The Codex of Business Writing Software for Real-World Solutions 2.pptx
IT Next June 2010
1. SEARCH
IS ON
SEE PAGE 11
JUNE 2010 / RS. 150
VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 06
INSIGHT: Securing
the enterprise from
28 INTERVIEW: Dave 34
Evans warns against the
IT STRAT: Providing
tech support to
49 THE BIG Q
How to switch to
internal threats oncoming tech avalanche VIP users the cloud? Pg.53
6
g
PRACTICAL
WAYS TO
O
REEN
A how-to
guide for the
enterprising
IT manager
A 9.9 Media Publication
3. EDITORIAL
Make A
Difference
The unusually warm weather this year
has once again highlighted the impact of
electrical energy on our lifestyles—and the
woeful lack of this valuable commodity in India.
Bereft of it, modern commerce and industry comes to a “Focus on how to
halt. This is the principal reason why we are compelled to outfit our offices repair, recycle, re-use,
and data centres with expensive UPSs and generator sets. While these
pieces of equipment require substantial investments to install, maintain and reduce the use of
and operate, they do little good for the environment.
So, the practical challenge for IT managers is to identify ways to
equipment.”
minimize energy consumption and reduce the deleterious impact of IT on R GIRIDHAR
the environment—even while ensuring higher service quality, enhanced
infrastructure availability and lower costs. This is a tough balancing act.
Thankfully, you have some help from the plethora of innovations that are
being spurred by worldwide green movement—from operating systems
and apps that enable sophisticated power management, to energy efficient
hardware, better infrastructure management solutions, and improved
sources of non-renewable energy.
There are also other things that you can do as a manager to inculcate and
develop the culture of green within the organization. For instance, consider
the complete lifecycle of IT products, and focus on how to repair, recycle,
re-use, and reduce the use of equipment. From monitors to printers, servers
to storage—there is probably enough potential to rationalize and simplify.
Don’t limit yourself to optimizing IT sub-systems, consider the whole. You
may be overlooking opportunities to make substantial savings in other
places. Educate users to conserve paper, ink and other consumables—and Blogs To Watch!
enforce policies where feasible. Encourage and facilitate the use of solutions Investment Option in Green:
http://www.blueplanetgreenliv-
like phone and video conferencing, intranets and portals to cut travel and
ing.com/2010/05/27/investment-
communication costs. in-greentech
As an IT manager, there are many areas where you have little control but Greentech Enterprise: http://www.
greentechmedia.com/articles/
a lot of influence. Help business executives understand the implications
read/automation-is-new-key-in-
of making (or not making) specific investments in technology and green-it
equipment. While you may need to do the background research to ensure
Your views and opinion matter
that the proposed solution supports corporate objectives, the satisfaction of
to us. Send your feedback
contributing to the overall corporate good while saving the environment is on stories and the magazine at
r.giridhar@9dot9.in or SMS us at
too good to pass up. Are you ready to take up the challenge? Write in, and
567678 (type ITNEXT<space>your
let us know what you are doing to make a difference. feedback)
J U N E 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 1
4. CONTENT
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.
com/home.php# / gr oup.
php?gid=19567 5 03 05 82
Twitter:
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LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/
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FOR THE L ATEST TECHNOLOGY UPDATES GO TO ITNEXT.IN J U N E 2 0 1 0 VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 06 ugrp_ovr
A handbook on
how to green
the enterprise.
Page
16
INSIGHTS BOSS TALK INTERVIEW
24 Giving Teeth to Mobility
Mobile access to enterprise- wide applications will get a shot in the
arm with 3G technology
C OVER DESI GN: CHANDE R SHE KHAR; ILLUSTRATIO N: ANO OP PC
28 The Fatal Fifty
Security solutions may tackle half the risks--the
external ones- but employees can put corpo-
rate data at greater peril
32 Need for Speed
USB 3.0 offers fast data transfer speeds
to consumers, but there are a number
of roadblocks that have to be removed
before the technology can become main-
stream 05 Be double-barrelled| En- 34 Gird up for the tech ava-
sure that your existing invest- lanche that is coming |Dave
ments is secure and efficient Evans, Chief Futurist, Cisco
2 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
6. INBOX
bringing out such an interesting
it next
may 2010 / Rs. 150
Volume 01 / Issue 05
20 42 24 the big q
issue.
