabled over the mobile apart from access to richer PBX-based
devices. This brings in the associated features as well as features available on
challenges of porting the enterprise-wide the mobile device. Again, this gives rise
applications to mobile devices and also to integration requirements and related
30 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

37. EntErprisE Mobility | insight
issues, which need to be addressed at the
IT manger’s end.
is not achievable, specific compatibility
parameters and operating systems must
While
enterprises should regard mobile be specified and adhered to. Wireless Was
data akin to an IT project, rather than Also, employees should be trained well considered to
a communications deployment. This
implies that companies deploying mobile
on safe usage of the devices. They should be
told which precautions are to be taken in case
be an overlay
data today need to work with a variety of the device gets lost or stolen. Basic security netWork
companies. It is unlikely that dialogue with measures such as changing passwords in the past,
a mobile operator alone (as is the case for
the purchase of mobile voice) will suffice.
regularly, exercising caution about posting or
submitting confidential data, and not doing
enterprises
The likely option for a one-stop approach an auto-save for passwords will go a long way are noW using
would be to work via a systems integrator. in ensuring that the mobile devices are not it more and
IT managers should also look for
vendors with wide-range device support.
easy entry points for security attacks on the
enterprise network.
more as a
There are thousands of new devices coming A provision in the security policy should mainstream
into the market every year and it is foolish ensure that sensitive documents that can medium
to design an app for a particular handset or embarrass or negatively affect the image
even an oS. Instead, IT managers should and reputation of the organisation is not
quiz vendors on their device and oS stored on mobile devices.
support and how their transcoding engines Digital rights management (DRM)
are going to be future-proof. should be applied to prevent data to be
synchronised or transmitted by undue
seCUrity issUes means, so as to block any malicious or
As enterprise mobility makes extensive careless breach.
use of wireless networks, the boundaries In spite of all the precautions, it must be
are often very porous in nature. This poten- noted that whatever encryption method
tially introduces new vulnerabilities in the is used, the device is at risk anytime it
enterprise network, which in turn means leaves a secured perimeter. Therefore,
that security threats rise manifold. any mobile platform must be viewed as
Therefore addressing security issues always unsecured and treated as a vector
becomes an integral part of an enterprise for major loss. Such a view will help put up
mobility deployment. Safeguards should an effective quarantining process in case of
also be put in place to monitor and protect a breach or a threat.
mobile assets throughout their lifecycles.
These measures must take a strategic whAt’s in store?
view of IT and security. Ideally, relevant and While RIM continues to dominate the
adequate changes should be made at the market in e-mail access solutions, compa-
security policy level to effectively address nies like Unisys and Tech Mahindra have
security issues related to enterprise mobility. offerings in the space of eRP, wireless data,
Besides having policies for strong cRM, field force automation (FFA), sales
encryption and inbuilt password force automation (SFA), and supply chain
protection, the devices should be managed management (ScM).
from a central console, so that maintenance Motorola is also offering wireless
and support activities can be carried out network solutions (WNS), aimed at
without physically bringing the devices providing customers with multi-vendor
back to the premise. flexibility and seamless connectivity.
It is also important to ensure that the The company is also expected to release
choice of mobile devices is such that the a mix of eight new products and solutions resoUrCes
enterprise mobility landscape doesn’t over the next few weeks to cover the full building unified enterprise mobility
become too heterogeneous. In the total spectrum of indoor WLAN, outdoor strategy
http://www.silicon.com/white-papers/
absence of standards, it becomes really wireless mesh, point-to-multipoint, it-infrastructure/2007/05/01/build-
challenging for an IT manager to provide point-to-point networks and voice-over- ing-a-unified-enterprise-mobility-
strategy-60370690
the required level of support. It will be ideal WLAN solutions.
When enterprise mobility matters
to go for a single type of device, at least http://www.articles-database.com/
for common business objectives. If that Editorial coordination: Jatinder Singh viewarticles.php?articleid=17212
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 31

38. Unified CommUniCations
mUltimodal
qUadplay
UC overcomes limitations of standalone
communication media and enables users to
navigate from one mode to another, from within
the same window
S atish, manager—
KR it
,d as
h h
is
an
h
uk
Ku
aa
ma
grite
r, manage
ch
r— it,
Ke
w
P
ajay K
re
inha, Leader—t
c is
jS ech pa
ira
ion
no n de
dh l
y,
og
d
y,
Gm
d
ell
—it
Perot
, B L Kashyap
&s
ns o
32 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

39. Unified CommUniCations | insight
Enterprises are faced with the urgent task of aligning their business proc-
editoR’S esses to the needs of a market place that is suddenly very dynamic. It is
note
witnessing ever new technologies, supported by innovative marketing
strategies. And often, there are disruptions in the forms of aggressive pric-
ings, new competitors, and fast changing customer needs.
On the enterprise front, organisations need to be dynamic and responsive enough to be able to
cope up with the pace of this new global market place. And to achieve this, it needs to be agile at
forming new market strategies and reducing time to market. In turn, teams internally will need to
speed up the development process while working in cross-geography environments.
It is equally important that the partners and suppliers are also in sync with the enterprise trans-
formational needs and initiatives.
Throughout, the focus will be on two aspects—people and processes—and also on establishing an
effective and harmonious interplay between the two key aspects. and this interplay will be achieved only
with a communication framework that is pervasive, device- and platform-independent, fosters teamwork
and above all, catalyses business and process transformation.
Enter the world of multimodal communication. Enter Uc.
Business communication has become
rapidly multimodal, driven by enterprises’ need
for reaching out to customers, partners and
need and the case for adoption of
unified communications (UC) in the
enterprise. While many organisations
The Rs 5,000
Indian Uc market is
Cr
employees in a swift and targeted manner. have already embarked on the journey, dominated by enterprise
This, however, has brought in new and are at various stages of UC maturity IP telephony
complexities and integration issues in the curve, several others are actively
system, and enterprises have been exploring considering its deployment.
ways to simplify their communication channels. In simple terms, UC involves blending of
At the same time, organisations are also various real-time communication channels on
looking at adding capabilities to their existing a single platform, thereby assisting businesses
communication systems so as to enrich them. to resolve query in the easiest possible manner
And while they do all this, they also want to in the course of a given session. Some of the
reduce their communication cost that has been commonly accepted components of a UC solution
going up rapidly. include e-mail, unified instant messaging, IP
All these requirements are pushing the telephony, audio/video/web conferencing and
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 33

40. insight | Unified CommUniCations
Key benefitS of UC
Developing
cost savings Transforming Streamlining
better
through collaboration business business
customer
consolidation processes processes
service
mobile applications. expertise of vendors in general and they
Businesses are also evaluating the often lack good-quality graphical user
capabilities of UC for better integration interfaces (GUIs), detailed performance
of the communication functions with the data and even general usability.
Since the core business applications. In fact, the During deployment phase, it is advisable
architecture post-recession economy has seen many to avoid the integration of UC applications
of uc iS Still a companies, strictly adopting policies of
reducing their travel budget through video
with the corporate wide area networks
(WAN). On the surface, this may appear to
evolving, the and web conferencing. be the right way, however,
implementation According to Frost & in reality it will result into
Should be Sullivan, the total market
size of UC that was
an extremely complicated
networking scenario. It
flexible pegged at $670 million also increases the cost
enough to in 2008 is expected to significantly.
accommodate cross $1 billion mark in
2010. While enterprise
A better approach is
to identify pain points by
the IP telephony holds the addressing areas that can
evolutionary major chunk of the total, help derive maximum
changeS components like tele-
presence, conferencing,
benefits. Implement UC
in such areas initially.
mobility and collaboration make up for However, it is important to note that the
around 10%. architecture of UC is still evolving, and
therefore, the implementation should
modUlaR appRoaCh be flexible enough to accommodate the
The real challenge comes in consolidating evolutionary trends.
The indian UC market is voice, video and data onto a single net- Network performance, security,
$1bn
projected to reach work. In this context, it’s important to first reliability and ease of usage have to be
analyse if the existing corporate network thoroughly tested before rolling out the
is ready to deal with the proposed deploy- solution. A modular approach can help IT
ment. managers identify issues at an early stage
The deployment needs to be a highly and solve them.
tailor-made process and demands an Also, avoid getting into a vendor lock-in
by 2010, up from $670 effective strategy that should be based situation by implementing proprietary
on the current and future business solutions. When moving to a new
million in 2008
requirements. application, it is always a good idea to
SoUrcE: FroST & SUllIvan
IT managers must record users’ conduct pre-deployment testing.
behaviour and business processes before
finalising a UC solution. It is important the bottleneCKS
to understand that since no single While UC proposes a number of offerings
solution has the capability to fit all user to enterprises, issues such as too many
requirements, it is advisable to choose from devices, too many platforms, non-avail-
the components that a particular solution ability of bandwidth, and unavailability of
or vendor offers. standards often come in the way of a full-
However, if you are building a multi- blown UC deployment.
vendor UC solution, monitoring of tools Enterprises also face the challenge
becomes all the more critical. Also, of defining the collaboration needs
monitoring solutions are not a core across the organisation. Every worker,
34 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

41. Unified CommUniCations | insight
Checklist to be addressed. VoIP termination related
avoid
issues, especially with regard to PSTN, are
l make a blueprint of the critical com- a deterring factor. integrating
munication needs of the organisation
unified
l Determine the rate of change and the
capabilities required
VendoR landSCape
Many vendors are now aiming at delivering
communication
l list out the long-term benefits that fully hosted UC solutions with the capabili- applicationS
you want to achieve from the solution ties of providing the same user experience with corporate
l Identify the best suited Uc compo-
as the on-premise converged office solution.
Cisco has added Manager 8.0 Session
wide area
nents that gives you quickest roI
to its basket recently. This version of Cisco network
l ascertain how the options will inte-
grate with the current infrastructure
UC manager provides aggregation services during the
l Evaluate if the existing resources can
for legacy PBXs, devices, and applications.
It provides connectivity to fixed and
deployment
be managed to meet Sla require- mobile carriers via SIP trunks and allows Stage
ments customers to rapidly deploy UC and new
l Evaluate and compare vendors’ exper- collaboration applications cost-effectively.
tise and new technology offerings The company has also forayed into
l conduct pre-Uc deployment testing enterprise social software to furnish
enterprise-ready tools to connect people
l communicate with employees and or-
and provide integrated experiences
ganise a training session to make them
with policy, security, scale and real-time
familiar with the new technology
communications. These can be integrated
with the UC solutions as well.
Avaya’s One-X Unified Access Suite of
department and a group have their applications is also an interesting solution
own set of mechanisms through which to watch out for. It provides access to
they collaborate and they are far from business communication tools in both real-
homogeneous. For instance, what might time and non-real time environments.
be a meaningful collaborative model may For Datacraft, integration of unified
not be an ideal model for the editorial communications with third party
department of any media organisation. applications is the latest technology addition.
Similarly, while few groups prefer face In the contact centre space, Sify has
to face interactions, others prefer tools like introduced UC as a service. The solution
Skype or Yammer to interact. Therefore, is integrated with the customer business
it is nearly impossible to meet the user process or systems like the CRM, marketing
requirements through a common UC campaign, database integration, and
solution. computer telephony integration. It uses
For an IT manager, it is vital to take a a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for
pre deployment survey to understand delivery, which does away with the need for
the collaboration requirement of each an upfront capital expenditure (capex).
department or a group of users. The For enterprises looking to evolve their
answers of 4W’s and 1H—who, when, what, voice communications, Business Octane
why and how—needs to be noted before offers audio teleconferencing solutions
deploying any new tools or solutions. like Altra Clarity and Xtra Clarity. These
The overall strategy should revolve promise high-end audio conferencing
around the applications enabled by UC capabilities for enterprises.
technology, collaboration and knowledge UC can help enterprises proactively
ReSoURCeS
sharing. It is critical to evaluate the connect with customers for information
collaboration needs of each business and insights. Components like IM and Building competitive advantage
http://uc.att.com/regain_momentum/
department before making any roadmap. presence can be used to seamlessly connect slides/fs_whitepaper.pdf
Another bottleneck is the low customers to domain experts for real-time
Building UC strategy
penetration of Voice over Internet resolutions. http://www.adobe.com/products/
acrobatconnectpro/webconferencing/
Protocol (VoIP) that is a cornerstone of pdfs/connectpro_unifiedcommwhite-
UC. There still are regulatory limitations Editorial coordination: Jatinder Singh paper_1_09.pdf
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 35

