strategy and roadmap for the year ahead

www.dqindia.com

The BuSineSS of infoTech Vol XXXVi no 11 I noVeMBeR, 2018

OutlOOk &

PriOrities

Tech leaders share their 2019

strategy and roadmap for the year ahead

` 100

Are You A New

Age CIo? p. 22

A PANACeA CAlled devoPs p. 26

uPPINg The

leNdINg gAme

wITh dIgITAl p. 52

November, 2018

interviews

14 I

COVER STORY

42

CLOUD IS NO LONGER A TREND, IT’S A REALITY

—SubRam NaTaRajaN CTO, IBM India, South Asia

46

IN ORDER TO STAY RELEvANT, ORGANIzATIONS NEED TO mARRY SkILLS AND CApAbILITIES ACROSS bUSINESSES AND IT DOmAINS AS ThE ChANGE hAS TO bE ALL- EmbRACING AND CANNOT bE hANDLED IN ISOLATION

—NaRSImha RaO maNNEpallI Executive Vice President, Head of Cloud

& Infrastructure Solutions and Validation Solutions, Infosys

58

ChATbOTS hELpS DELIvER FASTER RESOLUTION FOR CUSTOmERS

—Rahul ShaRma MD, LogMeIn India

OUTLOOk &

pRIORITIES

Tech leaders share their 2019

strategy and roadmap for

the year ahead

www.dqindia.com 5

contents

06 Edit 07 DQ Team

regular

D i G i t A L e n t e r P r i s e

49 Is the Cyberwarfare Threat Real?

52 Upping The Lending Game With Digital 62 Listening – Key to Understanding

Your Customer

66 What Artificial Intelligence Means to Businesses in Terms of Cost Optimization, Efficiency and HR

68 Training is a key to success for any organization, but it can’t be the goal

s M A r t i n D i A

i n t e L L i G e n t C O M P U t i n G

22 Are You A New Age CIO?

26 A Panacea Called DevOps 30 Shedding the ERP dilemma

35 Decoding Proactive Problem Management 38 The Digital Tipping Point

50 10 Ways to Increase Automation Test Coverage

D i G i t A L e n t e r P r i s e

45 Blockchain: Real World Implementations are Still Not Mainstream

OUTLOOk &

pRIORITIES

Tech leaders share their 2019

strategy and roadmap for the year ahead

71 Can Collaboration Technology Help Bridge the Urban-Rural Divide in India?

73 Rise of the Electric Vehicle Market in India

Shrikanth G Associate Editor

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in ediT

SDN-Key To An

elastic Tech infrastructure

T

here are always two schools of thinking about many things. One goes by established conventions and the other goes by radical thinking. Today, networks across the world need a radical intervention that can tweak its performance to a new level of performance, resiliency, and agility required for the ‘On Demand’ age.

The Software Defined Networking (SDN) ushers in a new paradigm and can offer the much-needed back-end support for leading trends like the Cloud to the Internet of Things (IoT) or anything that rides on the network.

Network architectures often times suffer from rigidity and hence they have remained non-elastic over the years. But with the advent of Software Defined Networking (SDN), things are in for a change. While much has been written about SDN in the last few years, if one decodes, what is SDN, in a nutshell, what SDN does is, it starts by virtualizing the network, decoupling the logical view of a network from its physical implementation. It does so by creating an abstraction layer between server hosts and existing networking gear which decouples and isolates virtual networks for specific networking hardware, turning it into a pool of network capacity.

This enables the on-demand, programmatic creation of tens of thousands of isolated virtual networks with the simplicity and operational ease of creating and managing virtual machines. The resulting business value comes from more agile, efficient, flexible, and robust networking configurations.

Welcome to the age of programmable networks. We need to factor SDN from the perspective of overall infrastructure management. For instance, some of the industry experts believe that Software Defined Infrastructure (SDI) is the way forward and SDN is one key component of that. Here we are talking about in a typical SDI the key infrastructure elements like the network to storage is driven by software. Coming back to SDN as a standalone entity, and if we were to decode the aggressive debates happening right now and why such a heightened level of interest? The answer lies in the evolution of IT today into a network dependent entity and the customer expectations of 100% up time-even five nines uptime is just not enough for this day and age of always on and access from anywhere and on the go demands.

So, the key takeaway out of SDN is that it’s a logical evolution in network computing and it has the potential to take the network performance to a new level and clearly no CIO can afford to ignore SDN as we move forward.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

A CyberMedia Publication www.dqindia.com November, 2018 7 SeNIOr VICe PreSIDeNT

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Gartner Says 28 Percent of Spending in Key iT Segments Will Shift to the Cloud by 2022

T

wenty-eight percent of spending within key enterprise IT markets will shift to the cloud by 2022, up from 19 percent in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc. Growth in enterprise IT spending on cloud-based offerings will be faster than growth in traditional, non-cloud IT offerings. Despite this growth, traditional offerings will still constitute 72 percent of the addressable revenue for enterprise IT markets in 2022, according to Gartner forecasts.