IFRS: Gear up for telecom: Getting BI & Ba: How to
the new accounting more juice from strategic analyse the business How to live with a lost
regime now outsourcing information right? Blackberry? Pg.53
NEHA MAKKAR,
tAPe StorAge: not Yet DeAD
Assistant Manager Internet Marketing
Tape
Storage at Studyplaces.com
Not Yet DeaD
voluMe 01 | iSSue 05
Even with the ‘digital’ odds stacked against it, the gritty
tape manages to hold ground. The big
question is -- How long?
A 9.9 Media Publication
MARCH 2010 Would like to thank you for
bringing such a fantastic maga-
zine out, it is a refreshingly fresh
take on the IT industry as a whole,
IT NEXT THANKS and the IT professionals in par-
ITS READERS
FOR THE WARM ticular. I am still ROFL on read-
RESPONSE
ing the MYLOG by Shashwat DC
in the special issue, rest assured
www.linkedin.com/
groups?gid= Shashwat, your job is not on the
2261770&trk=
IT NEXT VALUES YOUR FEEDBACK
myg_ugrp_ovr
blink. IT managers have their
We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it own specialty, and professionals
366 members
a better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the pre- like you have your own, never the
ferred publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, twain shall meet. And of course,
complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@itnext.in. you will keep hearing the good,
bad and ugly ringtone always.
PARESH THAKKAR,
SKRFID.com
I must say that the presentation style of IT NEXT is really READ THIS
ISSUE ONLINE
impressive. The insight section is always a delight to Can we have more of 15 Min-
read. Besides that, I always look forward for the training ute manager articles in IT Next, as
http://www.itnext.
there are lot of resources on tech-
calendar section in the magazine which I believe aid IT in/resources/
magazine nology on the internet and even in
Managers to identify the various short term courses to improve print, but there are very few avail-
their skills in areas like management and communication. able for managerial resources.
MAYANK KUMAR, Would like to have more articles
Consultant, Wipro on time management, team man-
agement, etc.
The May 2010 story on Outsourcing for Value was an interesting PRASHANT PHILLIPOSE,
read. India has been a frontbencher in terms of understanding the Consultant, Accenture
importance of outsourcing in different sectors. There have been plenty
of technologies today that helps business run in an efficient and tran- I really enjoyed reading the
quil way, without making any hassles to manage and operate them. The cover story on top 10 technolo-
traction of outsourcing has increased not because of just cost reduc- gies (IT NEXT, February 2010).
tion, but also in terms of increased productivity and quality. Organisa- However I would like to differ on
tions along with their customers benefit as they can access some of the the rankings a bit. Business Intel-
best available technology expertise in the industry and helps them to ligence and Analytics, for me, is
operate business in a smoother way. I feel it is just the start of an era, going to be the leading technol-
and outsourcing will certainly drive the growing demands of Indian ogy for the year 2010. With most
businesses. of the sectors are facing the heat
VARUN SINGH TOMAR, of growing competition, leverag-
Strategist & Change Professional, JK Tyres ing BI/BA tools will be the top
priority for any CIO. Also, the
I really liked the Open source special (April, 2010) issue. The cover biggest showstopper could be the
story “gaps are closing” was well covered and discussed the techni- quality and format of underlying
calities and functionality of open source and proprietary systems. I data that can mar effectiveness of
ITNEXT<space>
completely agree with the fact that managing an open source system a good BI/BA solution.
<your feedback>
is fairly a complex and cumbersome process. The open source players and send it to KANNAN K,
have understood that to reach out to the mass user base, they need to
engage them with simplicity. Congratulations to your entire team for
56 78
76 *Special rates apply
Communication Manager, Nokia Sie-
mens Network
4 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
7. BOSS TALK | HARDIK BHATT
LEADERSHIP
Be double
barrelled
Y
ou need the two of you to be an
effective CIO--think from both
left and right brains, see both the
sides of a coin, listen to disparate
tones in a chatter, and make two
simultaneous moves at a time. That’s a CIO’s life.