42. Green IT
Problem
slayer!
Green it can be used to save
substantial power cost, meet corporate
environmental responsibilities, and to stay
prepared for aligning with the compliance
requirements when they kick in
kar, GM—
il shan Tec
an h In K
f V
ra
ra
s
ng
tru
an
ctu
than
re, Shoppers Stop
—IT , Sr GM
,B
ran
d
satis
Ho
um ar D, Chief M hm us
yK an ah
er
ja ag aj
Vi
etail
er s
an
—
IT
,H
,T
ead
he
IT (In
H im alaya Drug C
frastruc
res tu
om
),
p
ra
an
y ym
on
d
36 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

43. Green IT | insight
One of the tasks of Hercules, in ancient Greek mythology, was to kill the
eDitor’s 9-headed serpent-like beast Lernaean Hydra. The Greek hero apparently
note
was stumped by the fact that every time he chopped one of its head two
more grew back in place. Finally, he devised a workaround to slay the
Hydra.
Today’s IT manager has to deal with a many-headed serpent of a different genre—inefficient use
of IT resources that has come to plague organisations in a monstrous way. Concerns range from
low server utilisation to HVAC issues in the data centre, and even the cumulative power consumed
by desktops, that often remain switched on for days in a row.
In fact, if one were to list down the most used buzzwords in tech circles today, green IT will surely
find a prominent place. moreover, after the onset of the economic crisis, green’s role and relevance has
expanded beyond environmental and ecological concerns of organisations.
The slowdown has made more and more organisations wake up to the financial benefits of deploying
green IT. Green’s return on investment is not only substantial, it is measureable too, something that cFOs
like very well.
40
The pre-slowdown resistance to green IT is melting away fast. over
green is soon going to be the norm rather than
an exception.
An organisations’ journey to green will ideally
systems in the organisation.
This way of profiling will also help
in creating a green policy, which can employees keep their Pcs
%
begin with evaluating how brown it is. While the then be shared with the employees on standby mode when
data centres and assembly-line systems are the as their involvement is sought to leaving for home
known devils when it comes to gobbling power, the make a green strategy successful in the
seemingly innocuous desktops are no saints either. organisation.
It is important to put a mechanism in place
to measure power consumption by functional Green is mainstream
departments or by IT sub-systems, or even While vendors had already started promoting
better by both. Power-spend patterns for these green IT before the economic crisis took the
can then be ascertained for monthly cycles, and world by surprise, the cost of deploying it was
subsequently for quarterly cycles. then considerably high. The crisis therefore
In other words, the idea is to prepare derailed much of the green initiatives across
energy profiles of various IT components and enterprises.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 37

44. insight | Green IT
Quick take
The total carbon footprint of the ICT sec-
tor—including personal computers (PCs),
peripherals, telecoms networks and devices,
and data centres—was 830 mt co2e, about
2% of the estimated total emissions from
human activity released in 2007
EncouragE
usErs to switch
off thEir Pcs A good market development is that the candidates for initiation. A simple step
whEn lEaving cost of deploying green IT has come down
significantly from the earlier levels, as IT
of activating the power management on
a PC will make a big difference. Further,
from work. this vendors now ship green IT more in the users should be encouraged to switch off
will crEatE mainstream than in a niche. their PCs when leaving from work. This
usEr lEvEl IT managers can use the opportunity
to achieve green-readiness, perhaps
will help create awareness at the user level
across the organisation.
awarEnEss before compliance requirements make it The next stop can be the data centre,
across thE mandatory to have a certain level of green where interestingly, the bulk of the
organisation IT in the enterprise.
Yes, sooner than later, environmental
expenses are not on processing of
the information but on cooling of the
standards will be defined which will lead to equipment deployed. Cooling is about
making deployment of green IT mandatory 60% of the power costs in a data centre
in the enterprise, at least partially. In such because of generally high inefficiency
50
a scenario, a ‘green’ enterprise will surely levels. A way to go green here is to carry
nearly have some instant competitive advantage. out virtualisation and consolidation, which
There are already live examples where will not only save power costs directly but
companies in India, also through reduced
merely by realigning u s age. Imp r ov i n g
%
their systems have started ventilation and air flow
drawing measurable across the data centre will
benefits under their also help bring down the
of power used by most Clean Development cooling requirements and
computers is wasted as Mechanism (CDM) costs considerably.
heat jettisoned by fans initiatives. Some of the
well-known companies builDinG a case
who have implemented for Green
projects as per CDM One of the challenges
guidelines include faced by IT managers is
Gujarat Ambuja Cement, to convince top manage-
Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, and Indian Rayon ment about the benefits of going green. Just
& Industries. talking about return on investment doesn’t
cut much ice here. It important to list down
taKinG the initial stePs the foreseeable cost savings, the measures
Good deeds begin in small packets, they that will be used to calculate the benefits,
say. Likewise, when it comes to the imple- and the timeframe in which the cost of
mentation of a green policy, PCs are ideal green IT will be recovered. If benefits
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45. Green IT | insight
Managing enterprise e-waste thE biggEst
India faces a mounting problem of e-waste with only 5% of it being managed by author- nightmarE for
ised recycling agencies. The rest is treated by the informal sector. according to maIT, over any it managEr
94% of organisations in the country do not have a policy on how to dispose obsolete IT
products and e-waste. here is what you can do to deal with the problem
is to figurE out
extend hardware life: another way managing e-waste is to extend the life of IT
what to do with
hardware. This reduces the demand for new hardware and amortizes the environmental thE EquiPmEnts
impact of manufacturing over a longer period. that wErE not
Donate it: charity and re-marketing could prove an effective strategy for reducing the dEsignEd with
volume of e-waste getting into the informal recycling sector. however, make sure that the grEEn it in mind
products and equipments that you plan to donate are in good working condition. Do not
donate junk.
work with authorised recyclers: Lot of vendors these days offer buy back recycling
facility. So, be sure to check the same before you sign on any new hardware procurement
deal. For the existing IT assets, deal only with authorised recycling agencies.
are listed by way of comparison with the right set of green IT requirements suited
‘brown’ IT, it will facilitate quicker decision to their organisations so that they can
making and approval of green IT budgets. float an effective request for proposal that
Excepting greenfield scenarios, a specifies the green specifications clearly
phased approach to green IT deployment and firmly. This will rule out the possibility
is recommended. It’s neither advisable nor of vendors trying to push products that
required to deploy green IT by ripping off have a green marketing exterior basis just
existing systems that have not completed a few parameters but fall short on a green
their usual lifecycles, as that will lead to a standard’s set of parameters.
sudden peak in e-waste generation and will The biggest nightmare for any IT
defeat the very purpose of going green. manager, however, is to figure out what
It is also recommended that IT managers to do with the equipments that were not
identify pockets where green IT will lead designed with Green IT in mind. While
to quick and measurable returns, and use the pace of information dissemination for
those as success studies to pitch for wider- a greener planet has gained ground of late,
scale deployments. These smaller projects the IT equipments were not designed to
will also serve as pilots that provide the meet the green planet initiative standards.
insight and experience for larger green So, what does an IT manager do with
projects. these equipments? A bigger task at hand
is to convince the management to junk
beware of browns these equipments and ask for fresh IT
Another major challenge faced by IT man- investments.
agers lies in a confusing plenitude of ven- It is also important for the IT manager to
dors and products, as there are a number of sensitise the management on the economic
companies eager to sell their wares under benefits of phasing out these equipments
the garb of green. Right from servers to that are most often power guzzlers. IT
networking cable, everything is painted managers also need to identify vendors resources
green these days. In such a scenario, it is who are designing green products, and White paper on reducing energy
mighty difficult for an IT manager to make need to work towards framing policies usage
http://download.intel.com/it/pdf/
a choice, let alone make a right choice. for managing enterprise eWaste. Keeping reducing_Energy_Use_In_Offices.pdf
A way out of this jumble is to pay abreast with best Green IT practice is
How IT management can ‘Green’ the
attention to the details and to stay informed another challenge they face. data center
http://download3.vmware.com/elq/
about the developments in the area of green pdf/2530_how_IT_management_
IT. This will help IT managers identify the Editorial coordination: Shashwat Dc can_Green_the_Data_center.pdf
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 39

46. Private Cloud
Gated
computinG
if you can’t dump the existing it
infrastructure and jump onto the public
cloud bandwagon, private cloud is just the right
answer for you
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40 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

47. Private Cloud | insight
It took a long time for the term “cloud computing” to be reasonably de-
editor’s mystified, though pockets of ambiguities still remain. And then we started
note
hearing of various classifications of the cloud--public clouds, private
clouds and hybrid clouds. (Public cloud is nothing but the infrastructure
powering the Internet itself.)
There is significant haze surrounding the private cloud, the misuse of which has caused much
confusion among the IT manager fraternity. Well, to use an analogy, a private cloud is to a public
cloud what an intranet is to the Internet.
Again, remember the days when every organisation rushed to deploy an intranet of its own? Like-
wise, today organisations are deploying private clouds on the lines of the public cloud. There are
benefits, and yes, there are limitations too!
There is no frenzy of the intranet phase to be seen, as the IT usage is much mature now. Typically, only
organisation that are fairly large and have a sizable IT infrastructure to be leveraged will be among the
early adopters. The other reason to do so is that a private cloud generally sits atop a virtualised infra-
5
structure. hence, organisations that are high on the virtualisation implementation curve are the ones
that are more suited for private cloud deployment.
in many ways the very term Private Cloud is within the enterprise.
Only %
a misnomer of sorts, as when you talk of cloud So is private cloud all hype, no companies currently rely
computing it often refers to computing resources substance? Indeed not. solely on cloud computing
over the Internet. But private cloud essentially Many enterprises, particularly the technologies for their IT needs
means a caged cloud infrastructure within bigger ones that were keen to go on
the enterprise itself. Usually, private clouds the cloud and make use of the scalable Source: KelTon reSearch, 2009
are virtualised architectures existing within infrastructure and adaptability but were
private data centres, though varying greatly in unable to do so because of their existing
configuration and usage of technologies. As of investments, are finding private cloud a good
now, there is no fixed definition or standard for starting point. Usually for banks and telcos that
private clouds. are vary of hosting their data on public space, the
Newer advances in virtualisation and private cloud is a good starting point.
distributed computing have allowed data centre Since, private cloud is configured to function
administrators to effectively become service behind a firewall, the procedures to deal with
providers that meet the needs of their customers disparate data becomes much easier. Also, the
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 41