“The shift of enterprise IT spending to new, cloud- based alternatives is relentless, although it’s occurring over the course of many years due to the nature of traditional enterprise IT,” said Michael Warrilow, research vice president at Gartner. “Cloud shift highlights the appeal of greater flexibility and agility, which is perceived as a benefit of on-demand capacity and pay-as-you-go pricing in cloud.”

More than $1.3 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud by 2022, according to Gartner (see Table 1). Providers that are able to capture this growth will drive long-term success through the next decade.

Gartner recommends that technology providers use cloud shift as a measure of market opportunity. They should assess growth rates and addressable market size opportunities in each of the four cloud shift categories:

system infrastructure, infrastructure software, application software and business process outsourcing.

Cloud Shift Proportion by Category

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 System infrastructure 11% 13% 16% 19% 22%

Infrastructure software 13% 15% 17% 18% 20%

Application software 34% 36% 38% 39% 40%

Business process outsourcing

27% 28% 29% 29% 30%

ToTal 19% 21% 24% 26% 28%

Source: Gartner (August 2018)

The largest cloud shift prior to 2018 occurred in application software, particularly driven by customer relationship management (CrM), according to Gartner.

CrM has already reached a tipping point where a higher proportion of spend occurs in cloud than in traditional software. This trend will continue and expand to cover additional application software segments, including office suites, content services and collaboration services, through to the end of 2022. Application software will retain the highest percentage of cloud shift during this period.

By 2022, almost one-half of the addressable revenue will be in system infrastructure and infrastructure software, according to Gartner. System infrastructure will be the market segment that will shift the fastest between now and 2022 as current assets reach renewal status. Moreover, it currently represents the market with the least amount of cloud shift. This is due to prior investments in data center hardware, virtualization and data center operating system software and IT services, which are often considered costly and inflexible.

“The shift to cloud until the end of 2022 represents a critical period for traditional infrastructure providers, as competitors benefit from increasing cloud-driven disruption and spending triggers based on infrastructure asset expiration,” said Mr. Warrilow. “As cloud becomes increasingly mainstream, it will influence even greater portions of enterprise IT decisions, particularly in system infrastructure as increasing tension becomes apparent between on- and off-premises solutions.”

NeWS | SHOrT TAKeS

Compiled By:

dQ Bureau

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

31% of Indian organisations expect

to be victims of cyber-attacks in future

N

ational Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) launched in 2003 to create awareness on adopting cybersecurity best practices. 15 years later, this annual initiative continues to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity across the globe. With the rise in cybercrime in India, we need to collaborate to stay protected from cyberthreats and increase our resilience over a period of time.

According to a recent Sophos The State of endpoint Security survey, 31% of Indian organisations expect to be victims of a cyberattack in the future. While the Dirty Secret of Network Firewalls survey indicated that 30% IT managers think their organization’s current defenses are not sufficient to block cyberthreats they have seen in the past year.

Commenting on the concerns of Indian organisations about their security capabilities, Mohit Puri, director sales engineering at Sophos India & SAArC said: “It is important that organisations adopt a defense-in- depth cybersecurity strategy to better protect their environment. They should aim for inclusion of every employee in increasing cybersecurity robustness, along with deployment of comprehensive and connected cybersecurity solutions across their entire network estate from network to endpoint resources.”

Our team at Naked Security offers some practical tips that can help deliver a stronger foundation to better protect against the ever evolving threat landscape.

PaT Ch early, PaTCh ofTeN

Brand new vulnerabilities and exploits hog the limelight of security news.

Because you couldn’t have patched ahead, they’re known scarily as “zero-days.” But if you’re worried about brand new attacks from cutting-edge crooks, you should also worry about automated attacks against old holes that are well-known and easy to exploit.

People often put off patching either to save time or because they’re scared something might break. The problem is that the longer you leave it, the more time it will take when you get around to it.

PiCk ProPer PaSSWordS

With some many online apps and software to manage, how many of us are guilty of using the same password for all the accounts? It’s important to make all new passwords

different and hard to guess. Criminals are now using tools that sniff out passwords reused on other sites to make their work easier and to make the stolen passwords and data more lucrative on the dark web.

Prefer TWo faCTor auTheNTiCaTioN

Come up with a checklist that you use before giving someone remote access to your network. remember that it’s not enough to trust the person: you also have to trust their computer, because a PC with malware on it that connects to your network is essentially letting cybercriminals in with it.

And consider requiring all remote users to have two- factor authentication (2FA). It costs a little more, and it is slightly less convenient when you come to log in. But it helps to prevent egregious attacks where a criminal steals (or guesses, or buys) one of your user’s passwords today and then uses it at their leisure to raid your whole network.

PaTrol The eNTry PoiNTS

One weak point is all it takes to allow the hacker access to the system and the ability to move around the network and cause more damage. Smaller organisations in particular often forget to close down access points that are not being used and this is an open door for hackers to gain entry and once inside they can move around and place malware onto a network.

heed WarNiNGS aNd look aT your loGS

Don’t collect logs just so you can look back after a breach.

Use them proactively to watch out not only for attacks, but also for otherwise-innocent behaviour you want to improve anyway. If the logs from your patch assessment tool are trying to tell you that your remote sales guy in Mumbai somehow missed out on the last three Microsoft Word updates, do something about it!