A CIO needs to be a strategic thinker while
being a fire-fighter. You need to have an eye on
the long term while producing short-term wins.
If you spend too much time on putting
together a long-term strategy and focus on “If you keep having short-term wins, the
executing it, you will lose your executive team
quickly. While the executive team appreciates
executive team will be patient with your
your long-term thinking, they also want to see long-term plan”
quick results of their investment in you. That
comes with your other eye on short-term wins. most of the existing investment. Both ways, a
These short-term wins can come in many disaster awaits you. Staying in the centre keeps
ways. Figure out where you can save. Can you you safe and sound.
move some strategic architectural components Both your brains need to be at work
to open source? Figure out how you can start simultaneously. While one is thinking about a
using cheap aka free mainstream technologies robust technology infrastructure, another needs
effectively without compromising your to understand the business.
enterprise set-up. Can you use Facebook to SUGGESTION BOX Talking about suppliers, you need to
connect with your customers? Can you build an constantly think when you treat them as
iPhone application for your sales team? partners and when you treat them as vendors.
If you keep producing these short-term If you always treat them as vendors and keep
wins, the executive team will be patient with them on their toes, they will not step up to help
your long-term plan and at the same time, you you over and above their SLAs when you need
will start winning your business colleagues’ them to. On the same token, if you constantly
confidence. treat them as equal partners, you will have a
Another place where a two-pronged approach tough time enforcing SLAs and in turn, you will
is necessary is in IT investments. You have to alienate your business colleagues for being too
ensure that your existing investment is secure The book tells why lenient on your vendors.
and efficient while making a new investment. some companies Last but not the least, it’s important to make
PHOTO GRAPHY: S UBHO JIT PAUL
Sometimes, if you are promoted within the IT last longer than oth- sure that you stay connected with the outside
organization, your focus tends to be more on ers, namely, due to world. While you can be a rock star inside your
existing investment because you have been leadership and inno- organisation, people outside should also know and
dealing with those for a long time. In such a vation. A must read appreciate what you are doing. Good luck!
situation, you are in the danger of losing sight for IT managers.
of possibilities of new efficiencies. Similarly, if WRITER: JIM COLLINS
The author is Chief Information Officer
P UBLISHER: HARPER BUSINESS
you move to a new organisation, you may ignore P RICE: INR 626.00 of the city of Chicago, USA
J U N E 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 5
8. MONEY WISE
OPINION AJAY SETH
Chief Financial Officer, Maruti Suzuki
Payback period: It measures the
time a project takes to recover the cost
of investment made. The evaluation
method is easy to use and provides
The money side a time frame but does not determine
value.
of IT
Internal rate of return: the
evaluation method measures the cash
returns (in %) generated by the project
considering the time value of money.
I
It is easy to interpret but complex to
t is important to evaluate IT calculate. The method ignores risk
investments in terms of their involved in the project and may generate
business benefits. However, very multiple outcomes.
often these benefits themselves Net present value / discounted
are not quantifiable and at times cash flow: The method takes into
decisions are made more on hunch than account the discounted cash flows
on business linkage. based on an assumed rate of interest. It
It is also important to note that IT measures whether a project generates
investments not only entail start-up positive or negative net cash flows
investment, but have recurring costs (net of cash outflow/ inflow) within
in terms of maintenance, resources a defined time period. The method is
and upgrades. Organisations need complex to calculate and is subjective
to understand the value impact of to the assumed rate of Interest. In case
such investments. There also needs of projects with different durations it
to be a quantification of return on IT is not conclusive in determining the
investments. priority of projects. However, it takes
IT managers must evaluate projects
based on costs, savings, strategic
“An evaluation based into account the risk involved in the
project.
benefits and risks, in order to determine on costs, savings, Economic value added: The
the most advantageous initiatives for
the enterprise. Boards will want to
risks and benefits will method measures the value generated
by a project in comparison to the cost.
know which projects will contribute help determine the It takes into account the opportunity
how much to the strategic and tactical
business goals.
most advantageous value of money and is in line with
shareholders value.