48. insight | Private Cloud
fact that the IT manager no longer has to on-premise infrastructure. That is also
depend on Internet connection to be able to not the case with private clouds, as much
process the data only makes the task all the of the infrastructure still exists within the
more easier and streamlined. enterprise itself. However, a big benefit
When compared to public clouds, here can be in terms of operating hassles
private cloud is definitely more secure and being taken over by a third-party provider.
robust since the data in this case resides
in the data centre within the organisation How about scalability?
itself. Thus, there is an additional layer of Another attraction of the public cloud is
Building a security that can be ensured for the same. the high degree of scalability it offers. For
private cloud The other big thing that seems to be instance, enterprises are able to expand
environment working in the favour of cloud computing
is the ability to run multiple OS almost
and contract the computing resource allo-
cation dynamically through a dashboard
is not merely a without a hassle. based on their changing
technological However, the best thing or seasonal requirements.
event; it about cloud computing
is the ability to be better
So a sudden spike in
demand can easily be met
changes prepared for the troughs with a few clicks and the
management and crest in the demand computing bandwidth is
processes, for computing.
Yet, the challenges
increased.
While private cloud
organisational of going on the cloud operators do promise
culture, and remain, irrespective of that its scalability will
relationships whether it is public or
private.
be equally dynamic, that
is usually not the case.
with Business Since these private clouds exist behind
partners is it cost advantaGeous? enterprise firewalls, any increase or
The biggest attraction of going on the cloud decrease in resources is not so seamless.
has always been the low costs associated Also, the private cloud is further limited
with the paradigm. With the provision- by the scalability provided by the vendor,
ing of computing power and resources so an expansion will be only as hassle-free
remotely, companies are able to scale as the provisioning the vendor has done
down their capital expenditures signifi- towards that end.
cloud services cantly. Indeed, cloud computing has came
market to touch
150bn
as a panacea to the smaller organisations can implementation be cHal-
that are keen to expand but are not able to lenGinG?
because of financial considerations. Conceptually, a private cloud will look
But the private cloud is a lot different great on paper, but it is much more complex
$ than the public cloud, especially when it
comes to capital expenditure (capex). It
is certainly not cheap, mainly because it
a task to make it a reality in the organisa-
tion. IT managers really need to work hard
to make it work, and the problem increases
in 2013, up from
is owned and operated by the enterprise manifold if they have huge legacy infra-
$46.4 billion in
itself. Also, other benefits of scalability structure in place. The biggest obstacle
2008 and access to various resources that an arises due to lack of system management
Source: GarTner, Feb 2010 organisation can accrue from going on the tools that can synchronise the data centre
cloud are not there of the same magnitude functions with that of the cloud. Usually,
and flexibility. While, a private cloud virtualisation software provides an easy
implementation lowers the cost somewhat dashboard for quicker management, but
while operating the same infrastructure, it that is not enough for an effective integra-
is no where compared to the public cloud tion.
cost advantages. For the private cloud to be really
Most significantly, by going onto effective, the IT manager needs to create
the public cloud, companies benefit a checklist of all the functions and then
significantly in terms of the real- automate. And finally, one must remember
estate gains made by doing away with that while private clouds are more secure
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49. Private Cloud | insight
Creating a private cloud though private
While conceptually private cloud might look great on paper, there is lot of complexity in mak-
clouds are
ing that a reality. IT managers really need to work hard to make it work, and the problem more secure,
increases manifold if they have huge legacy infrastructure in place. The biggest obstacle there is a need
arises due to lack of system management tools that can synchronise the data centre func-
tions to that of the cloud. usually, virtualisation software provides an easy dashboard for
for proper
quicker management, but that is no piece of software that could effectively integrate the attention
hybrid infrastructure. for managing
also for the private cloud to be really effective, the IT manager needs to create a checklist compliance,
of all the functions and then need to automate. and finally, one must remember that while software
private clouds are more secure than the public ones, the issues and challenges of privacy and
compliance remain the same.
licensing and
hence, proper attention needs to be paid to issues likes compliance and regulatory issues,
sla issues
software licensing, availability, scalability, service-level agreements (Slas) and employee
satisfaction. The best way to tackle the issue is a piece-meal approach, wherein the infra-
structure is upgraded in a phase-wise manner. This will help the IT manager gain confidence
over the new technology and also limit any disruption and disturbance that might crop up
during the transformation.
than the public ones, the issues and be difficult to break, so the SLAs should
challenges of privacy and compliance be designed in a way that is mutually
don’t just melt away. In particular, proper beneficial--and binding too--for both the
attention needs to be paid to compliance parties. The fact that most of the private
and regulatory issues, software licensing, cloud service providers are also hardware
availability, scalability, service-level and application vendors, the agreements
agreements and user experience. typically tend to tie you down to a single
The best way to tackle the issue is a piece- platform. So it is important to exercise due
meal approach, wherein the infrastructure caution before putting the final ink on the
is upgraded in a phased manner. This will agreement document.
help the IT manager to gain confidence Building a private cloud computing
over the new technology and also limit any environment is not merely a technological
disruptions that commonly crop up during event; it also changes management
the transformation. processes, organisational culture, and
relationships with business partners and
will switcHinG tHe provider customers. Therefore, the private cloud
cause niGHtmare? approach needs to be very holistic to make
Another big headache for the IT manager it easier for the enterprise to make good
is in terms of defining service levels with ‘cloudsourcing’ decisions.
the vendor or making any changes in case In the days to come, private cloud
of dissatisfaction. Even in a public cloud services will be a stepping stone to
environment, changing a vendor can be a public cloud services and. It will also be
nerve wrecking experience. This is because reasonable for some organisations to use
porting data from one cloud to another can both private and public cloud resources resources
be very cumbersome, especially since most in a hybrid manner. As analysts have
Cloud ready network architecture
of these clouds are not interoperable. The also point out, for many large enterprises, http://www.bladenetwork.net/
scenario is more or less the same when it private cloud services will be required for userfiles/file/0210a290b9d59d40-
WP_cloud-ready_network_archi-
comes to private clouds as well. many years, perhaps decades, while public tecture.pdf
In the case of a private cloud, the client cloud offerings get mature--and secure
Busting nine cloud computing myths
is tied up with one vendor, who has enough. http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-
computing/busting-nine-myths-
committed resources and infrastructure cloud-computing-260?page=0,1
based on the agreement. This tie-up can editorial coordination: Shashwat Dc
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 43

50. XaaS
early
Days?
Pockets of maturity and reliability do exist,
but commonplace support in terms of SLAs
is still a missing feature, and it is difficult to
measure and implement too
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44 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

51. XaaS | insight
First a chicken-and-egg question: did the concept that initially start off
eDitOr’s with software-as-a-service catch the fancy of an e-commerce behemoth
nOte
like Amazon, which saw an opportunity in offering its spare server capac-
ity as a Web service, on a pay-per-use basis?
Or, was it the other way round—the onset of Web services led to experiments
in SaaS? (After all, it’s the Internet that made such concepts thinkable in the first place.) Whichever
is true, the concept has really taken off such that the markets are abuzz with phrases like software-
as-a-service, hardware-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, and so on.
Indeed, the era of everything-as-a-service—XaaS—has begun!
From IT managers’ perspective, issues like connectivity and reliability often tend to push XaaS aside in
favour of traditional on-device licenses. moreover, since XaaS is often delivered over the cloud, it would be
difficult to form service level agreements that don’t have elements of haze built-in, which is something IT
managers would certainly not appreciate, and rightly so.
For now, it will be safe to stay with those XaaS offerings that have matured and have received favour-
58
able feedback from user organisations, especially when it comes to deploying enterprise-wide applica-
tions that need a high uptime.
organisations will maintain
%
An immediate question that comes to mind is mature SaaS as a concept in a clearly
current levels of SaaS in next
while talking about data centre transformation is demonstrative manner. In fact, web
two years, while 32% will
why 3.x, particularly when enterprises are yet to mail service providers already have
substantial revenue streams coming
expand, and 5% each will
fully transform into 2.0 entities. While there can
be multiple answers to the question, the simplest by way of powering e-mail services of
discontinue and decrease
one will be that a 3.0 data centre will provide a some very large enterprises. levels
Source: GarTner
necessary foundation on which a 2.0 enterprise A discussion on XaaS would be
can be built. best initiated and the developments best
As is common to all new technologies, various exemplified with the mention of two pioneers:
XaaS offerings have shown varying degrees of Salesforce.com and Amazon.
maturity and robustness, though the early Salesforce.com is undoubtedly regarded as a
teething problems seem to be over and behind. SaaS leader, with its pronounced focus on CRM.
The web mail services, which individual The company is now also firmly positioned in
users and smaller organisations are already other XaaS categories such as platform-as-a-
familiar and comfortable with, helped test and service.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 45

52. insight | XaaS
amazOn s3: simPle The service has been built to fulfil
stOraGe serviCe the following design requirements
Scalability It can scale in terms of storage, request rates, and support for an
unlimited number of web-scale applications. It uses scale as an
advantage: Adding nodes to the system increases its availability, speed,
throughput, capacity, and robustness.
Reliability It can store data durably, with 99.99% availability, with no single points
of failure. All failures are to be tolerated or repaired by the system
without any downtime.
Speed The service is built to be fast enough to support high-performance
applications, with server-side latency being insignificant relative to
Economic
Internet latency. Any performance bottlenecks are fixed by simply
slowdown has adding nodes to the system.
promptEd EvEn
Cost-effective Amazon S3 is built from inexpensive commodity hardware components.
traditional
As a result, frequent node failure is the norm and is not likely to
vEndors to
ADAPTED, SouR cE: WWW.AMAzon.coM
affect the overall system. It is aimed at being hardware-agnostic,
comE up with so that savings can be captured as Amazon continues to drive down
diffErEnt infrastructure costs.
forms of pay- Simplicity Building highly scalable, reliable, fast, and inexpensive storage is
pEr-usE options difficult. The S3 service aims to do it in a way that makes it easy to use
for any application anywhere.
Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) product or the license, it has seen a rapid
is among the best known, which according embracement by enterprise over the past
to Amazon, is a web service that provides couple of years, given the constraints posed
The Caas market is resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It by the sudden economic crisis.
2.3bn
estimated to touch is designed to make web-scale computing However, it is important not to consider
easier for developers. pay-per-use and XaaS
EC2 can be used as inseparable concepts.
$
in conjunction with In fact, pay-per-use
Amazon Simple Storage was employed by XaaS
Service (S3), which providers more as a
by 2011, up from is web-based storage matter of strategy than
$251.9 mn in 2007 service, as also with a compulsion. Economic
Amazon SimpleDB and slowdown has prompted
Source: GarTner
Amazon Simple Queue even traditional vendors
Service (Amazon SQS) to come up with different
to provide a complete forms of pay-per-use
solution for computing, options... for that matter,
query processing and XaaS itself can be a
storage across a wide range of applications. viewed as a delivery strategy, which has
Benefits and considerations worked so well that it’s now set to become
The most important benefit of XaaS lies the new paradigm.
in the associated pay-as-you-use model, The pay-per-use model, however,
which allows user organisations to avail the is not something even XaaS vendors
IT product or facility without committing may necessarily hold on to under all
an upfront expense for procuring the circumstances. A contract pricing for
46 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