SPoT The PhiSh ThreaT

Phishing attacks have shown record growth in recent years, and employees are the most vulnerable target in most organizations. It is important that organisations include a robust security awareness program in their defense-in-depth strategy. It is crucial to educate your end users to recognize phishing and socially engineered attacks, through automated attack simulations, engaging awareness training, and actionable reporting metrics.

www.dqindia.com 9

NeWS | SHOrT TAKeS

Mphasis Acquires Stelligent, devops automation Services Specialist in aWS ecosystem

M

phasis, an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services announced its acquisition of Stelligent Systems llC, a technology services company special- izing in DevOps automation on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Headquartered in reston, VA, Stelligent provides DevOps and DevSecOps solutions on AWS. The compa- ny is a Premier Consulting Partner on AWS Partner Net- work (APN) and holds both AWS DevOps and Financial Services expertise in deploying their customers’ applica- tions on AWS with greater speed, agility, and security. The acquisition is an all-cash deal valued at USD 25 million.

Since inception in 2007, Stelligent’s driving mission is to ‘help their customers gain the ability to continuously deploy their software when they want to and with confi- dence’. The company has been providing leading enter- prises, including Fortune 500 companies, with continuous integration and delivery solutions on AWS and has built its brand as a pioneer and visionary within the AWS eco- system.

“The advent of public cloud infrastructure and SaaS

software has elevated the importance of rapid automa- tion in product development and product engineering for enterprises moving to the cloud. Together with Stelligent and its community heroes in the AWS ecosystem, we be- lieve we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this market opportunity. This allows us to join forces with an equally technically-deep company, bringing innovative, in-depth cloud solutions to enterprises in all Mphasis cli- ent segments,” said Nitin rakesh, CeO and executive Di- rector, Mphasis.

“Stelligent is very excited to further its DevOps capabil- ity across a broader range of clients and become central to Mphasis’ AWS go-to-market strategy. Our engineers will greatly benefit from being part of a larger, complemen- tary tech-centric community; as well as serve enterprises in end-to-end AWS DevOps, DevSecOps and additional AWS cloud services, “said Bill Santos, CeO, Stelligent.

Stelligent’s team of over 50 engineers hold over 100 certifications and significant experience and expertise in DevOps Automation as well as one of a select few con- sulting partners with two AWS Heroes – an AWS Commu- nity Hero and an AWS Hero for Containerization.

NeWS | SHOrT TAKeS

Open Banking APIs the Top Technology for the future of innovation

I

nfosys Finacle, part of edgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, and efma, a global not-for-profit organisation, launched the 10th Annual Study of Inno- vation in retail Banking. The report is authored by jim Marous, Publisher of the Digital Banking report and Co-Publisher of The Financial Brand. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the research, the report explores a decade of banking innovation and looks ahead at what’s in store for banking in 2022.

“More than ever, the importance of an innovation cul- ture became apparent for organizations that want to be- come leaders in both digital transformation and customer experience. There is a significant shift occurring in the banking industry, with more organizations looking to in- novate in areas directly impacting the consumer, as op- posed to building innovations that only impact efficiency and technology improvements,” said jim Marous, Owner and Publisher of the Digital Banking report and author of the study.

The research, in which over 300 banks globally partici- pated, found that respondents see Open Banking APIs as the top technology for the future of innovation, with it being stronger than ‘emerging’ areas such as machine learning, chatbots and rPA. The research found that in the short term, banks will leverage Open Banking for compliance such as the Payment Services Directive (eu- rope), Unified Payments Interface (India) and New Pay- ments Platform (Australia).

Vincent Bastid, CeO, efma, said “In recent years, bank- ing institutions have been facing disruption head-on, with advancements in customer service, personalization and mobile applications through a combination of Open APIs, AI and machine learning. The 10th edition of this report highlights advancements made in the last decade but also predicts a dramatic transformation in payments, mo- bile wallets and lending.”

The research also found that overall, organizations are taking a strategic perspective on the need for innovation rOI. In 2017, 31% of firms had an innovation rOI per- spective of one year, compared to only 17% this year. In addition, 63% looked for an rOI in 1-3 years as opposed to 54% in 2017.

respondents believe that retail banks consider digital commerce platforms (such as Alibaba) and technology giants as the innovation leaders for 2022. Similar to previ- ous years, the greatest impact of transformation is ex- pected to be in the areas of payments, mobile wallets and lending in the next three years.

iNveSTmeNT iN BaNkiNG iNNovaTioN

With legacy technology being identified amongst the top three barriers for innovation, 74% banks are increasing investments in technology modernisation.

50% of the organizations believe that product deliv- ery channels followed by new product innovations will be where most innovation will take place in the next four years.

imPaCT of moderN TeChNoloGieS

Open banking APIs are seen as the top technology im- pacting banking in the next year by 65% of the respon- dents.