There are various methods for initiatives” It is important for organisations to
evaluating IT projects. It is important understand the value and impact of
to determine the appropriate method technology investments, as well what
for a given project, as the deliverables of subsequent impact in cost reduction those investments imply for effective
each project will vary. While some can and improvement in productivity management.
be quantified straight away, others may n Cycle time reduction While it is generally agreed that IT
have more notional or indirect benefits. n Internal controls conveys value to the business, there
Let us take the example of investment in This example is illustrative. For some are a number of factors that firms must
an ERP project. The benefits will have to project, there can be more tangible or carefully consider when deciding how
be quantified in terms of the following: intangible benefits, so each IT project best to procure and utilise IT resources.
n Eliminating non value adding needs careful evaluation and use of one Organisations must fully understand
PHOTO GRAPHY: S UBHO JIT PAUL
activities of the following methods. the impact of IT capital on business
n Online information, MIS and Return on investments: The method performance and the correlation with
decision making is easy to calculate and interpret. It shareholders’ return-on-investment
n Reduction in manpower and measures the tangible benefits received decisions. Organisations must stay
related resource costs over the amount of investments made in ahead of rapid developments in
n Reliability and better compliances the project. However, it ignores the risk technology and align their technology
n Intelligent data mining and and time value of money. investments to business needs.
8 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
9. TECH TALK
OPINION PREETHAM VENKKY
Chief Catalyst, Catalyst Labs
access. All companies handle multiple
functions ranging from finance to HR
to marketing and sales. Given that the
finance is privy to accounting informa-
Keep it selectively tion, HR is privy to employee-related
information and the software developer
social
is privy to source codes, access can be
allocated to social media sites that cor-
respond to a department’s functionality.
So allow the HR department to
M
access LinkedIn and let the internal
y biggest challenge, communications team access Facebook
both professionally and Twitter while blog access can be for
and personally, has the sales and marketing teams.
been to convince
IT and IT-related Best practices
service companies to openly embrace The next step after allocation is to estab-
social media. That it has been hard to lish a set of best practices. While its
do so is ironic, considering that these planning and training may require you
are IT companies. to hire a social media consultant, estab-
The last time I checked, productivity lishing this process in the early stages
for India-based IT companies would will go a long way in mitigating risks
stoop to zero if access to Google and associated with managing your online
developer blogs was restricted. So, why reputation.
is the scenario the way it is? Let’s try and I believe any best practices you
understand what social media really is. establish for your organisation should
In simple terms, any digital medium incorporate the following seven
that allows for social interaction among
users can be broadly defined as social
“Allow HR to access attributes:
Transparency: In terms of both
media. And the philosophy that guides LinkedIn and let intention and identity of the user.
social media is its unmoderated flow of
information. While at last count there
corpcom access Commitment: In terms of resources,
time and expertise.
were over 250 social media channels Facebook while blog Understanding: Users should have
available on the Internet, Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are
access can be for in-depth understanding of the social
media channel or tool they use.
the leading ones, enabling social sales and marketing“ Listening: What the customers and
conversations in their respective other stake holders are saying online.
domains. website because there were unsavoury Participation: Participation on
comments about their management matters and issues related to the
Corporate communism and its functioning. Despite the site organisation, directly or indirectly.
The no. 1 reason why companies being blocked at the office premises, Contribution: Users should be able
restrict access to social media sites there were more than 1,300 reads for to contribute to the online conversations
is that they believe them to be time- a company of 800 employees. The cat at large with their views and opinions.
wasters. While this argument is valid, was out of the bag and the company’s Value addition: Conscious and
an all-out ban is clearly not the solution. management learnt, the hard way, that a honest attempt should be made to add
With the rise of smart-phones, blockage was not the answer. It’s better value to the social media channel.