53. XaaS | insight
Embracing SaaS Xaas can bE a
For any given application or function, you can determine your SaaS readiness by plotting good bEt whEn
your organization’s needs and expectations on each continuum, using the below Figure as nEw softwarE
a guide.
or solutions
ing tra DitiO nal “ P u r e ” sa as
for non-corE
Lic
ens
functions arE
owenership/per-
petual license
flat free
subscription
Metered subscription
bEing tEstEd,
ion
Lo c
at
as it lowErs
on-premise Appliance Internet “cloud” costs and risks
ma
na
gem
ent
in thE EvEnt of a
corporate IT Application service
provider (ASP)
Service level
agreement
failurE
(SLA)
each continuum can be subdivided into three segments, representing traditional, SaaS,
and hybrid approaches.
If you mark all three segments in the rightmost column, you’re ready to explore making
the move to SaaS. marking all three segments in the leftmost column means you should
probably stick with a traditional on-premise solution for this application. any other combi-
nation suggests that a hybrid approach might be appropriate; explore the marketplace to
ABRIDG ED, S o uRcE: HTTP://MSD n.MIcRoSofT.coM/En-uS/ LIBRARy/AA905332. ASPX
see if you can identify any solutions that are right for you.
Finding the right place on each continuum involves taking a number of considerations into
account:
Political considerations: Sometimes, the decision can be short-circuited by resistance
from within an organization. Test-drive deployments might sometimes help convince risk-
averse managers to approve pilot projects.
technical considerations: If an important application requires specialized technical
knowledge to operate and support, or requires customization that a SaaS vendor cannot
offer, it might not be possible to pursue a SaaS solution for the application.
Financial considerations: Factors that can affect the Tco of a SaaS application include the
number of licensed users; the amount of custom configuration you will have to perform to
integrate the SaaS application with your infrastructure; and whether your existing data centres
already provide economy of scale, thereby reducing the potential cost savings of SaaS.
legal considerations: Some industries are subject to regulatory law in different parts
of the world, which imposes various reporting and recordkeeping requirements that your
potential SaaS solution candidates cannot satisfy.
XaaS is very much possible and may be idea to look for success studies and robust
applied for the benefit of both the buyer proofs of concepts when evaluating a XaaS
and the vendor in instances of large user offering.
organisations. It is also important to explore the
resOurCes
XaaS can be a good bet when matured possibility of entering into service level
and proven offerings are being considered. agreements with XaaS vendors and service Linking SaaS software pricing to
value
It is also worth considering when new providers, wherever possible, as it will http://www.readwriteweb.com/enter-
software or solutions for non-core make the vendor more answerable in cases prise/2009/01/linking-saas-software-
pricing-to-value.php
functions are being tested, as it lowers costs of outage or other such failures.
SaaS architecture maturity model
and risks in the event of a failure. For other http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/02/
staple application areas, it’s always a good editorial coordination: Deepak Kumar saas-architecture-maturity-model
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 47

54. Social Media
beyond
emails! social media is naturally suited
to the communication needs of
a flat 2.0 world, and harnessing
it will provide the much needed
competitive edge to the enterprises
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48 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

55. Social Media | insight
One would still remember that not many years ago, paper documents formed
editor’s the staple life of businesses, as well as IT departments in enterprises. While
note
the hard copy has not yet been done away with, and although the paperless
office remains an elusive entity, one can’t stop wondering why IT and business
functions shouldn’t move uninterrupted without the hard copy.
That’s because today’s IT managers—and even their peers in other functional departments—
by virtue of their respective professional exposures in the years gone by, now belong to the
e-mail generation.
Indeed, e-mail is the primary mode for written communication today, having long ago displaced
hard-copy letters from the position.
But if, as the cliché goes, change is the only constant, then the primary mode of written communication
will also change once again, in favour of yet another mode that is probably superior, more flexible and can
be accompanied by more features.
True, just as organisations would have found it hard to function without the hard copy barely a decade-
and-a-half ago, they won’t be able to imagine a world without the e-mail today. Similarly, whether you
like it or not, social networking tools have already started to lead the way for yet another genera-
tional shift in the way enterprises communicate.
53,000
people use IBm’s internal so-
cial media tool SocialBlue
SoURce: SocialM ediaexaMiNeR.co M
the good old e-mail was organisations’ first tryst The shift to the 2.0 enterprise is not
with digitised communication and is currently a in isolation; it’s driven by the needs of
flagship representation of Communication 1.0 in a new generation consumers and users,
enterprises, which themselves are transitioning to increasingly empowered by a rapidly flattening
the next level, in terms of their structure, dynamics world… after all, the celebrated author Thomas
and the go-to-market approach. Friedman did say in 2005 that “the world is flat”.
Communication 2.0—comprising social That organisations are made of people is truer
networking tools, Wikis, blogs and micro in this flattening world. Equally true is the fact
blogs, collaboration tools, and unified that organisations need to be dynamic in order
communication—is slated to become an integral to succeed and survive in this world.
part of the new enterprise. Dynamic organisations will also need—and
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56. insight | Social Media
What Gartner says...
The five key predictions for social networking software
by 2014, social doing, to get quick answers and collaboration anytime
1 networking to questions and so on. anywhere, Gartner expects
services will through 2012, more end users to spend
replace e-mail as the pri- 3 over 70% of it- significant time experienc-
mary vehicle for interper- dominated social ing the collaborative tools
sonal communications for media initiatives will fail. on these devices. For some
20% of business users. When it comes to col- parts of the world, these
Social network Greater availability of
social networking services
laboration, IT organisations
are accustomed to providing
will be the first or the only
applications they use. The
analySiS iS a both inside and outside the a technology platform (such experience with these tools
uSeful way of firewall, coupled with chang- as, e-mail, Im, web confer- will enable the user to han-
examining the ing demographics and work
styles will lead 20% of users
encing) rather than deliver-
ing a social solution that
dle far more conversation
within a given time than their
interaction to make social network targets specific business Pcs simply because they are
pattern of the hub of their business value. Through 2013, IT easier to use. Just as the
people and communications. During the
next several years, most
organisations will struggle
with shifting from providing a
iPhone impacted user inter-
face design on the desktop,
groupS, aS companies will be build platform to delivering a solu- the lessons in the mobile
well aS that internal social networks tion. This will result in over a phone collaboration space
of buSineSS and/or allow business use
of personal social network
70% failure rate in IT-driven
social media initiatives.
will dramatically affect Pc
applications, many of which
partnerS and accounts. Social network- are derivatives of decades-
cuStomerS ing will prove to be more old platforms based on
effective than e-mail for the PBX or other older
certain business activities collaboration paradigm.
such as status updates through 2015, only
and expertise location. 25% of enterprises will
by 2012, over routinely utilise social
2 50% of enter- network analy-
Cisco systems’ prises will use 5 sis to improve
twitter page has more than activity streams that performance
23,000
include micro-blogging, and productivity.
but stand-alone enter- Social network analysis
prise micro-blogging is a useful way of examin-
followers, while the com- will have less than 5% Fifty percent of business-led ing the interaction pattern
penetration. social media initiatives will of people and groups in an
pany’s CTO Padmasree
1.4
The huge popularity of the succeed, versus 20% of IT- organisation, as well as that
Warrior has
consumer micro-blogging driven initiatives. of business partners and
more than service Twitter, has led many Within five years, 70% of customers. however, when
Million organisations to look for an
4
collaboration surveys are used for data
followers “enterprise Twitter”, that can and communica- collection, users may be
provide micro-blogging func- tions applica- reluctant to provide accurate
tionality with more control tions designed on PCs will responses. When automated
and security features to sup- be modelled after user tools perform the analysis,
port internal use between experience lessons from users may resent knowing
employees. Enterprise users smart phone collabora- that software is analysing
want to use micro-blogging tion applications. their behaviour. For these
for many of the same rea- as we move toward three reasons, social network
sons that consumers do: to billion phones in the world, analysis will remain an
share quick insights, to keep serving the main purpose of untapped source of insight in
up with what colleagues are providing communications most organisations.
50 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

57. Social Media | insight
The future is social it’S not the
With companies around the world starting to experiment with social media
technologybut
tools, Forrester research predicts that the biggest gainers will be the tools the cultural
like Facebook, myspace and LinkedIn. close on heels will be mashups, and mindSet
which is basically a web page or application that combines data from exter- barrier
nal sources. Enterprises will be using all these tools in a variety of ways to that hinder
reach out to their audience or to get their feedback. effective
EntErprisE 2.0 spEnding (in Us $ million)
implementation
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
of Social
media in an
Social Networking 149 258 437 701 1,063 1,514 1,997
organiSation
RSS 78 120 182 262 357 463 563
Blogs 64 118 201 290 341 355 340
SoURce: FoRR eSTeR ReSeaRcH
Wikis 63 108 177 259 342 w 410 451
Mashups 39 61 98 165 285 458 682
Podcasting 33 50 76 111 158 214 273
Widgets 29 47 75 118 175 250 340
TOTAL 455 762 1,246 1,906 2,721 3,664 4,646
Note: Numbers have been rounded of
be formed of—dynamic people who can imPlement by evangelising
work cohesively as part of makeshift teams The challenges related to implementation of
that are often distributed and increasingly social media software in enterprises that are
global in nature. still very much hierarchal in characteristics
Yes, the ability to reach out to, for can be multiple, but most of them are rooted
example, a domain expert, in case of a in a problem that’s not a technological one.
customer query is important, but even It’s a cultural or mindset barrier that needs
more important is the non-hierarchal to be overcome.
communication structure in the As such, a very different approach to a
organisation that can foster such ad-hoc social media software implementation and
interactions on the fly as the new normal. its success is required. IT managers may
And, guess what? Communication tools benefit the most by playing the role of an
like the traditional e-mail fall obviously evangelist or a change agent.
short of meeting such real-time, flattened It will also be pertinent to identify
communication needs of today’s dynamic champions of social media from various
organisations. The quicker organisations other departments and functions and involve
are able to recognise its arrival, the better them in processes of identifying the right
it is for their makeover into the new mould, kind of social media for the organisation resourCes
and for their competitiveness in a world and their implementation… nothing would
Gartner’s social media predictions
constituted by new dynamics. be better than taking this ‘social’ course to a for 2010 and beyond
IT research firm Gartner, in its February social media implementation. http://www.gartner.com/it/page.
jsp?id=1293114
2010 report has predicted that tools like Such inclusive approach would form
Social media statistics
social networking and micro-blogging a path of least resistance in adoption and http://econsultancy.com/blog/4402-
will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle usage of a suitable social media in the 20+-more-mind-blowing-social-
media-statistics
for communications in future. It also says enterprise. http://www.socialmediatoday.com/
that nearly half of the companies across the SMc/81522
http://bravemedia.com/social-
world will start using micro-blogging tools. Editorial coordination: Deepak Kumar media-statistics-2009
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 51

58. 15minute
training
education
workPlace
AsAnAs
For
stress
mAnAger
Leadership Primer for the aspirants this Page
comPensation relieF Management How to nurture tech teams Page 55
workforce trends Page 5 4
Manage IT 5 simple steps to going open Page 56
skills develoPment
Personal develoPment
By An AnD K u mAr
PA Dm AnA BAn
M
any of us believe that
if we work hard, meet
targets and keep on
delivering results
consistently, we will
be on our way to becoming a true leader.
It would be great, if this was true.
Unfortunately, it is not! So, what do we
need to do besides working hard and
accomplishing our goals?
Here is a list of actionable points that
I have seen many successful people
implement in their career.
Demonstrate honesty, courage
Walking the talk is the key trait to
leadershiP
Dare to
becoming a leader. You need to have the
ability to articulate what you think and
then to execute it as well. Be truthful and
honest to yourself and your employer.
Display positive temperament
Always play positive and hard irrespec-
leaD?
Photo graPhy: Photo s.c om
tive of the state of the market. I have seen
many people demonstrate capabilities
when things go well and struggle when In these days of cut-throat competition,
they don’t.
Then again, I have also seen people
it is tough to become a leader. here is a
failing to handle the risks of exponential primer for the aspirants
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 53