Banks rated only a moderate level of organizational readiness to leverage technologies to deliver expected business outcomes for open banking, conversational in- terfaces and cloud processing.

dePloyiNG aNd meaSuriNG iNNovaTioN

The need to collaborate with external partners continues to be the highest focus when sourcing talent for innova- tion. Innovation over the next 12 months will be delivered through investments in co-innovation with other partners, a dedicated innovation team along with collaboration with large tech firms.

The presence of an innovation officer increased signifi- cantly over the past year. In 2017, only 37% of the orga- nizations surveyed had a dedicated executive to lead the innovation process. In 2018, the number jumped to 48%.

BaNkiNG iN 2022

After existing digital channels (mobile and online), digital assistants, social media and third party channels are ex- pected to be the primary channels for banking by 2022.

Close to half of the respondents believe that less than 40% of the current workload would move to public cloud by 2022. According to 70% of the respondents, AI is ex- pected to have a significant impact in transforming cus- tomer service / support by 2022.

Sanat rao, Chief Business Officer and Global Head, Infosys Finacle said “The 10th edition of the Innovation in retail Banking report strongly illustrates the pace at which the traditional banking model is evolving. The need to invest in a solid platform strategy focused on business benefits and more compelling experiences for customers, employees and partners is central to remain competitive.

This report will help banks sharpen their digital vision and benchmark their plans with the industry peers.”

www.dqindia.com 11

NeWS | SHOrT TAKeS

W

hile the artificial intelligence invasion is a beneficial development, it has always brought along with it concerns of hu- man jobs being occupied by machines.

In a latest development, the World’s first AI news anchor has been unveiled. jointly developed by Xinhua and Chinese search engine company Sogou, the AI news anchor has a male image modeled on a real an- chor with Xinhua called Zhang Zhao.

The AI news anchor imitates the voice, facial expres- sions and actions of a real person and looks like a profes- sional news reader. The AI news anchor learns from live broadcasting videos and can read texts as naturally as a professional news anchor all by himself.

“The development of the media industry calls for con- tinuous innovation and deep integration with the interna- tional advanced technologies. I will work tirelessly as texts will be typed into my system uninterrupted. I look forward to bringing you the brand new news experiences,” says

the AI news anchor in a video shared by Xinhua News Agency on Twitter.

While the AI news anchor has managed to create ripples with people lauding the new technol- ogy, there are others who have raised concerns of such a tech- nology stealing jobs meant for humans. “China Unveils An Ar- tificial Intelligence Virtual News Anchor. The replacement of hu- mans with AI programs for jobs is just a matter of time now,”

says William Okafor, a web de- veloper, on Twitter.

Several other are calling this development as an ‘exciting’

yet ‘scary’ technological ad- vancement. “Who’s that jour- nalist who said our jobs were not at risk….yet? Hehehe. The revolution might actually be televised,” tweeted Modera- tor and Host at BBC Africa Georgie Ndirangu.

Nevertheless, there a few who are welcoming this de- velopment for it may prove to be extremely beneficial for cash strapped media houses. The AI news anchor can pick up news from across different platforms, work for 24 hours a day, improve efficiency, and get much bet- ter over the coming years thus saving media houses a lot of time and money. Although the artificial intelligence product currently looks dull and mechanical, experts are of the view that it will gradually get better and become more lifelike. “As an AI news anchor under development, I know there is a lot for me to improve,” says the AI news anchor in another video.

However, what do you as viewers have to say about this development? Will the advent of AI lead to job loss or create new jobs? Is it a necessary trend that will need to be adopted regardless of the collateral damage it may cause? Do let us know in the comment section below.

AI News Anchor Creates ripples, Triggers machine Stealing Jobs debate

NeWS | SHOrT TAKeS

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K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S

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C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L C X O P A N E L ^FORUM C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^{FORUM FORUM} C X O P A N E L ^FORUM

FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS FEATURED SESSIONS

L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N L U N C H E O N

INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF INDUSTRY FACE -OFF

R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E R O U N D T A B L E

I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E I N T E R V I E W Z O N E

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY

T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S T L F AWA R D S

SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES

K E Y N O T E S

CORPORATE DIALOGUE

C X O P A N E L

FEATURED SESSIONS

L U N C H E O N

INDUSTRY FACE -OFF

R O U N D T A B L E

I N T E R V I E W Z O N E

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY

T L F AWA R D S SUCCESS STORIES

Rajiv Pathak rajivp@cybermedia.co.in, +91 8010757100

K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S K E Y N O T E S

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XVIII

^th

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TELECOM ECOSYSTEM

“LIFE AFTER CONSOLIDATION”

03 FEBRUARY, 2019, NEW DELHI

XVIII

^th

Annual Meeting of the

Cover STory | OUTLOOK

shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in

I

t is that time of the year the air is abuzz with a new be- ginning as a year comes to a close. All these years we have seen technology as an evolutionary entity, gradu- ating from one milestone to the next, forever upping the ante and bringing new set of challenges and problems to solve.

In all 2019 looks like an exciting year for tech and in many ways see the firming up of many tech trends like

IOT to AI, taking deeper roots and impacting enterprise computing in ways we have not seen before.