(available for Rs 5,000 onwards) to stop hiding behind firewalls and They key aspect in using social
employees anyways have unrestricted learn to defend your brand wherever media is to keep the conversation alive,
access to social sites. What stops them and whenever required. kicking and relevant. We as human
from wasting company time by using beings are community driven and can
their hand-held devices? Allocated access collectively achieve goals faster and
Recently, a leading IT company The key is to find a middle path, more efficiently. It’s better to be tuned
restricted access to MouthShut’s between an all-out ban and unrestricted into this conversation than not.
10 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
10. UPDATE
UPDATE
I N D U S T R Y
TRENDS
DEALS
PRODUCTS
SERVICES
PEOPLE
“Let’s take the example of
financial sector. Banks looking
for more customers for a
specific product can directly
approach and sell the product to
them. That too, with premium
discounts and based on the
tailor-made customer need”
elaborates Schuster.
“Considering this, in the
future a consumer might
not need to go to a retailer.
And this ease can be further
supplemented by the kind of
discounts; a company might
afford to offer by removing
traditional retail medium
completely.” Schuster adds.
The company has recently
announced the launch of its next
Mobile marketing to Enterprises
are expected
version of mobile marketing
platform, Neon. The platform
drive business value to lever-
age mobile
marketing
is intended to deliver compact
marketing system to help mobile
operators run closed loop
EXCLUSIVE | Mobile Marketing has the potential to become the new to reach marketing campaigns within
age value-driver for Indian enterprises, predicts Flytxt in a recent consumers in minutes, from a single web
interaction with IT Next. an impressive desktop, without the help of IT
“The fact is, that, today, mobile has become the most personal way specialists.
medium of interaction among customers and partners. Be it at According to the industry
any level, the medium is capable to create diversified revenue report released by GSMA and
opportunities for all stakeholders,” says Thomas Schuster, Co-founder ComScore, Mobile advertising
and Senior Vice President - Product and Technology, Flytxt. is expected to reach $24 bn by
2013. In India the market is
projected at around $25 mn and
is expected to witness 100%
Global Smartphone Leaders by OS First quarter of
MOBILE
OS
y-o-y growth in next few years.
2010 saw RIM make its debut among the top 5 mobile devices
India currently boasts to
manufacturers, and Apple increasing its market share by 1.2 % (1Q10
MARKET SHARE (%)
have over 600mn cellular
Worldwide 50 subscribers and hence offers
mobile phone
sales to end 40 44.3 enormous potential for operators
I LLUSTRATIO N: S URESH KUMAR
users totalled and content providers to yield
30
314.7 mn revenues from this stream. At
units in the 20 present, the concept of mobile
Blackberry
first quarter of 19.4
Windows
marketing is very limited and
Symbian
Android
2010 15.4
iPhone
10
has not been explored in the real
6.8 9.6
0 business environment.
S O URCE: GARTNER, 2010
12 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
11. SAFEGUARD YOUR DATA THE SMALL GENIUS SPLIT YOUR FILES WITH EASE
Transcend has launched JetFlash 620 Inspan has announced the launch of Steller has launched a
USB Flash Drive. The device Genius ScrollToo 200 Mouse. Being PST File Splitter that can
comes up with the memory touted as value for be used to split a single
of up to 32GB and comes money, the mouse is or multiple file(s). It is
with inbuilt 256-bit Advanced priced at Rs489 and priced at Rs. 2100 for single
Encryption Standard (AES) carries a 3 year war- license and is
security. ranty. Windows 7 compatible.
Microsoft intros office However, IT Next notes that
except the new collaboration
feature , which allows users to
2010 in India integrate with Microsoft’s widely
publicised Web Apps, the latest
version, especially, considering
TECH TIDINGS | Microsoft has the high-price tag, doesn’t seems
announced the availability of to compel users to go for the
Office 2010 system in India. upgrade straightaway.
While the new productivity The company has claimed
suite was made available for that its beta version saw over
commercial purchase from this 13-lakh downloads and over
month, the company informed 2,000 leading businesses and
that the retail editions would be organisations have already
launched on 15 June 2010. made the transition to the latest
The company stated that the version.