59. 15-MINUte MaNaGer
growth. Learn to balance the tide.
Be all that you can be, influence
others
Simply put, drive your career and
growth by being earnest about your
strengths and areas of improvement
and constantly exploring the unknown
in terms of new projects or career
opportunities. It is always good to seek
feedback from peers and managers, and
strive for self-development, influencing
others in the process.
Involve yourself, communicate office yoga By Dr Naveen arya | aryansclinic@gmail.com
Get involved in all aspects of the work
you do viz, when someone needs help,
Meditate for success
It is important to tame one’s mind to overcome
WHy meditAte?
the stress and strains of the day-to-day work, as
Make sure you helPs reduce stress
Brings Peace of mind
also from flickers of life that may create a work-
know what is im Proves energy level
life imbalance. and the solution lies in medita-
tion. Simply put, meditation is the continuous
happening in the
rel axation PurPose
and effortless flow of attentive awareness
helPs in ProB lem solving
towards achieving concentration. here are some
industry… what im Proves health
tips on how to go about it.
are the trends Where to meditate?
always choose a place that you can use regu-
and how various larly. The place should be simple, clean, calm
external events AsAnA For
and quite. It should be comfortable and free
from any kind of pollution. Ensure that there
influence your meditAtion
l Lotus pose (padam
is enough fresh air and the temperature is
optimum.
workplace asana)
When to meditate?
l accomplished pose
It is necessary to have a fixed time for medita-
(siddha asana)
tion, and going by the Indian conditions, the
when there is a crisis or when there is a l auspicious pose
period between 4 am and 6 am is most suited
situation where no leadership is being (swastikasana)
for it. This two hour, pre-dawn period has the
shown. This will make you stand out. l Easy pose (sukhas-
quintessential stillness and calmness that is
ana)
important for achieving mental bliss.
Live in the present l Thunderbolt pose
Make sure you know what is happening (vajrasana) however, if you cannot wake up early, you can
in the industry you are working in, what still choose a time between 6 am and 12 noon,
are the trends and how external events or 6 pm and 12 midnight. Do remember that the
influence your workplace. Leaders appre- mind during meditation should be like a lamp in
ciate people who are well-informed and a windless place, where even a flame does not
in sync with the developments around. flicker.
Photo graPhy: Jaya n k narayanan
How long to meditate?
Plan for the future
Photo graPhy: Photo s.c om
Stick to your routine and be regular. Beginners
One consequence of failing to live in the
can do well with five to ten minutes of medita-
present is that you risk a setback that
tion each day. You can gradually increase your
you could have anticipated. The fact is,
time by up to 20 minutes.
if it is not in your nature to anticipate, achieve peace of mind
then you normally would not. But you and better health with
The author is a ayurveda and Yoga expert and Director of
should at least try and learn. Those regular meditation ayuvredayogashram.com
54 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

60. 15-MINUte MaNaGer
constantly looking around for trends lenging a new project or assignment will and team has a vision, as a leader, it is
are normally best suited for leadership. be. So, individuals are often reluctant important to assess whether you are
to be associated with an untested idea. doing enough to lead others to achieve
Collaborate and cooperate Showing positive temperament and tak- that vision.
It is surprising how many individu- ing risk at that time demonstrates you are Also, introspect whether you need
als still resist collaboration or sharing not bound by what exists but are open to to work on being a person of character
credit, even though we know how much innovation and trying new things. and setting a good example for others?
more we can achieve when we bring What I have shared with you are key What is your level of enthusiasm and
everyone together to solve a problem, characteristics of a good leader. In fact, as have you learned from past failures?
or celebrate a victory. As teams become you evaluate your own leadership skills, Are you making a commitment to life-
more dispersed, collaboration is manda- try to find out what is it that you need long learning?
tory for leadership. to focus your energies on. You may also Welcome to leadership!
want to find out how influential you are
Show initiative among your peers and team-members. The author is cEO of SurgeForth Technologies
There is no way of knowing how chal- While I am sure each organisation and specialises in hr analytics
A
team management computer diction-
Be a pro,
ary defines geeks in
many ways such as
an individual who
Not a Boss
enjoys computers and
technology; someone who is always
immersed with computers; or a com-
puter expert or enthusiast.
The traditional ways of leadership For the IT manager, it is important
will not work with techies who are to be able to effectively lead a team
of such geeks in an organisation.
talented, hands-on and respect However, leading the geeks requires
leadership skills that are different from
doers, not preachers the leadership approaches taught by
traditional and academic management
By T h ej e nD rA B S consultants and books.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 55

61. 15-MINUte MaNaGer
manage it So what is so unique and different
5 siMple steps about leading geeks? This article
describes five important tips that IT
to GoiNG opeN managers must keep in mind, when
taking up a leadership role.
Accept them as peers: It is important
to acknowledge and accept that many
of the techies you are supposed to lead
are often smarter and more talented
than you. Also, many of the techies
you lead, whether you like it or not, are
technology leaders in their own right.
Hence, first switch off all intimidating
components of a boss-subordinate
behaviour. They are a clear turn off. For
example, do not use usually irritating
statements like, “don’t come to me with
problems, come to me with solutions,”
or “I know the solution, but I want
to hear it from you,” or “show me the
is the fear of complexity holding you back from go- business value.”
Speak their language: You can earn
ing open (source)? here is a five-step guide to get you
the respect of your team members only
inducted in the ‘open world’ without any hassles.
if you are able to converse with them
in the language they use. You may be a
try openoffice suite: The first step is to download the OpenOffice good and kind person, but if you lack
1 Suite from openoffice.org. It has a word processor, spreadsheet, the required knowledge and advisory
a presenter (akin to PowerPoint), an illustrator, and a database manager. skills to coach, mentor and supervise,
alternatively, if you only need a word processor and spreadsheet applica- you can agitate and de-motivate your
tion, abiWord is a fast and lightweight word processor and Gnumeric is its team members. Lack of knowledge
counterpart spreadsheet program. can often lead to conflicts as you may
make unrealistic demands from your
go for thunderbird: The next in line, is your enterprise mail cli-
2 ent. The most popular option is mozilla Thunderbird that lets you do
subordinates, overload them, or commit
to impractical requests from customers.
almost everything that Outlook did, for free. however, you can also opt for
Soon, it will become an ego conflict
Zimbra, the mail client that supports almost all e-mail providers and even
between the “knowledgeable and the
works on Windows.
clueless.”
surf on a Fox: Start surfing with Firefox, which is a free cross-plat- Constant learning is the key: It
3 form web browser that offers greater privacy and prevents pop-ups, is understandable that a manager
spyware and viruses. It is also customisable to insane degrees. and if speed cannot be expected to have an accurate
is your poison, go for Google chrome, one of the fastest browsers around. knowledge from day one. However, one
must get into deep water to understand
Play open: The best way to learn is to play. While Sauerbraten is an
4 incredibly fast-paced, first person shooter game, Freeciv is an empire-
the nitty-gritty of the work of a new
department, irrespective of one’s
building strategy task inspired by the history of human civilisation. a good
earlier experience. And no matter the
option would be check http://happypenguin.org, the website that tracks games
departments you have managed earlier,
for Linux, most of which are open source, and a good many of which work
there will always be something new
on Windows as well. BZFlag, a multi-player tank game, is the other most
to learn every day to keep abreast of
downloaded game with an active community.
the latest trends and happenings in
go Ubuntu: Once you are comfortable with open source applications, the given industry. You should be able
5 it is good time to walk down the aisle. Ubuntu is one of the most popu- to roll up your sleeves and pitch in if
lar open source desktop OS, which gives a lot of leeway. It lets you double necessary.
boot, so you can skip to a proprietary environment in zippy if you flounder. Avoid switching topics: Many
and you can take the transition at your own pace. So, go online, download managers have the habit of switching
the file, and be happily open! to some other topic just for the sake
56 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

62. 15-MINUte MaNaGer
of disagreeing or proving a point. For learn to steer the topic smoothly towards Reduce formal talkative meetings
example, if techies talk technical stuff, the desired direction. to an absolute minimum. Instead,
many managers switch the topic to Ensure clear communication: This have quick informal meetings with
financial concerns like RoI and business is an extremely important skill that all your team members at their usual
justification. Or, if techies talk costs, techies must learn. The palest ink is haunts like data centres, cabling
then they drop a googly like, “cost is not better than the most retentive memory. rooms or server rooms. That way
you will get to know their ground
realities, practical difficulties,
a chat with the teaM at a data limitations and workloads, rather
than have vague ideas of what they
centre will give you the ground do by reading status reports.
picture, instead of vague ideas Of course, there are heaps of other
best practices that an IT manager must
gained froM status reports learn. However, the above five are a good
beginning in case you are not practicing
them already. Finally, we can summarise
a concern when it comes to customer Learn to put everything in writing in a this article with a quote from Thomas
satisfaction,” to throw them off guard. clear simple language. Instead of giving Watson who said, “A manager is an
In other words, some managers speeches, talking or advising for an assistant to his men.”
disagree for the sake of disagreeing, and hour just summarise what you want
introduce a different viewpoint. Instead, and how you want in a concise e-mail. The author is IT manager at aNZ OTSS
FOrm-IV
statement about ownership and other particulars about newspaper it next to be published in the first issue
every year after the last day of february
Place of Publication : delhi
Periodicity of its Publication : monthly
Printer’s name : vikas guPta
nationality : indian
(a) whether a citizen of india? : yes
(b) if foreigner, the country of origin : not aPPlicaBle
address : k-40, connaught circus, new delhi – 110 001
Publisher’s name : vikas guPta
nationality : indian
(a) whether a citizen of india? : yes
(b) if foreigner, the country of origin : not aPPlicaBle
address : k-40, connaught circus, new delhi – 110 001
editor’s name : vikas guPta
nationality : indian
(a) whether a citizen of india? : yes
(b) if foreigner, the country of origin : not aPPlicaBle
address : k-40, connaught circus, new delhi – 110 001
names and addresses of individuals who own the newspaper and partners or
shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capital
nine dot nine mediaworx Private limited,
k-40, connaught circus, new delhi 110 001
i vikas gupta, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
sd/-
date: 26th february 2010 signature of Publisher
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 57

63. bEsT
pracTicEs c louD co Mputing
it auDit
Data warehou S ing
erp
Dlp
energy e fficiency
cr M
outSourcing
DiSaSter Manage Ment
ven Dor Manage Ment
e nergy efficiency
NEXT
Special c ontribute r S
Sanjeev b erjeS eric rajeSh p rakaSh r n Moorthy, aShok rv, S il ango, Sr ManiS h jain, gaurav viS hwajeet
Sinha, Shroff, aggarwal, it p raDhan, Sr g M-it, jet gM- iS, Manager— it, it Manager, kohli, it Singh, heaD—
Director— it, Manager—it, Manager, Dp heaD— it, airwayS SunDara M aDit ya birl a juxtconSult conSultant, it, fcM travel
epoch expo tata ServiceS jin Dal group jagSonpal cl ay ton group x ebia Solution S
phar Ma- architectS inDia
ceuticalS inD ia
fro M here
Your responses count. log on to
www.itnext.in to submit your replies.
cut it
the best entry will be published in
the next print edition.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 59