As we look at the year ahead, we need to see through a dual lens- one from the supply side of IT and the other from the demand side of things. The supply side (the vendors) needs to stay focused and relevant to capture larger mandates from the tech disruption and the demand side (the enterprises) needs to ink progressive

outlook & Priorities 2019

As we sign out of this year and step into 2019, what is in store

for supply and demand side of IT? Here we present insights from

prominent leaders from the tech industry who share their strategy and

roadmap for 2019

www.dqindia.com 15 Cover STory | OUTLOOK

strategies to adopt newer tech to stay ahead of the race.

In a nutshell, the way things are progressing, technology will be the common denominator that will determine the success of companies across verticals, no matter what their core business is, they need to induct massive dose of modern tech to transition to the next orbit of growth and profitability.

Cio PrioriTieS

According to a recent Gartner study, it said, that the top five areas that Asia/Pacific CIOs will invest new or addi- tional funding in 2019 are: Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (42 percent); Core System Improvements and Transformation (33 percent); Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (33 percent), Cybersecurity and Infor- mation Security (32 percent); and Digital business initia- tives (30 percent).

The 2019 Gartner CIO Agenda survey gathered data from more than 3,000 CIO respondents in 89 countries and all major industries — 671 CIOs are from 16 countries within Asia/Pacific, representing $6.1 trillion in revenue and $73.7 billion in IT spending.

Gartner also said that AI and Cybersecurity will shape the CIO technology agenda. “The CIO Agenda survey in- dicates that disruptive emerging technologies will play a major role in reshaping business models in Asia/Pacific as they change the economics of all organizations. Thirty- four percent of CIOs in the region expect AI to be the most disruptive game changer for their organizations in 2019, taking the top spot away from data and analytics, which now occupies second place at 26 percent.”

Moreover 49 percent of Asia/Pacific CIOs have already deployed AI technology or deployment is in short-term planning, coming in second behind cybersecurity (86 per- cent). The top three ways Asia/Pacific CIOs are using AI

are for chatbots (37 percent), process optimization (27 percent) and fraud detection (20 percent).

“This rapid shift to AI looks revolutionary on the surface, but this bump in adoption rate may indicate irrational exu- berance instead,” says rowsell-jones, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner. “While CIOs can’t afford to ignore this class of technologies, they should retain a sense of proportion. This latest batch of AI tools is yet to go through its Trough of Disillusionment.”

“The strong focus on cybersecurity shows the necessity of creating a secure base for digital business that shields their organization and clients. The survey indicates that 45 percent of Asia/Pacific CIOs still own the responsibility for cybersecurity. However, the IT organization alone cannot provide cybersecurity anymore,” adds rowsell-jones

Moreover Gartner observers that the rise of social en- gineering attacks, such as phishing, require a broader behavioral change of all employees. In 24 percent of the digitally top performing organizations in Asia/Pacific, the boards of directors are accountable for cybersecurity rather than the CIO alone. Nevertheless, CIOs are com- bining measures to harden information processing assets with efforts to influence the people that use technology to improve security against cyber threats.

The BuSiNeSS PrioriTy & TeCh ouTlook

It is in this backdrop and tech disruption and change we asked some of the leading heads of IT companies about their business priority and their tech outlook for 2019. We asked them two questions:

1. What is that one big strategy you will be pursuing in 2019 aimed at creating a big business impact?

2. What according to you is that one technology that will have maximum traction in the enterprise computing space in 2019 and why?

THe 2019 GArTNer CIO AGeNDA SUrVey GATHereD DATA FrOM MOre THAN 3,000 CIO reSPONDeNTS IN 89 COUNTrIeS AND All MAjOr INDUSTrIeS — 671 CIOS Are FrOM 16 COUNTrIeS WITHIN ASIA/PACIFIC, rePreSeNTING $6.1 TrIllION IN reVeNUe

AND $73.7 BIllION IN IT SPeNDING

Cover STory | OUTLOOK

karaN BaJWa,

MANAGING DIreCTOr, IBM INDIA

2018 saw an inflection point for the overall industry and society as business and technology architectures changed at the same time. Data was and will continue to be at the heart of the disruption of an industry that has been rapidly reordering be- cause of technologies like AI, blockchain, cybersecurity, delivered in hybrid cloud environments. We have been rebuilding our innovation pipeline to address what our enterprise clients value the most - a differentiated value proposition driven by innovative technologies, industry expertise, trust and security, delivered through an integrated model.

As we move into 2019, our vision to be the partner of choice for businesses in their Digital transformation journey does not change. This journey has many fac- ets and three technologies form the core to this transformation to which IBM will continue to be uniquely aligned: Data, Cloud and Security.

a) data platform: A consistent data platform which enables organizations to leverage their data resources effectively is core to digital transformation. In ab- sence of this, all attempts to leverage data are ad-hoc and time-consuming. We definitely see data-rich organizations/incumbents moving to a data platform on which analytical and cognitive business models will be built. Using the power of advanced analytics, machine learning, and Artificial Intelligence, we can derive insights to help optimize operations, drive innovation, and deliver value to the company and its customers.