2010 professional edition will The software giant has further
cost Rs 20,000 and the SMB announced that the Mobile
and Consumer versions would edition of Office 2010 will soon
cost at Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000, Except the new The new edition of Microsoft be available on Windows 6.5
respectively. collaboration Office 2010 introduces many phones and a broad range of
Microsoft, along with Office tools, the ex- new features like embed videos Nokia smart phones, starting
2010, has also released the pensive version in PowerPoint presentations with Nokia’s business-optimised
SharePoint 2010 collaboration doesn’t justify and voice-to-text conversion range, the E-series.
suite. to upgrade for voice mails on Outlook etc.
AROUND THE WORLD QUICK BYTE
Indian SaaS market to grow
at 53% CAGR
According to a recent projection by Frost and
Sullivan, the SaaS market in India is expected to
record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) STEVE BALLMER CEO, MICROSOFT CORPORA-
TION DURING HIS RECENT INDIA VISIT
of 53% for the period 2008-2015. The country, “COMPANIES ACROSS
characterised by high presence of SMEs, growing THE WORLD WILL
need for mobility and strengthening internet LOOK TO INDIA FOR
infrastructure with heavy investments expected in SUPPORTING THEIR
TRANSITION TO CLOUD
3G and WiMax, promises a huge growth potential COMPUTING”
in this space.
J U N E 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 13
12. UPDATE
SAP buys Sybase for
$5.8 billion
M&A | German software maker
SAP has confirmed the reports
to buy Sybase for $5.8 billion.
The acquisition will allows it
to gain technology to deliver its
programs to mobile devices like
the iPhone. INTERVIEW
“SAP will accelerate the reach MUKESH SHARMA
of its solutions across mobile CEO, QA InfoTech
platforms. Sybase’s innovative
IT NEXT: What is the role of software
mobile platform can connect all
testing for any organisation?
applications and data and enable Largest acquisi- is getting mobile SAP’s
them on mobile devices,” said tion since SAP acquisition of Sybase SHARMA: Over the years, software testing
SAP in a statement. purchased is directed towards has evolved as a multi-billion dollar indus-
This acquisition of SAP would Business Objects enhanced and efficient try. This is primarily because companies
be largest since it purchased in 2007 for 4.8 mobile applications and governments have realised the impact
Business Object in 2007 for billion Euros to help customer in terms of revenue loss, customer satis-
4.8 billion Euros. According access mission critical faction and in some cases loss of life that
to industry analysts this and business critical a defective piece of software can cause.
acquisition will better place SAP applications on the Apart from this, an increased penetra-
to compete with US business move,” says, Praveen tion of ICT at all levels and e-governance
software Oracle, particularly on Bhadada, Engagement initiatives have increased the domestic con-
mobile devices. Manager, Zinnov sumption of software products manifold,
“In a world, where everything Management Consulting. thereby creating a pressing need for testing
and quality assurance.
How do you see the role of cloud in pro-
viding platform for testing services?
Verizon unveils remote In terms of processes, more and more
companies are moving to agile develop-
management solution
ment methodology and thereby demanding
a change in the testing process. Cloud com-
puting and virtualisation helps to do things
in an effective manner. The cloud now
TECH TIDINGS | Verizon has unveiled a According to the company, businesses provides a common platform for developers
new cloud-based service to help work- can configure employees’ portable and testers to share.
ers quickly, and securely, access their computers to select the appropriate
Mobile apps is a growing area? How
corporate networks, while making it network, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet,
do you see it evolving?
easier for IT managers to manage a mobile broadband and virtual private
global mobile workforce. network services, to help increase With hundreds of commercial and free
The new offering, enterprise worker adoption while reducing the applications available for everything from
PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN
mobility as a service, uses advanced need for IT training and technical maps, organisers, e-mail to social network-
software and an intuitive user support. ing, it becomes extremely important to test
interface to enable employee laptops The Enterprise Mobility solution these across the phone platforms. In addi-
and netbooks to detect and connect will be available by next month in 30 tion, the licensing of the 3G spectrum will
to the best network service at a given countries and territories in Europe, open up a whole new space of rich media,
time and place – for example, the Asia-Pacific and the Americas, with TV and real time video applications, making
network with the strongest signal, local billing, currency and support testing a challenging and complex task.
or the one with the lowest charges. options available.