64. bEsT pracTicEs
Cloud Computing
Know your
needs, avoid
cloudache
clearly map your enterprise business
objective with the SLas you want, and the
service provider’s capabilities to avoid any
Sanjeev migration pain
Sinha
Director—IT
Epoch Expo clouds are now a mainstream in the enter- Growth: Next, do some hardcore account-
prise space, with ever-new applications and ing. Work out a CAGR assessment of com-
platforms being hosted remotely. Yet, the fact pute, transactional, storage and network
remains that the cloud is about leaving the resources for the next one to three years and
safety and security of a physical server that three to five years and plot a graph as to what
sits within an organisation in favour of third- will be the likely need over the time frames
party machines sitting in unknown locations. under consideration.
The thought can be unnerving for many. Security requirement: Make a note of
With the market getting crowded with a how stringent is the security and privacy
variety of cloud service providers (CSPs), compliance need of your organisation.
choosing the right one is like playing a game For instance, a bank or a pharmaceutical
of Russian roulette. company will have to be very cagey about
As a first step towards gaining clarity, IT putting data in the cloud, while an incense-
managers need to be clear on two basic two stick manufacturer will not be so worried.
aspects—what is the business objective, and Application migration cost: Make a list
what they want from the CSP. Once this is of the legacy applications, both in-house and
done, migrating to the cloud becomes less of standard ones. This will help you evaluate the
a headache. time needed for migration, and the cost.
Nature of business: Evaluate the nature Business transformation agenda: You
of your business—is it computing intensive, need to ask yourself as to what is the medium-
or transaction intensive? You also need to to long-term business transformation agenda.
check if your enterprise is storage intensive What are the new competencies? What sort of
or network intensive. The approach to go on “IT as a strategy capability” is needed?
the cloud could vary based on these factors. Also, what are the tangible and intangible
60 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0

65. bEsT pracTicEs
benefits of the cloud? For example, how much provider should provide adequate “self-care”
management bandwidth will it free? How support and also provide for service lifecycle
much real estate will be unlocked? management. Features such as real-time
Once you are through with the exercise, reporting and application visibility will
take the next step by evaluating the CSP. Do further strengthen the case.
remember to map your requirements and Apart from this, there should be a transparent
expectations with the CSP’s capabilities way of measuring service performance, ideally
and the kind of service level supported by enforceable service
agreements (SLAs) that you level agreements. Another key
want. consideration in selecting a CSP is
the country in which it is located
What DO YOu Want frOm and jurisdiction by which it is
the CSP? covered. Once these concerns have
Strategic capability: These been assessed and reasonably
include the quality of manpower addressed, migrating to the cloud
employed by the cloud service can be much easier and less of a
provider, its partnerships with other industry headache.
players in the cloud ecosystem, patents held Business viability: While the above two
or filed, and membership of technology key factors should influence an IT manager’s
forums and standards bodies. decision, it is equally important to find out the
Portfolio and customer empowerment: kind of brand visibility the CSP enjoys, the
It’s important to see that the CSP has a good track record of its top management team, and
breadth and depth in terms of it offerings, it strategic investors or VCs.
and supports various service needs through Last but not the least, it will help to check
a flexible pricing approach. out independent assessments of the CSPs
Customer empowerment is a very available from reputed market research firms
important aspect of a cloud model. The service like IDC, Gartner, Yankee and Forrester.
it audit
track it, cut
cost
Internal audit can help enterprises view
their IT assets at par with monetary
resources to minimise misuse
BerjeS eric
Shroff
manager—IT it never ceases to amaze me that in spite tive of conducting internal IT audits, let alone
Tata Services
of the widely reported cases of hacking, data think of conducting an external one. This sce-
theft and misuse of company’s IT resources, nario has especially been observed in smaller
many enterprises have not taken the initia- business organisations.
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 61