b) Cloud: According to us Cloud is not merely a method of deployment - it is the measure of elasticity in the in- frastructure. Deployment can be private, public or hybrid, but intrinsically the infrastructure in the organizations will become more elastic (virtualized, containerized, self-service, self-monitoring). Initial cloud projects focused on the productivity economics of renting IT infrastructure at scale. More and more, however, clients want to move beyond that model and start to shift mission-critical business processes and apps to the cloud. They recognize that cloud can help drive real business value in those processes, launch new applications rapidly and enter new markets. So, clients need a cloud partner that can offer a hybrid cloud, for workloads that cut across public, private and traditional, a secure cloud, for mission-critical workloads and highly sensitive data, and an open cloud, to run complex, multi-cloud environ- ments. This is why IBM’s approach to cloud is hybrid, secure and open.

c) Security: The security concerns have moved to the boardroom and getting mainstream. Instead of piecemeal approaches to just meet regulatory requirements, organizations are beginning to take a more holistic view. This will be a key focus areas in 2018 and beyond. We recently announced the availability of IBM Security Connect, a single, cloud-based platform that can gather security data from across existing tools and products.

In addition, we will see increased adoption of IoT and our work with domain service providers to bring in industry- specific use cases will continue. From frictionless supply chains to food we can really trust, industries are looking at revolutionizing business with IBM Blockchain and we will see this technology go mainstream.

Som SaTSaNGi,

MANAGING DIreCTOr, HPe INDIA

We are in the midst of an exciting phase of business growth in India as it is one of the fastest growing big economies. Intelligent data management solutions will be central to the success in India. We are innovating products that create a software- defined, hybrid operating model that spans multi-cloud, on and off-premises and at the edge. Complimentary to this, we are building skills in the HPe Pointnext services organization to help our customers navigate a fast paced environment and plan the technology roadmaps to make them successful. The Government of India has ambitious plans with initiatives like Smart Cities and Digital India, and we will play a key role in these as well.

The need for Intelligent edge capabilities is driving a very large, fast-growing market opportunity. enterprises will require millions of distributed clouds that en- able real-time insights and personalized experiences. Hence, we believe the next evolution in enterprise technology will be in edge-to-cloud architecture, which will enable customers to capture, analyze and act upon data seamlessly from edge to cloud. We also expect a sizeable growth in adoption of a flash-based storage, which provides predictive analytics, and supports multi-cloud deployments. This will ensure the predicting and preventing of issues across an infrastructure stack thereby ensuring optimal performance and efficient resource use.

www.dqindia.com 17 Cover STory | OUTLOOK

ShaileNder kumar,

reGIONAl MANAGING DIreCTOr, OrACle INDIA

empowering India’s growing, young firms is going to be a key pillar of our strategy in 2019. As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies – superseding even China, India is in a unique position to help accelerate business opportunities for emerging businesses. At Oracle, we have the technology, the people, the talent and the scale of our operations, to help propel this new business community to great heights and support their growth journeys. It ultimately benefits India’s economy.

At the same time, we are embarking on a new era of delivering autonomous computing and complete modernization of erP for companies looking to start their digital journeys.

We are in the middle of a generational shift with computing heavily moving from traditional software deployment models to the cloud. Cloud is no more a buzzword and has come a long way with integrated capabilities such as Autonomous, Block- chain, Chatbots, IoT, Ml or Artificial Intelligence etc. The infusion of these new technologies is going to dominate our world. While we see most of the emerging technologies already playing a role in across businesses and sectors, autonomous is going to make a big shift in IT and no one has a solution for that but us.

With regard to Autonomous, this technology is self-driving, self-repairing, self-securing and helps companies ana- lyze their data so they can be more valuable. let’s not forget, the biggest data thefts this world has seen is because of human error – we want to eliminate that completely. We want DBAs to be investing more time in analyzing data and be more valuable to business. Oracle is using machine learning to revolutionize data management with the introduction of the world’s first autonomous database cloud, delivering more automation for more savings.

SriNivaS kaNdula,

CeO - INDIA AND MeMBer OF THe GrOUP eXeCUTIVe COMMITTee, CAPGeMINI To meet changing market dynamics where traditional value chains are being challenged, businesses need to accelerate their digital transformation journey.

As the delivery engine of the Group, our goal will be to help our clients stay agile and competitive through a continued focus on driving their digital transformation initiatives. Our core focus is to reinforce our People Strategy in India. To this end, we will continue to invest in skilling initiatives. We are accelerating opportunities for our employees to work on cutting-edge technologies by investment in future skills, such as Digital, AI, Cloud, Machine learning, robotics, and IoT and strengthen our capability. Over 60,000 employees have been trained in various upskilling programs and emerging technologies so far in 2018.

Innovation is also an important priority for India. Our Applied Innovation exchange (AIe) in Mumbai has been instrumental in co-innovating with clients to create rapid prototypes and use the assembly to deploy at client sites. Our second AIe is coming up in Hyderabad. We have also launched a series of labs that complement the AIe such as Device foundry, DCX foundry, Cloud lab, Automation lab along with Partner COes and will continue to invest in new labs in 2019 in emerging technologies. Secondly, we are reinforcing a culture of innovation through internal reskilling efforts. We have also launched an internal program that recognizes and rewards employees that develop solutions/frameworks/ideas that can be converted to Intellectual Property.