By Nilabh Jha
14 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
13. ARE YOU
INDIA’S FUTURE CIOs
TO FIND OUT GO TO on21st
WWW.ITNEXT.IN JUNE
THE NEXT CIO? 2010
UPDATE
McAfee eases security
TECH TIDINGS
Google
in virtual environments Apps to add
increased
The software
helps map re- connectivity
altime energy Google Apps already had great
consumption connectivity with Gmail, docs,
within the chat, video, calendar, and groups.
enterprise Now, Google has said that it will
be expanding that connectivity to
Reader, AdWords, news, finance,
Picasa, and other services,
thereby allowing users a more
unified approach to their work,
that does not requiire them to
switch between personal and
work accounts to use .
Google said that nine out of the
TECH TIDINGS | McAfee is currently existing virtualised architectures to top 20 product suggestions for
developing a platform and application significantly reduce the overhead of Google Apps request for just this
programming interface to provide a protecting individual machines, said expansion of connectivity, with
framework that will accelerate and George Kurtz, CTO, McAfee. Security thousands of users wanting their
address the specific needs of security within virtualized environments is Google App accounts to work in
for virtualised environments. Accord- one of our customers’ main concerns. synchronisation with the other
ing to the company, the new platform, We believe that enhancing the overall services from Google. The new
McAfee Management for Optimized protection of these environments will functionalities will roll out as a
Virtual Environments (MOVE) plat- lead to increased adoption of virtual new interface later in 2010 by the
form, is designed to provide a common machines with significant costs month of August or September
way to develop across the hypervisor savings. and will be available for all Google
vendors, offload resource intensive McAfee plans to provide open Apps customers. The company
actions like security policy check- source to its partners for security also said that those “customers
ing outside of the individual virtual innovation, accelerating future who would like more control over
machines, and optimise scheduling of virtual-adaptive offerings for the the timing of this change will be
these actions based on the overall state enterprise market. Utilising the MOVE able to make the switch voluntarily
of the hypervisor. platform, McAfee intends to release during the summer.”
McAfee MOVE will provide the A/V Offloading as its first product for
platform for leveraging new and customers.
NEWS @
BLOG
GOOGLE SEARCHES NEW HORIZONS ON TV
THE GOOGLE TV BOX could be a very cool and hopefully inexpensive gaming console | Billionnaire entreprenu-
er and chairman of HDNet, Mark Cuban, thumbs his support for Google TV in his blog | http://bit.ly/itnnewsblogjune10
Google TV is going to be very interesting. It is far from a certainty that it
will be more than Apple TV in terms of consumer sales. From a first glance
the Marketplace is the most important and interesting element of the
announcement. As a development platform, Android creates the potential for
untold unique and interesting applications that could capture users imagination.
J U N E 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 15
14. 6
COVER STORY | GREEN IT
PRACTICAL
WAYS TO
g
16
O
IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0
REEN
A handbook on how to green
the enterprise.
BY SHASHWAT DC
ILLUSTRATI ON: ANOO P P C
15. GREEN IT | COVER STORY
F
or the past few years there has been an immense
buzz around green, with the growing realisation
that our current way of living cannot be sustain-
able in the long run, every action – be it positive
or negative – has become very critical in the grand
battle of climate change. Much like the proverbial
Butterfly Effect, the outcomes and repercussions
of our every day actions can be manifold. Thus
it is not altogether surprising that ICT sector –
including personal computers (PCs) and periph-
erals, telecoms networks and devices and data centres – that accounts for
over 2% of total emissions from human activity is also looking at green in
a serious way.
The green debate raises two questions: How does an enterprise go green?
And more importantly, why should the IT manager be concerned?
First, from an enterprise perspective, green is not merely about
environment but more about economics. Considering the ever increasing
costs of power, green is more a necessity than a privilege for companies.