66. bEsT pracTicEs
First, let us see why smaller organisations tant to point out how IT resources are being
should be concerned about doing an internal wasted or misused and what threats and risks
IT audit. the organisation faces, preferably backed by
IT users in organisations, intentionally statistical data.
or unintentionally, misuse the company’s IT Ideally, all this should be in form of a
resources in terms of bandwidth, Internet written communication, followed by a
usage and what they store on their hard presentation to the management.
drives. Now, just as an organisation will not Once the management gives the go-ahead
like their monetary resources to be misused, for conducting an IT audit, the next step is to
they cannot accept the misuse of their IT convince them to appoint a small IT steering
resources. committee, comprising of senior people, to
The question now arises as to who should oversee the functioning of the IT audit, and
conduct the internal IT audit? If cost and to frame the IT policies and guidelines to be
followed. The internal IT auditor will report
to this committee.
if coSt iS holding you Back aDOPt a frameWOrK
from hiring a SpecialiSt to The next step is to adopt a framework such
audit enterpriSe it aSSetS, as the ISO 27001 standard. This will ensure
that the major areas are addressed by the
Someone of the rank of it internal auditor. Although the current ISO
manager or aBove can fit
27001 standard does not address issues such
as Wi-Fi technology and Green IT, it never-
the Bill theless does not deter a company from includ-
ing additional points in the audit guidelines.
The internal IT auditor will need to be
manpower are not a constraint, then ideally, educated on auditing skills. Ideally, the
there should be a dedicated internal IT audit person should undergo a professional
team or specialist. But what does the IT training such as CISA or the ISO 27001 Lead
department do when either the cost or lack Auditor program. At the same time, it goes
of initiative from the management poses a without saying that upgrading of technical
problem? skills will remain a continuous process.
In such a case, even though it goes against Another important thing that the internal
the basic tenet that a person should not audit IT auditor should be monitoring closely
ones own work, I feel that someone of the is the laws relating to IT. This is generally
rank of an IT manger, or above, should take overlooked, and can lead to serious problems.
the initiative. It is better to conduct an internal
IT audit than carry out no audit at all. DevelOP SOft SKillS
It is important to remember that as an auditor,
Get the manaGement’S buY-in IT managers should not just have an excel-
The first step will obviously be to educate lent understanding of technology, they also
and convince the senior management for need to be a good communicator. In case the
their support. The IT manager will need to IT auditor is unable to communicate clearly
explain the requirements of conducting inter- and effectively with the management and
nal IT audits and its advantages. It’s impor- employees, the audit process is bound to fail.
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67. bEsT pracTicEs
Other soft skills such as leadership and inter- The role of an internal IT auditor can be
personal skills are also important. interesting, yet challenging for the IT manager.
Finally, when it comes to The biggest challenge perhaps will
acquiring software tools for lie in disclosing the true findings
auditing, if the organisation is of an audit to the management in
not willing to invest in licensced such a manner that ultimately
software, there are a plethora it benefits the organisation. If
of free auditing tools available communicated correctly and in
online. The IT manager (now a positive manner, these findings
in the shoes of an internal IT will garner further management
auditor) will need to evaluate support for strengthening the
such tools and deploy the ones that best suit auditing process and curbing the misuse of IT
his organisation’s requirements. resources in the organisation.
ERp
Coordinate, let
others plan
It is a must that all beneficiaries see it
as a tool for better planning of their 3m
resources of man, machine and material
rajeSh
aggarwal
IT manager More often than not, Enterprise Resource organisations plan their 3M resources—
DP Jindal Group
Planning or ERP is seen as a magic stick that man, machine and material—in an effective
can boost an organisation’s profitability. In manner. Given this, the organisation’s top
reality, however, the success of an ERP solu- management should clearly understand what
tion depends on a number of factors that go the solution means for the organisation.
beyond just the technology. To further ensure that the ERP is
In fact, it would be good to remember successfully rolled out, the enterprise needs
that ERP is nothing but a tool that can help to properly define the various functional
procedures. There is also a need to set up a
core team comprising the right set of decision
for erp’S magic to work, it makers and users. Besides, the IT manager
team Should Be the Bridge
should also seek answers to few questions
before embarking on an ERP journey.
among the top BraSS, the l What is the amount that the organisation
is willing to invest?
functional headS and the l How will the company measure the
conSulting team
return on investment (RoI)?
l Is the organisation agile enough to
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Managing non tech challenges
acceptability of new system: Like any other major IT intervention, ErP brings in a cultural
change in the way an organisation and its employees work. however, the decision to create core
teams at the functional level ensures that there is a constant dialogue between the steering com-
mittee members and the validation team. This helps ironing out the acceptability issues better.
non availability of a few core team members: There is a possibility of a few core members leav-
ing midway, while the ErP is still being rolled out. however, if the core functional teams have proper
documentation in place, the project team will still be able to maintain the required continuity.
Gaps between actual functional working and erP methods: There can be instances of big
gaps between actual working in functional departments and the methods available in the ErP sys-
tem. This is where the in-house IT team’s understanding of the organisation’s system helps. The
team can serve as a bridge, and help find a way around.
adapt the massive post-implementation comprising heads of various functional
culture? departments. The team started by evaluating
l How equipped are the functional users all existing solutions in the market.
to understand and utilise ERP? Once the group shortlisted two ERP
l What is the organisation’s plan to train solutions for a final evaluation, it decided to
and educate employees how to use ERP? map the strengths of the two solutions with
Let me illustrate these through my the company’s line of business. The group also
experience of rolling out ERP at the DP sought references of similar implementations
from both the companies.
While the core group was working towards
create core teamS at finalising the vendor, it also looked at other
the functional level aspects—from evaluating infrastructure and
planning its upgrade, to documentation of
to enSure a conStant various functional processes. And by the time
the consulting team moved in, we were ready
dialogue Between the with our documentation, core team members
variouS teamS for each functional department and even the
ERP room!
Besides, we were also through with the
Jindal Group. In fact, before going for ERP, majority of all required infrastructure work—
we were working on a legacy system that was network connectivity, server, systems upgrade
a combination of in-house developed software and network design for our plant. This saved
and standard software, integrated through a lot of time and helped the consulting team
intermediary codes. speed up the roll out process.
When our management felt the need for a Needless to say, today our ERP has come to
standard ERP, one of the first steps we took a stage where all functional departments are
was to set up an ERP steering committee tuned in and are able to work efficiently on it.
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69. bEsT pracTicEs
dlp
tag all
data, guard
accordingly
Evaluate the potential threats, categorise
them and create a priority list before you
chalk out a comprehensive enterprise info
prakaSh
pradhan security plan
head—IT some will still remember the curious case precautions and best practices that can go a
Jagsonpal
Pharmaceuticals of Biswamohan Pani, a design engineer and long way in ensuring prevention of data theft.
former employee accused by Intel of data theft
amounting to as much as US $1 billion. More CateGOriSe DiGital aSSetS
than anything else, the case brought forth the The most important part of managing data loss
fact that even the world’s largest organisa- is to understand the types of sensitive data and
tions were prone to a “mission-critical” data categorise them into buckets, based on their
loss. sensitivity and value. Obviously, the most
It’s like being killed in a battlefield by valuable data is linked to the maximum num-
friendly fire. In fact, Deloitte in ber of controls, even if that leads
the 2009 edition of the Global to some sort of inconvenience to a
Security Survey highlights that section of employees.
while social networks and blogs
can be powerful enablers, they PriOritiSe What YOu
also increase organisations’ neeD tO PrOteCt
internal security challenges. It Data in an organisation has three
also reiterated that in today’s dimensions. First, data in motion
connected world, “insiders” were that includes any data that moves
turning into greater security threats than ever through the network to the outside world
before. via the Internet. Second, the data at rest that
And while the organisations are trying to includes information residing in files systems
make their employees more aware about the and databases. Third, the data that resides
basic steps to security, it’s the IT departments at endpoints like USB drives, external hard
and the IT managers who end up being the drives and mobile devices.
custodians of organisations’ most important IT managers must evaluate the potential
resource—information. Read on for some vulnerabilities and the associated loss for
each data dimension. It thus makes sense
to prioritise the dimension where the threat
preventing information level is the highest.
theft iS a key concern of SeleCt COmPrehenSive SOlutiOn
organiSationS, aS coSt of The adopted solution must be all-encom-
passing and comprehensive. A comprehen-
Breached information can sive data loss prevention (DLP) solution sets
Be worth a fortune up tight policies and is capable of effectively
detecting the breaches. Hence, IT managers
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70. bEsT pracTicEs
should consider implementing all, or some of is that it should be invisible to the end-user. It
these steps. should at no point in time impact worker pro-
l Analysis of the content of all major files ductivity. For instance, any delay in e-mail or
and attachment types Internet page loading can dampen the speed
l Selective blocking of messages of business and negatively impact the pro-
l Automatic enforcement of corporate ductivity of employees. At the same time, the
encryption policies solution must run consistently even in the
These steps require both well thought-out wake of traffic volume surges.
policies and processes. No one company has the best-in-breed
solutions that address all the three dimensions
maKe it inviSible of data, so the best answer is to integrate
The most important aspect of a DLP solution solutions from different best-in-class vendors.
data WaREhousing
Start with
single view
of data
Identification and resolution of all
inconsistencies is the cornerstone of data
warehousing success
rn
moorthy
Sr Gm-IT With business intelligence (BI) gain- Simply put, a data warehouse is “a
Jet airways
ing massive ground across all verticals, the repository of an organisation’s electronically
emphasis on enterprise data warehousing stored data.” A typical data warehouse is
(EDW) has also grown. Besides, increasing designed to facilitate information analysis
data volumes, number and diversity of users and produce meaningful reports for decision
and ongoing user requests for decision sup- makers in an organisation.
port and reporting needs are increasing the What this means is that any organisation in
complexity of DW projects. a competitive environment dealing with high
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Reaping benefits
n EDW provides a common data model for all data of interest, regardless of the source of the data.
This makes it easier to report and analyse information from across multiple data models that used
to retrieve information such as sales invoices, order receipts and general ledger charges.
n Prior to loading data into the data warehouse, inconsistencies are identified and resolved. This
helps the organisation simplify reporting and analysis, and provides for what is commonly referred
to as “single version of truth”.
n Since information in the data warehouse is under the control of data warehouse users, even if
the source system data is purged over time, the information in the warehouse can be stored safely
for extended periods of time.
n Data warehouses facilitate decision support system applications such as trend reports (for
example, the items with the most sales in a particular area within the last two years), exception
reports, and reports that show actual performance versus goals.
n Since data warehouses are separate from operational systems, the retrieval of data does not
slow down operational systems.
n Data warehouses can work in conjunction with and, hence, enhance the value of operational
business applications, notably a customer relationship management system.
volume of business transactions, are always under pressure, thanks
which requires data analysis on to the competition and factors like
a continuous basis, is a candidate volatile fuel prices, over capacity
for data warehousing. In fact, and infrastructural issues,
EDW should not be considered understanding the profitability of
only as versatile reporting tool, each route is critical.
but also a strategic tool in the This was our primary focus
hands of decision makers. when we decided to invest on
However, it is important to remember an EDW solution. It allowed us to track our
that the success of an EDW implementation revenues and costs at the route level and also
largely depends on identifying the gave an insight into the booking profile. We
requirements, focusing on quick-win areas further expanded the usage of EDW into
areas of travel agency profiling, and corporate
the lifecycle of edw doeS
profiling.
In the phase two of the project, we plan
not end with the initial to develop models for operational data such
as aircraft usage, on-time performance,
deployment. inStead, it delay analysis, fuel consumption and
continueS aS the BuSineSS
aircraft maintenance cost. In this phase, we
are focusing on our major costs as well as
requirementS evolve operational efficiencies.
For EDW to be successful, end users need
to have passion for analytical work and deep
and involvement of the senior management understanding of their business and processes.
in the entire life cycle of implementation. BI is a strategic tool for decision making and is
What helped us successfully implement not to be used as a glorified reporting tool.
EDW at Jet Airways was the clear-cut strategic However, lack of flexibility in responding
plan. Use internal resources from business and to ongoing business users’ change requests
IT to identify key areas that the project should can completely spoil the game. Remember
focus on. Also provide extensive training for the that the lifecycle of DW does not end with the
core project team on BI tools. initial deployment. Instead, it continues as the
In the airlines industry, where profit margins business requirements evolve.
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72. bEsT pracTicEs
CRm
the customer
matters
Just stick to a few guiding principles and you
will never go wrong. however, do insist for a
solution that suits your customer needs
aShok rv
Gm-IS
Sundaram clayton
The most important part in customer Julie Andrews sang in the Sound of Music,
relationship management (CRM) is indeed it’s always a good idea to start from the
the customer himself. While acquiring cus- scratch, and note the high-level customer-
tomers is a critical function of any business, related issues that the organisation wishes
a far more important and difficult part is to address, before procuring a CRM solution.
retaining them. If all that a company needs is a good sales
Indeed, CRM is about creating a customer- forecasting tool, the good old Excel can do
centric business philosophy and culture. a pretty decent job. But if the need is to map
However, from the IT manager’s standpoint, the entire customer life cycle, from someone
adhering to a few good principles can help being a prospect customer to a repeat one, a
full-blow CRM solution will fit the bill.
Fit your needs, not the other way
leave the implementation around: It is best to opt for a solution that fits
and training part for an your needs perfectly rather than be a retro-fit.
For instance, if the top three things that your
expert, aS it will Bring in company is trying to accomplish are going
to change, your application must be ready to
an element of third-party respond and deliver the reports, the metrics
oBjectivity too and the dashboards in a suitable manner.
Look for ease of use: That’s probably the
most important thing when you’re rolling
go a long way in ironing-out difficulties that out an application for your sales, marketing
usually comes in the way of effectively rolling and services professionals. If they are unable
out the solution. to get the hang of it in a few minutes, they
Understand where you want to go: Like just give up.
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Make sure your data is safe: Many Hire experts to implement and train:
small businesses don’t often think about the It’s important to let experts manage the
critical customer data that sits on the typical implementation and training part for the
salesperson’s PC just waiting to be downloaded simple reason that sometimes the hiccups in
onto a USB drive by someone and taken away. erecting the system can be frustrating and time
So, when considering a CRM solution, make consuming. And getting an expert to train is
sure you think about securing the data and also a good way to show to the sales force what
discuss any issues you may have with vendors. the system can do rather what it cannot.
outsouRCing
look for a
cultural match
Outsourcing is like keeping a part of
your organisation in another body, and a
mismatch could lead to failure
S ilango
Sr manager—IT
aditya Birla Group
an outsourcing relationship is like a mar- will help determine the way you shortlist and
riage—it’s for the keeps, in thick and thin. So select the partner.
choosing the outsourcing partner has to be a Ensure alignment of cultures: Make
meticulous and detailed exercise, as you don’t sure the service provider understands
want to be stuck in an abusive relationship. more than just how to code or implement.
Sure, you must see to it that An outsourcer needs to be
your outsourcing partner has a compatible with your company’s
wide set of skills and strengths culture and business objectives,
as well as a strong track record with the right experience,
of delivering results. Another communications skills, and
important aspect is that they working style. The employees
must offer a competitive pricing… of your outsourcing partner
that’s a key reason why you are will become an extended part of
outsourcing, right? your organisation and need to
Establish clear objectives: A failure to fit in the way your employees do.
plan is a sure-shot plan to failure—it’s not that Get the communications right: Make
the best-laid plans that go astray at times; it’s sure the outsourced service provider
that they often are not the best-laid plans in understands the project specifications.
the first place. Hence, be absolutely clear about Be as detailed, and equally precise as
the objectives of outsourcing from the word possible. When IT functions go outside
go. Is it about cost or process improvement your organisation, it will result in a
or about freeing up management time for the lot of coordination and back-and-forth
core business? Identifying the key objectives communication. The initial volume of
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BeSideS the right Skill Avoid short-term gain, long-term loss:
A myopic approach to outsourcing is a sure-
SetS and experience, an shot recipe for disaster. Decision makers often
outSourcer needS to Be get lost in the fine print of the deal. And often,
in an attempt to save the company money, the
compatiBle with your emphasis shifts to compromising on the benefits
and locking prices down.
company’S culture and Often missing is a focus on the long-term result
BuSineSS oBjectiveS desired to justify such adjustments. While it is a
good thing to pay attention to the cost, an equal
attention on performance measurement is a must.
communication and efforts exerted for By paying attention to these details, you
coordination will be far larger than what will be able to bring in quality of relationship
the IT manager will exert if the function was with your provider. And that’s also a key to
retained internally. successful outsourcing!
disastER managEmEnt
leave no threat
unattended!
List out the responsibilities very clearly and
classify the risks under appropriate heads to
make the plan foolproof
maniSh
jain
IT manager Threats to iT systems today come in mul- doesn’t change, no matter what the nature
Juxtconsult
tiple formats—viruses, hacking attacks, sab- of the threat is—it has to keep working in all
otage, power outages, natural disasters, and situations.
maybe even a doomsday catastrophe. Sure, all organisations that value their
The challenge for the helpline, however, information assets have a disaster recovery
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75. bEsT pracTicEs
strategy in place and also keep re-examining External risk: External risks are those
it on a periodic basis. Indeed, it has become that cannot be associated with a failure
an essential ongoing exercise in the wake of within the enterprise. They are very
today’s complex threat scenario, to which significant in that they are not directly under
newer strands are being added with each the control of the organisation that faces
passing day. the damages. These will include natural
disasters and civil unrests.
Segregate Bcp from
Facility risk: Facility risks are the ones
that affect only local facilities. These typically
dr, and Split them aS cover aspects such as electricity outages and
physical structural faults.
two Separate initiativeS, Data systems risk: These are related
each with itS own Set of
to the use of shared infrastructure, such
as networks, file servers and software
policieS and goalS applications that could impact multiple
departments. A key objective in analysing
these risks is to identify all single points of
While that is good, it’s not enough. It is the failure within the data systems architecture.
adoption of some key best practises that will Departmental risk: Departmental
give the IT department the required peace risks pertain to failures within specific
of mind. departments. These would be events such as
a fire within an area where flammable liquids
fix the OWnerShiP are stored, or a missing door key preventing a
Today, more and more organisations are look- specific operation.
ing to increase the involvement of business Desk-level risk: These comprise all the
managers in the development risks that can potentially limit
and maintenance of their busi- or stop the day-to-day personal
ness continuity plans (BCP). work of an individual employee.
What this means is that business
continuity is now increasingly maKe it inDePenDent
being seen as a line function There is a strong likelihood that
rather than a staff function. This when disaster strikes, the archi-
also means that it will be a good tect of the disaster recovery plan
idea to segregate BCP from disas- will not be available. Remem-
ter recovery, and split them as ber this key assumption before
two separate initiatives, each with its own set working out a plan. At the IT manager’s end,
of policies and goals. care must be taken to ensure that the plan
For disaster recovery, the goal is technical will work with or without the people who
recovery, and the plan is created and managed developed it.
by developers and engineers. Business Also, in a development environment,
continuity on the other hand should aim to disaster recovery and application development
achieve business process stability, and it will should be aligned and synchronised.
be more effective if the plan is chalked out by The IT team must incorporate disaster
business managers or owners of respective recovery into the application development
processes. Of course, it goes without saying processes. For example, the business-
that the plan should be developed in close continuity database should include a report
coordination with the IT team. on application-testing status, so that the
IT manager knows when a system was last
ClaSSifY the riSKS tested and whether it demands his or her
When evaluating risks and threats, effort attention to assure its performance in the
should be made to categorise them into differ- event of a recovery.
ent classes. This will help prioritise the assets
that need to be protected first. For starters, it’s teSt the Plan
always a good idea to tag the risks into five While it is important to review your “on
basic categories. paper” disaster management and business
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76. bEsT pracTicEs
continuity plan on a regular basis, doing just disaster recovery plan. For example, if you
that is not enough. Strengthen your initiative are recovering without third-party services,
with disaster simulations that can go a long create an action-item checklist of what worked
way to test the preparedness of the disaster well and what didn’t. And if you are working
management team. with a vendor, document what went wrong
And what you derive out of the results and use that report to outline your needs from
of the test will form a further input to the the next simulation exercise.
VEndoR managEmEnt
build partners,
deliver
business value
an effective vendor management is one
that will bring commitment to total value
creation—beyond SLas—on the table
gaurav
kohli
IT consultant businesses are no more about stand-alone merely aiming to define the SLAs.
Xebia architects India
deliveries and competition. They are increas- To achieve this, they may conduct some
ingly about ecosystems comprising suppliers, pre-contract, pre-operations research, using
vendors and outsourcing partners. All of these a standardised methodology. This initial
are important parts of the same whole and investment by the vendor in understanding
demand proper attention and management. the business goes a long way in aligning their
Effective vendor management can have offerings to your organisation’s long-term
benefits that extend from cost reductions business goals.
and efficiency improvement to enhanced
customer satisfaction and improved focus on abilitY tO manaGe tranSitiOn
key competences. It also helps organisations Managing the transition is a combination
manage their multiple vendor contracts better. of science and art, and like the saying goes:
Here are some time-tested tips that can help things get worse before they get better. Mature
IT managers achieve the desired objectives. vendors look at themselves as strategic part-
ners and will have a well defined approach to
DefininG the COntraCt managing transition. It is during the transi-
Well begun is half done, they say. The foun- tion phase that the service level agreements
dation of the relationship should be laid on (SLAs) should be defined in detail. And the
well researched grounds. The selected ven- transition process should include full process
dor should be able to demonstrate a desired mapping, linked to a rigorous review of the
level of insight and appreciation of the busi- documentation. Each step in the transition
ness and should also be able to identify and process should incorporate a set of reviews
suggest some key success factors instead of and measurements, with a defined output.
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DrivinG exCellenCe in DeliverY and the impact of which cuts across various
SLAs are the first measure of success or fail- aspects of the organisation. Thus, measur-
ure, but they should be treated as a baseline ing the success of a relationship by monitor-
rather than the last word on performance ing the agreed SLAs can be self defeating.
delivery. Once the outsourcing vendor has Do remember that SLAs by their nature
achieved the baseline SLAs, the responsibility are focused on specific objectives, whereas
overall performance measurement across
Sticking to defined SlaS
multiple factors is the true measure of suc-
cess. Finding the right mix of governance,
can Be Self defeating contract, relationship, experience and opera-
tional delivery will contribute to a total value
BecauSe SlaS By their creation, and this must be measured too.
nature are focuSed on PeOPle are the fOunDatiOn
Specific oBjectiveS only It is also important to find out whether
the vendor has the right kind of workforce
to build and maintain the solution or the
should then be to continually improve perfor- service it is offering. It is also vital for the
mance and the vendor should show initiative vendor to have a robust practices in recruit-
to propose new or changed SLAs. ment, HR, training, and performance man-
IT managers should look at selecting a agement. Besides, look out for a vendor who
partner who is inclined to help the enterprise either has the domain knowledge and com-
achieve its broader business goals. petencies across specified business func-
tions or is looking at building these. This
multi-DimenSiOnal relatiOnShiP will translate into an enhanced capability at
The vendor should be able to view the rela- their end—one that will promise potential
tionship as one that has many dimensions value adds for your organisation.
EnERgy EffiCiEnCy
use lean to go
green
Thin clients, virtualisation, server
consolidation are all about being lean—and
they all reduce energy usage
viShwajeet
Singh
head—IT When economic concerns got prece- and green” is good for both the business
Fcm Travel Solutions
India dence, environmental sustainability had and the environment. Any organisation
to take a back seat in many organisations. that focuses on this will see clear benefits
The fact however, remains that being “lean coming in soon.
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I’m a great believer in Green IT and consuming piece of equipment. On one side,
strongly feel that a few small steps and best it gives us an uninterrupted power supply,
practices can go a long way in bringing on the other it also burns a significant
benefits of ‘green’ to the table. amount of energy.
Optimum utilisation of resources: An A proper audit and maintenance of
optimum use of all the available resources devices, like UPS and air conditioners, can
can bring down our energy wastage to its help bring down their energy utilisation to
minimum level. This is not only applicable optimum levels.
for a data centre environment; it can easily be Motivate your people: We all understand
applied to a regular office condition too. that money works and what is the harm in
Many times we don’t realise that we sharing it when you are gaining on the other
actually don’t need powerful workstations, side. Incentives schemes can help you achieve
even thin-client architecture can work remarkable results in a relatively short period
absolutely fine for many of our requirements. of time, if you apply them properly.
We should actually do a proper study on our Policies can be deployed in data centres
department wise setups and accordingly for services like standby option and display
time out. But if you let your user know
quantitatively how much they are burning
energy-efficient on each computer every day, they will
operation alSo meanS understand the importance of switching off
their screens while going away for tea and
operating a device that other short breaks. And let them know if the
organisation achieved a significant cut in
uSeS only aS much energy energy bills, they will get some incentives as
aS neceSSary to fulfil itS a token of appreciation.
In addition, the office building also plays
intended function a major role when it comes to green efforts.
The buildings use approximately 66% of the
electric energy, and according to an estimate,
provide what is needed. the overall power consumption in buildings
Energy-efficient operation also means has doubled between 1989 and 2005.
operating a device that uses only as much Also, energy represents as much as 30%
energy as necessary to fulfil its intended of a building’s operating costs. Now consider
function. The primary objective of an effective this: undertaking energy efficiency measures
energy management is to eliminate or can reduce energy consumption and thus,
minimise energy wastage while maintaining utility bills by 30% or more. These savings
a comfortable and safe environment. will add directly to the bottom line.
Adoption of virtualisation: As we all Most energy efficiency measures also
know, our servers are among the most improve the comfort and attractiveness of
energy consuming devices, so it is very the indoor environment. This is common
important to know our server requirements sense. Lighting retrofits, for example, reduce
clearly. Today, we are being asked to energy consumption and improve visual
improve efficiency, not only from a capital acuity. Better vision, in turn, helps workers
expenditure perspective, but also with complete tasks more efficiently while
regard to operational overheads. reducing eyestrain.
By migrating applications from physical And the best part is that these improvements
to virtual machines and consolidating to energy efficiency can often be attained
applications onto shared physical hardware through low-cost or even no-cost projects.
we can save a lot on energy bills, year-on-year
maintenance costs, cooling needs and real
estate cost.
Run routine checkup of all passive
devices: Often we don’t actually look
the views expressed in the articles are those of the
into the energy utilisation of our passive authors and do not, in any ways, reflect the policies
devices like UPS, which itself is an energy or views of the companies they are working for.
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79. update
bOOK FOR yOu
Open DebAte A platform to air your views on the latest
developments and issues that impact you Dork
The incredible adventure of an
unlikely corporate hero
Can Apple iPad be PuBlIShEr : PEnguIn BOOkS IndIa
PrIcE : Inr 199
a good enterprise
device?
Is success always directly proportion-
ate to the knowledge and efforts you
put in, or are there factors that make
a difference? Is it just the cultural fit
or about managing to be in the “good
books” of those who matter?
MAnOJ JOSHi JOHn RAJ nAnDKiSHOR While dork by Sidin Vadukt, is a laugh
MANAGER IT, MANAGER IT, JAiSWAL riot as it takes you through the diary of
NSE INFOTECH VIDYUT METALLICS MANAGER IT, a business graduate from one of India’s
SERVICES We need to look into the HOLIDAY INN best B-school, it is also a commentary
It will take some time technical features and The new decade has come
on the present day work culture where
before we can get a clear capabilities of the product. with promises of lots of in-
sycophancy, gadgets and social net-
picture of how effective I personally feel that iPad novation, particularly on the
working go hand in hand to determine
the iPad is. apple is a great will help the mobile or wireless front. apple’s new
success.
consumer product com- remote work-force replace iPad is a smart gadget, with
pany, but it is still to deliver the larger form factor solutions geared to address Through the incredible story of stun-
a killer application for the laptops. however, security customer requirements, ning blunders, mishaps and inadvertent
enterprises. Even the much can turn out to be a big comfort and security. This errors, robin, the protagonist, begins
touted iPhone has not been challenge while manag- will certainly help shape to make his superiors rue the day they
able to make much inroads ing these devices at the the way companies operate were driven by desperation into hiring
into the enterprise space. enterprise level. The next in the future. I am hopeful him. and while he was just about to
Thus, I sincerely doubt the big challenge would be to about the success of iPad be fired, a blunder committed under
usefulness of this product. ensure support from soft- and feel that such devices the influence of alcohol changes the
as of now, Blackberry is ware vendors. Since there can be a big draw in the fortune—of robin and his company.
clearly driving the enter- are scores of enterprise enterprise space. We have There is another clear message as
prise space, meeting both application from multiple already seen a massive well: don’t underestimate the power of
communication and data vendors, I am not quite growth in the adoption rate media, which can instantly turn a sub-
needs of mobile workers. sure how many of them will of devices like the Black- standard consultant facing disciplinary
With no communication be able to support the iPad berry. With new applica- action into a management guru.
capabilities built in, I doubt platform. Overall, the size tions and software, it can
if iPad will be able to make and existing features seem definitely emerge as the
IT NEXT VeRDict
a major dent in the space. to be pretty good. hottest enterprise gaget. A hilarious acount of office culture and
romance, and how social networking tools can
make a hero out of a super-dork. And beware!
Alcohol can do blunders (and sometimes
wonders) in your life!
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:
m a r c h 2 0 1 0 | it next 75