Organizations today are convinced that automation and AI can result in significant benefits to them through increased productivity, optimized operations, lowered costs, generate deeper insights that drive enhanced engagement with customers and boost sales. I believe we will see an increase in adoption of AI and thrust on innovation in 2019. As per our Capgemini research Institute (CrI) report on ‘Turning AI into concrete value’, more than 1 in 2 organizations (59%) now agree that AI is supporting customer intimacy, and AI initiatives have helped more than 6 in 10 organizations increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. 3 in 4 organizations have increased sales, and 78 percent saw greater operational efficiency.

Additionally, we see significant potential for automation adoption. A latest report on automation from CrI titled

‘reshaping the future-Unlocking automation’s untapped value’, the estimated cost savings from automation will be to the tune of $471 billion through wide-scale adoption across automotive, retail, utilities and manufacturing sectors.

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PrakaSh mallya,

MANAGING DIreCTOr - SAleS & MArKeTING GrOUP, INTel INDIA India as a market presents a fascinating data-driven transformation story. The country ranks at the top for mobile data consumption globally. There is also no other country that has digitized similar volumes of citizen data. Clearly our future is going to be data-driven and India provides a significant data science opportunity.

Intel recognizes the tremendous scope for data-driven transformation across every industry. We are committed to enabling this transformation by accelerating new technology adoption and strengthening our local ecosystem.

We believe Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have the maximum impact in India and globally. The majority of global data was created in the last couple of years but only 1 to 3% of this data has been analyzed. The AI and analytics journey is just at the beginning and there is immense opportunity to derive value from the rapidly increasing volume of data. Intel is inventing technologies and software tools that will advance the AI ecosystem making it possible to gain insight, anticipate needs and continuously learn from data at enterprise scale.

viNod kumar,

CeO & MD, SUBeX

The level of awareness on IoT security continues to be an area of concern. Through our expanding honeypot network, we intend to sensitize stakeholders and make them aware of the evolving threat environment that surrounds their businesses, assets, data and operations. In 2019, we intend to intensify our efforts to improve threat research to cover new grounds as the sources of threats, malware attack patterns and targets diversify.

We will continue to invest in capacity building by enabling the addition of more industry ready cybersecurity professionals across the globe to take on existing and emerging threats.

The growing importance towards digital Trust: Over the last couple of years we have witnessed end-to-end digitalization at unprecedented speed. The changes have been radical starting from the backend systems in quest of new efficiencies, to customer interaction systems with the goal of improved customer experience and to the actual offerings/products with the goal of tapping new rev- enues. All this rapid innovation has also created new risks and we see businesses trying to grapple specifically with “lack of trust” in digital services. By Digital trust we mean- privacy, security, predictability in new technology as well as confidence in data. We believe, successful busi- ness will be those how can turn digital risk into a source of competitive advantage by unlocking the strategic upside of digital disruption. In 2019 we truly believe “digital trust” will have a transformative impact on digital business.

SaPTorSi hore,

COO, THOUGHTWOrKS INDIA

A significant area of interest and investment will be machine learning and artificial intel- ligence, to service both, client and internal needs. For example, ThoughtWorks is building an internal platform that will leverage data for decisions regarding operational efficiency. The platform will help draw accurate forecasts and will guide decisions about people, capability building and even help determine the right consultants for a client engagement.

Cloud computing will continue to have traction and will evolve towards Multicloud - where- in enterprises use a mix of public, private, hybrid and data center options. The expectation here is that a workload - storage, networking, security or application deployment - can be executed on any of these options and the experience needs to be seamless for the applica- tion’s end-users.

www.dqindia.com 19 Cover STory | OUTLOOK

hari haraN,

PreSIDeNT - GlOBAl SAleS, MArKeTING AND BUSINeSS lINeS, SASKeN TeCHNOlOGIeS In 2019, we will be aggressively pursuing Automotive, Industrials, and Communi- cations verticals to enable Android-based devices and solutions on certain semi- conductor platforms. We believe there will be a proliferation of devices and boxes that will revolutionize these verticals and their customers. We also believe that these devices will enable some unique connected experiences and enable new business models thus resulting in tremendous value in this space. Sasken’s deep knowledge of semiconductor platforms, Android, and embedded systems cou- pled with our Chip to Cognition solutions will create a big business impact both for us and for our customers.

Android is finding its way into devices in all walks of life. From the In-Vehicle Infotainment ( IVI) and Telematics systems for Automotive, consumer devices such as smartphones, IoT, Industrial terminals and rugged devices, retail point of sale terminals, to tablets and medical devices, Android is pervasive. embed- ded technologies and software that can enable rapid customization and flawless support of these devices is key to growing this market. The enterprise computing space such as retail, Oil & Gas, Public Utilities, Automotive, Aerospace are all transforming their products and business leveraging this trend. Our belief is that the Android technology on certain pervasive silicon platforms will have an enormous traction in 2019.

