The American Dialect Society formally declared “google” as the “word of the decade (2000-2009)
Interestingly “blog” became the “word of the year” some time back!
Web is changing the face of human communications too, let alone communication among computers!
General
Technology
Products
o Palm tried to reincarnate itself through its Palm Pre (launched in June), Palm Pixi (launched in November) and its App Store
o HTC, RIM & Nokia launch their “touch” enabled smart phones
o Acer, Huawei & Lenovo enter the smart phone market
o Motorola is attempting another success story thru Droid
o Google is planning its own handset
Markets
o Oracle acquisition of Sun (for $ 6.7 billion) in May is still awaiting approval from European regulators
o Intel acquired Wind River with leading-edge real time OS product
o Cisco acquired video conferencing equipment vendor Tandberg
o EMC acquired Data Domain
o IBM acquired statistical software company SPSS
o Dell acquired IT services major Perot Systems for $ 3.9 billion
o Personal accounting software major Intuit acquired financial information company Mint
o Global travel services major Travelocity acquired TravelGuru
o Banking software major Polaris acquired another Chennai-based banking software product LaserSoft
o Mindtree acquired Kyocera Networks group in India
Indian IT Companies
o Infosys starts Brazil operations
o MPhasis goes to Sri Lanka
o InfoTech Enterprises enters Malaysian markets
o Mindtree enters China.
o HCL is No1 as per “Black book of IT Outsourcing”
o Fortune IT 100 has TCS & Infosys
o BusinessWeek includes TCS & Infosys in “Most Innovative” list
o Infosys is the “Best SAP Implementer” (Forrester Research)
o iGate launches the largest “green office” facility in Bangalore
o With 100+ million customers (May 15), Airtel is world’s No 3 telecom service provider
o Wipro & HCL bag large orders from Government
o Tejas Networks wins $ 150 million BSNL order against global competition
MNC Companies in India
Global Corporations continue to let on India in the year 2009
o Cisco launches second campus in Bangalore and talks of $ 2 billion investment
o EMC commissions 1.5 millions square feet facility in Bangalore and plans $ 1.5 billion investment in India
o NVIDIA talks of Pune facility as second headquarters
o IBM is the largest IT vendor in India
o Nokia starts sourcing Indian content (AR Rahman album)
o Mercedes Benz to increase headcount from 250 to 800
o Perot Systems to hire 1,000 professionals in India
o SAP starts innovation center in Bangalore
o Intuit starts operations in India with focus on India specific products
o McAfee starts 3rd India development center
o French IT services major CapGemini to double India head count
o Israeli IT services major Ness Technologies expands Bangalore center
Telecom
The Indian telecom story continues to be interesting
o On Nov 19, 2009, overall phone user population in India officially crossed the 500 million mark
o By Dec 31, 2009 Indian mobile user population would have touched 500 million (official TRAI announcement will happen on January 23, 2010)
o Monthly addition of 15+ million subscribers continue to better the global benchmark
o Reliance adds 5 million GSM subscribers in their first month of operation (January)
o Tata (with DoCoMo of Japan), Telnor (under Uninor brand) and MTS launch their GSM operations in India in 2009
o Telecom tariff continue to drop (though Indian tariff is lowest in the world); all operators offer “per second” metering of charges!
o The government continues to delay 3G licenses missing the opportunity of increasing mobile broadband in India
People
Interesting Applications
Infrastructure
Education & Research
IT related services
Interesting Numbers
o 134 min / day / user and
o 8.4 SMS per day with 2.6 incoming and 5.8 outgoing
September 2, 1969 marks the launch of the first node of ARPANET that later grew to the Internet as we know the Net today.
Internet came to India thru ERNET Project that connected 5 IITs, IISc, NCST and DoE (Department of Electronics) in 1986 as an UNDP funded project (8 million USD)
Many of us in the first decade used E-Mail, remote login and occasionally FTP services. We went to the Internet (in one or two labs) and checked mail a couple of times in a week. Other than IIT community it was pretty much nowhere else in India (except IAS officers who got access to the Net thru NICNET from 1990)
Only on August 15, 19955 the common man (and woman) got Net access.
We have come a long way
Today the Net is there everywhere; every student and professor (let alone uncle and aunty as well as grand Ma and grand Pa) have at least one mail ID!
E-mail comes to you (on y iPhone for me); you check several times in an hour!
You Goggle, look at stock prices, read newspapers, listen to YouTube Kachery (Carnatic music programs) and even watch TV
Not a day goes without accessing the Net. What a transformation!
Good morning friends
It is indeed an honor and privilege to be invited to deliver this keynote address. My respects to the distinguished Chief Guest and the organizers; greetings to the participants.