80. my log ShaShwat DC
associate Editor, It Next
Damocles’
Sword
Who needs the tech writer, when
there is no dearth of IT managers
who can double up for the role!
The Ennio Morricone’s ‘good, bad and to have fun. A chill ran through my spine. 3 EssEntial
ugly’ tone was ringing on my cell-phone,
letting me know that it was the editor saab
Was I about to lose my job?
Yet, there was a little flicker of hope in REads
who wished to talk. Since, we had just some corner of my heart. I hoped that not
packed up the magazine I was not par- many people would volunteer to write.
ticularly inclined to take the call, more so, After all, fixing an ERP issue is one thing
because I knew that it was meant to plan and writing how to do it is another.
out the March issue. Over the next few days, much water
This meant more work and more follow was poured over the little flicker, as I
ups, and more sleepless nights. Yet, for all realised that lot many IT managers were Author: Mitch Joel
Publisher: Hachette
my disinclinations, there was little that I willing to jot their thoughts and share Price: Rs 450
could do to avoid taking the call. their experience. Worse, most of them were
“We are planning a special issue for fairly well written and well researched.
March, and since you guys have been As the articles kept pouring in, my
complaining about the workload a lot, agonies were exacerbated. Apparently,
we will have the community write the there seems to be no paucity of articulate IT
whole issue. You guys can take an off. managers in India and that does not bode
Cheerio.” well for technology writers like me.
To say that I was stunned after the voice Finally, as a consolation, I was asked to Author: Ken Blanchard,
at the other end had died down would jot down my thoughts for this page—My Publisher: Jaico Books
Price: Rs 195
be an under-statement. “How could the Log. However, I still continue to live with
issue go without my contribution? Who a Damocles sword over my head, thinking
is going to write the interviews and the about the days when writers like me were
analysis,” I thought. If I had become so the toast of any IT magazine, indulged and
redundant for the magazine, my future pampered by the editors.
was indeed bleak. I also hope that IT managers are so
Adding to the misery was the fact inundated with work that they lose their
that it was a special issue. Under normal coherence with words. And finally, I am
circumstances, special issues are waiting for the good, bad and ugly ringtone Author: Steven D Levitt and
journalist Stephen J Dubner
synonymous with more work and sleepless of my phone to buzz again. So far it hasn’t, I Publisher: HarperCollins Publishing
nights. And here the editor was telling me do hope that it does soon.. Price: Rs 399
76 it next | m a r c h 2 0 1 0