And, indeed there is a lot that can be done on that front, right from swapping
incandescent bulbs for compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to moving into
a green building. By the way, according to the Smart 2020 report, in 2002,
the global data centre footprint, including equipment use and embodied
carbon, was 76 MtCO2e and this is expected to more than triple by 2020 to
259 MtCO2e – making it the fastest-growing contributor to the ICT sector’s
carbon footprint, at 7% pa in relative terms. Hence, there is a range of things
from micro to macro that can be achieved through such measures.
Coming to the IT manager part; going ahead as green becomes more
and more mainstream, it will pose as a challenge and opportunity for the
IT manager. Challenge, as they have to bring down the costs continuously
to ensure higher productivity. And then, as the IT manager aspires to
taken on a executive role, a green hue can be of much help and would add
well to the profile.
To start off, we present a simple 6 step guide to green that covers almost
all the areas. Based on a pan-India enterprise survey (IT Next Green Survey
2010) in which over 130 senior IT managers participated and shared their
views, in which the best practices in green were mapped on an enterprise
scale. Culled from the numerous interactions, here is a handbook on how
to implement green. So, go right ahead, and start greening your company.
J U N E 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT 17
16. COVER STORY | GREEN IT
SERVER CONSOLIDATION
VIRTUALISE TO
CONSOLIDATE
Through virtualisation IT managers can
reduce the number of servers in an energy-
efficient way
UPGRADE OR RECON-
FIGURE DATACENTER
In plain-speak, data centres are noth-
COOLING footprint is a little complex, and requires
INFRASTRUCTURE?
ing less than an energy-guzzling power much diligence and application. Of the
monsters. Within a typical enterprise, many ways, virtualisation is gaining
the datacenter can account for anything Never immense ground over the past few
0.7%
from 15% to as much as 50% of power years. In a typical scenario, enterprises
usage of the IT function. Hence, reduc- will have a host of servers, often one for
ing the energy consumption within every enterprise-wide application, or
23.7%
the datacenter is quite an essential and Intend To racks and racks of storage containing
important aspect of going green. And Yes archaic information. Virtualisation
the truth is, it is not that hard either of servers and software can be of
58.2%
Source: IT NEXT Green Survey 2010
17.2%
as since quite a few years, it has been No immense help as companies can then
on the energy map of the industry and consolidate their infrastructure. In fact,
scores of solutions are readily available. a virtualisation device or a software
Greening the datacenter involves application can track the server space
two aspects, namely, reducing the IT managers are indeed looking at and remap applications to different
computing energy map and also the ways to cool the datacenter, with the physical locations as necessary. With
ancillary energy consumption. The use of new cooling technologies virtualisation, information can be
need to pay attention to ancillary made location-independent and can be
infrastructure is important because redirected across multiple I/O
cooling infrastructure consume much “BETWEEN 30-60% devices and platforms.
energy, according to some estimates as POWER IN DATA CENTRE It is much easier to go in for a
much as 60%of the power consumed.
IS WASTED. INTEGRATED green datacenter when you go in
PLANNING CAN REDUCE
Reducing the computing energy POWER CONSUMPTION for a new one, but even the existing
BY 50-80% ” one can be ‘greened’ with a little
RAZAUDDIN SHAIKH, HEAD planning. Server consolidation
IT, ANI MEDIA through virtualisation could be a
good starting point. Next up can be
4
“BY VIRTUALISATION software/application consolidation
WE REDUCED ENERGY which will help in reducing the hardware
COSTS PER SERVER BY infrastructure. Cloud is also emerging as
50%. SO, EVEN AFTER WE
a green datacenter option, with the ability
DOUBLED THE NUMBER
OF SERVERS, KILOWATT- to host remotely and efficiently.
tonnes
HOURS USAGE DROPPED
BY APPROX 25% ”
STEP GUIDE
AMIT BHASIN, MANAGER -
DC, DLF PRAMERICA LIFE of CO2 are emitted annually n Measure energy footprint of the differ-
ent equipment in the datacenter
INSURANCE
per server across the globe n Reduce ancillary power consumption
n Go for virtualisation
n Consolidate software and applications
18 IT NEXT | J U N E 2 0 1 0