Information is entering the center-stage of all our human activities across government, education, industry and media. With the electronification of processes across the spectrum, the issue of information security assumes further importance. It is in this context the 12th Annual Karnataka Conference of ISACA assumes importance.
I am indeed sorry I could not be present personally; I would try to meet you all on Saturday after the UGC Committee visit is over.
As part of this keynote address let me bring three key issues to your attention
1 The banking sector is going through a tremendous transformation, thanks to technology introduction through core banking software. Internet-banking, tele-banking, SMS-banking and ATM are supplementing the traditional channel of bank branch. These new channels pose unprecedented challenges in terms of security; often the issues are not fully addressed. The tech-savvy youth of India are “lapping up” the new generation of services looking at the convenience aspects; the under-served rural population too is equally enthusiastic. While such a development is definitely welcome (particularly when several users in many countries display techno-phobia), it is a definite challenge that must be fully addressed. We should not get into situations that other industries faced – fire accidents in cinema halls or escalator accidents in shopping malls – introduction of technology without due attention to safety aspects.
2 The government sector is seeing large-scale introduction of technology, thanks to National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) with a budget running into tens of thousands of crores. Once again, it is a welcome development; for the first time, millions of citizens will have direct, easy, friendly and affordable access to government. Projects like e-Sewa in Andhra Pradesh or Bangalore One in Karnataka are stellar examples. Care must be taken to ensure that government services are delivered fast without compromising on privacy or security.
3 Healthcare is another area where there is large-scale induction of technology. Tele-medicine is taking “fancy” hospitals in major cities to far-flung rural India (India and Bharat are getting “bridged”). This is once again a welcome development. The privacy and security aspects of the health information of individual citizens should not be compromised in our enthusiasm to “reach out”.
These are just three instances I want the outstanding information security professionals assembled here to address, over the next two days. For a large and diverse country like India, security of information in the delivery of services is as important as hygiene is to the delivery of healthcare.
Thanking you once again for giving me this honor and apologies for not being physically present amongst you and learn from the stimulating deliberations over the next two days.
(Keynote Address at 12th ISACA Karnataka Conference in Bangalore during July 24-25, 2009; I had to get it read out as I got sucked into UGC Review Committee that was visiting IIIT-B during July 24-25, 2009)
It was nice listening to Turing Award (considered as Novel Prize in computing) winner and Cornell Professor John Hopcroft at Infosys today (2:15 – 3:15 PM on July 15, 2009).
The erudite professor well known for his contribution to theory of computing (and the widely used books on Automata Theory) was emphasizing the need for Computer Science researchers to look at the challenging problems of tomorrow i.e., next 30 years and not remain comfortable with computer science of yesterday, i.e., past 30 years.
As far as the learned professor is concerned, operating systems, programming, networks and databases belong to yesterday’s computer science, while random graphs, giant computer networks, sensor networks are some of the topics of tomorrow’s computer science.
He also talked of the way publishing will change; he cited the example where young researchers refusing to publish in journals that did not allow indexing by search engines (Google & Yahoo) forced the publishers to allow indexing by search engines.
He gave examples of future search options.
It was an enjoyable event; it was nice to see the large hall overflowing with several people sitting on the floor (including me, though after a while Tan Moorthy, Head, E & R, found a seat for me)
SEE (Smart Enterprise Exchange) was launched in India by UBM (United Business Media) India (thru Network Computing) and CA (Computer Associates) with an event titled “The power of lean IT” at Hotel Oberoi, Bangalore
I gave the keynote address where I talked of the need to look all over for savings – data center (servers, storage & networking), software, customer equipment (PCs, laptops, smart phones) and services- and to look for million opportunities to save a dollar than looking for an opportunity to save a big one million dollar in one place
Laxman Badiga, CIO Wipro talked of 40+ percent savings in transportation & communication; this was further elaborated by Kenny Kesar, VP, Wipro.
Peter Waterhouse, Strategy Advisor, CA who flew in from Australia talked of the learnings from manufacturing.
There was an interesting Panel discussion with N Nataraj, CIO, Hexaware, V Balakrishnan, CIO, Polaris Software and Amit Chatterjee, MD CA India moderated by Val Souza, Editorial Director, UBM India
All in all it was an educative event
Interesting coincidence – I got a copy of NR Narayana Murthy’s recent book “A better India – A better world” as a gift; only yesterday IUCEE gave me a copy as a present for my talk on “Why teaching is exciting?”