NiShikaNT NiGam,

eVP, CHIeF DelIVery OFFICer, CSS COrP

A large part of our business is delivering impactful and persuasive Customer ex- periences (CX) for organizations across industries. CX, like any business phenom- enon, has been disrupted over the past years. Today’s customers are a lot more connected and it’s extremely critical for businesses to adopt technologies, chan- nels and offers that would make a difference in the customer’s journey.

At CSS Corp, our continued focus is to drive stellar customer experiences for our customers and help them unlock new growth and revenue opportunities.

There is a huge opportunity ahead of us to embrace digital and enhance value for our customers. Today, we are working with some of the biggest names in the technology industry, including a few unicorns, especially on the CX side and help- ing quite a few interesting brick and mortar companies in their digital journey. So, digital customer experience focus is the fuel that runs our machinery and we will continue to invest in building solutions that would help us drive differentiation in the market.

We believe we are well poised to capitalize on these opportunities especially because of the digital and cognitive capabilities that we have built. We strongly feel digital is not a technology decision but a business decision. We, at CSS Corp mostly work with the business deci- sion makers who are responsible for CX and revenue generation mandate and we are focusing more on revenue shar- ing models and non-linear business models.

We strongly feel the enterprise IT space will see a major transformation with the advent of cognitive technologies and frameworks. Cognitive technologies are emerging as game changers to revolutionize the IT landscape and we are already adopting those technologies to raise the bar in CX. In fact, as per New IDC Spending Guide, global spending on cognitive and AI solutions will achieve a compound annual growth rate of 54.4% through 2020 when revenues will be more than $46 billion, and the US will be the largest market.

We see a huge potential for companies in industries like TMT, CPG, and retail to bridge CX gaps and to modernize business process management functions through cognitive, and we are well placed to drive this transformation for businesses. However, cognitive is not only about technology but also about improving business performance through innovative techniques; we are on a transition from the phase of ‘thinking digital’ to ‘being digital’.

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Jay Chaudhry,

CeO, CHAIrMAN AND FOUNDer, ZSCAler

Zscaler’s strategy for 2019 is the basis of why it was founded over 10 years ago

— to securely connect users to applications or service, regardless of location.

Mobility and cloud migration has created a mega-shift that is disrupting 30 years of networking and security infrastructure. More and more business applications are moving to the cloud, and increasingly more users are working outside of the office. yet, traditional security technology is still anchored to the data center, providing subpar protection, poor performance, and increasing costs.

Zscaler’s purpose-built, multi-tenant cloud security platform protects all users with policy-based access and inline protection from malware and other threats.

It provides consistent security no matter where users connect, ensuring that nothing bad gets in and nothing good leaks out. Zscaler eliminates the need for purchasing and maintaining gateway security appliances while providing a more secure and efficient solution to organizations globally.

With the rising adoption of cloud services and infrastructure, I believe cloud security will have the greatest traction in 2019 and beyond. Organizations are realizing the competitive benefits of digitization and they’re migrating more and more of their legacy applications and infrastructure to the cloud to build on that cloud-enabled agility. Microsoft Office 365 has become the number one business application in the world, and it’s predicted that more than 80 percent of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud over the next couple of years. Gartner predicts that “by 2020, more than 30 billion devices will be connected to the internet. The advent of digital business creates more advanced threats and constraints.” enterprise cloud transformation, coupled with the workforce becoming more mobile, it’s become an imperative for IT organizations to reimagine how they secure their corporate networks.

As a result, I believe we will see cloud-based enterprise security solutions gain even greater traction, but the frontrunners will be those that provide fast, direct-to-cloud access with consistent security for every user across the enterprise.

JoSePh aNaNTharaJu,

PreSIDeNT AND CeO, PrODUCT eNGINeerING SerVICeS, HAPPIeST MINDS

We at Happiest Minds have honed-in on the Industrial and Manufacturing sector as it readies itself to embrace the enormous potential of IoT. From our experience, we find Industrial entities to be unique in the way they embrace disruptive tech- nologies, in their appetite for risk and the way their processes are structured.

As a result, we’ve developed an extensive understanding of this sector and along with our strong expertise in IoT, are uniquely positioned to work across the IoT adoption lifecycle. especially, with Industrial clients increasingly looking to develop MVPs (Minimum Viable Products), we usually get involved quite early in the lifecycle thereby gaining the benefits of incumbency.

Adopting a consultative approach and acquiring an in-depth understanding of the client’s needs has helped us chart out their entire IoT journey – from concept to implementation. This also confers us with a strategic advantage in being cho- sen as the trusted partner to deliver value across all stages of IoT adoption includ- ing POCs, Productization, and Operations.

While the potential of IoT has always been evident, the last few years have seen a significant uptick in adoption and I believe that 2019 will be its watershed year. enterprises have already dipped their toes in by commissioning prototypes, developing use-cases and identifying the right platforms and vendors.

It is now time for the rubber to truly meet the road and we’re seeing diverse use-cases, especially in Industrial and Manufacturing across employee safety & tracking, smart production systems, reduced asset downtime and supply- chain & logistics to name just a few.

However, 2019 is going to witness a scale of IoT adoption never seen before and its interplay with other disruptive technologies like AI, Analytics and Machine learning is only going to galvanize it further.