IT in May 2009
General
Technology
Products
Markets
MNC Companies in India
Indian IT Companies
Telecom
Education & Research
People
Interesting Numbers
I had an opportunity to moderate a Panel discussion on
“Making the right IT investments in an uncertain economy”
as part of Catalyst 09 – the global Smart SoA Seminar – that IBM organizes at many locations around the world.
I had a very distinguished set of Panelists
Romil Turakhia COO of Automated Workflow - Bangalore-based consulting firm that specializes in workflow, SoA for 13 years
Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, CTO of Reliance Capital
Sandy Carter, VP, SoA, IBM New York
and
Praveen Senger of IDC
We had a User (Reliance), Consultant (Automated Workflow), Supplier (IBM) and Analyst (IDC). My job was rather simple, be the “bell man” to ensure people get lunch on time!
Interestingly, the panel used smart SoA as a smart way to approach IT investment in an uncertain economy. I started out with two examples
IT applications also will need to be looked into critically; smart SoA fits in well. It willl need small investments but will increase return on investments hugely
There were many questions; about cloud computing, IBM tools, further information, security,..
All in all it was an enjoyable experience
(Panel discussion at Hyatt Hotel, Mumbai 12 Noon to 1:15 PM on May 21, 2009)
Enterprise software started as commercial applications in 60’s & 70’s. The rise of IBM, payroll and inventory applications dominated the market. Disk and tape storage, COBOL language, EDP departments were the offshoots in 60’s and filesystems, DBMS and relational systems got into mainstream.
In 80’s & 90’s the landscape changed completely – LAN, Internet, client server, n-tier, open systems & standards (plus open source), offshoring, outsourcing – made it possible to have enterprise-wide applications – ERP was the result. Quickly it got extended to SCM, CRM, eMarket, portals and PLM. User expectations changed – browser became the “universal interface”; users expected instant gratifications – results at “mouse click” however complicated was the process behind. Microprocessors commoditized hardware (intel); shrink-wrap commoditized software (Microsoft)
As we move forward consolidation is happening at an unprecedented speed; servers got consolidated; HP, IBM & Sun (that is also gone on April 20, 2009 after Oracle acquisition of Sun); O/S consolidation was next; DBMS, middleware, applications too are getting consolidated. Cloud computing, SaaS / pay per use models are maturing. Web 2.0 tools are there everywhere. Mash-up seems to be the rage. Thanks to SAP, package implementation (not full blown development) has entered the mainstream. System Integrators decide many parts of the stack and not technology vendors alone.
It will be interesting to watch the further growth of enterprise applications in the next decade (along with the growth of SAP)
Truly enterprise applications have been the force behind many developments in computing in the decades
It will be interesting to watch the impact of technology evolution, user expectation and the morphing of enterprise applications in the next decade
(Talk given at People Summit at SAP Labs, Bangalore on April 23, 2009)
Analytics is an interesting area. You need some powerful data mining tools; in turn, the tools needs “data”; unless there is an enterprise level software (ERP, SCM, CRM..) running for a couple of years there may not be enough organized and machine readable data, often stored in a data warehouse; data mining tools use data from a data warehouse to “slice & dice”. So one needs data and tools to do analytics. But one also needs people with an “analytical mindset” to use the tools! This is often forgotten in corporations that want to use analytics. It is not that you need PhDs in CS or MBA’s from Wharton; they are great to have but not easily available or affordable; but corporations wanting to benefit from Analytics will be better advised to invest in the right people; those who can question, who can analyze, look for insights; not always able to program, write efficient code or familar with tools. If you have the right people and train them in the tools you will get the results; not merely buying tools.
Sybase is an admired company; it was interesting to note their growth in the recent years. We know their DBMS engine; we know the way Sybase partnered with Microsoft and the later “divorce”. We know their early pioneering exercise of “columnar” database (thru their Sybase IQ product) and the 10 to 100 fold performance improvement in specific contexts. It was interesting to see their dominance in stock exchanges (24 out of top 25 and 46 out of top 50). Their foray into “wired enterprise” and Sybase 365 managing 200 billion SMS messages a year working with 700 mobile operators. They are even talking of “Analytics Appliance”
In short “manage, analyze and mobilize” aptly captures the essence of Sybase offerings today.
I have a personal association with Sybase in India; I recall Ramana Gogula setting up the India office starting at Le Meridien (the very hotel where the Seminar was held) where Ramana himself was staying. How NIIT used to sell Sybase (competing with Mastek selling Ingres and later Informix doing direct selling) before Oracle domination started in a big way (after 1998)
(Keynote address given in “Xtreme Analytics” event organized by Sybase and Express Computers at Hotel Le Meridien, Bangalore on April 21, 2009)
