[In The Photograph ] :-

From L to R : Deepak Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, Anoop Nambiar, Country Manager- BPO, IBM India (P) Ltd., LN Rao, Country Manager - Cloud Division, HP India, Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance, Go IP Global Services Pvt. Ltd, Bhavin Bhatt, Country Manager, M-tech India, K Manohar Raja, GM- Railtel Corporation of India, Ministry of Railways, Prof. V. Rajaraman, Supercomputer Education & research Centre, IIS, Bangalore, Dr. D. S. Ravindran, CEO, e-governance, Dept of IT, Govt. of Karnataka, Rajiv Rao, Director- SMB Business, Lenovo India (P) Ltd., Ganesh Arumugam, Director-Partners, VMware Software India (P) Ltd., and Ashok Mohapatra, Regional Manager- South, VARINDIA. 

From L to R: Deepak Sahu (VARINDIA), Rajiv Rao (Lenovo) and extreme right Dr. D. S. Ravindran (Government of Karnataka) honoring Chief Guest Padma Bhushan Prof V. Rajaraman (IIS, Bengaluru).

The second edition of VARINDIA's SIITF, which was held on 27th October, 2011 in Bengaluru, was once again a resounding success. Prof. V. Rajaraman, Supercomputer Education & Research Centre, IIS, Bengaluru, was the Chief Guest and Dr. D. S. Ravindran, CEO, e-Governance, Dept of IT, Government of Karnataka, and K. Manohar Raja, General Manager - RailTel Corporation of India, Ministry of Railways, were the Guests of Honour. The event kick-started with the auspicious lamplighting ceremony by Prof. V. Rajaraman, along with other esteemed guests who included Dr. D. S. Ravindran, K. Manohar Raja, Ganesh Arumugam, Director - Partners, VMware Software India (P) Ltd.; Anoop Nambiar, Country Manager - BPO, IBM India (P) Ltd.; Rajiv Rao, Director - SMB Business, Lenovo India (P) Ltd.; Anand Swaminathan, CEO, Zicom Electronics Security; Lux. Rao, Country Manager - Cloud Division, HP India; Sivakumar SK, Regional Manager (W) - Motorola wireless Network Solutions; Sriram S, CEO, iValue Info Solutions; Bhavin Bhatt, Country Manager, M-Tech India; Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance, GoIP Global Services (P) Ltd.; Deepak Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA; and Ashok Mohapatra, Regional Manager - South, VARINDIA.

Mr. Deepak Sahu spoke about how Asia has emerged as the global economic powerhouse, and cloud computing is clearly the next big thing in the enterprise IT space. Since the overall IT spending is projected to increase by 3 to 6 per cent in 2011, this implies much greater use of web and less use of in-house servers and the apps running on them. Last but not the least, he spoke about the growth opportunities in India due to huge domestic requirements, which will safeguard India from the heat of recession in the coming days.	Prof. V. Rajaraman shared that though, Computing Infrastructure (both hardware and software) is expensive to buy, install and maintain for which Cloud comes as a possible answer, still there are some challenges related to Cloud. Connectivity issues in cloud cause major difficulties especially in today’s time. Failure of servers of a cloud provider is not acceptable at all by the customers. Customers fear of getting bound with a particular provider once signed for that specific tenure. Thus there is a Need of standardization of Cloud services so that they have a common goal and is of maximum benefit to all.	Thanking Mr. Rajaraman for giving guidance to the Govt. of Karnataka Dr. DS Ravindran shared that Karnataka had its first District Data Centre in 2005 and were the first to adapt virtualization technology and have been reaping the benefits for the past 3 years. Last year Govt. of Karnataka spent about 3 crores in the eGovernance which means People, Process and Technology. And this budget is continuously growing in a quest for doing things in more efficient way. He introduced the state as a state with willingness to try and adopt new technologies and deliver best of services as soon as possible.

The morning session emphasised on the networking between vendors and customers. There were presentations from Lenovo, VMware, Motorola and eScan. Rajiv Rao shared that Cloud is a technology which is going to stay and thus Lenovo's current and forthcoming launches are cloud ready. Ganesan Arumugam while defining cloud shared how VMware is present across the three delivery models. Nabiraj S. Prasad, Manager - TA, Motorola Wireless Network Solutions, talked about the USPs of 802.11n technology. Last but not the least, Amancio Britto, Sr. Technical Manager, Micro World Software Services (P) Ltd., highlighted the security concerns in general and eScan is helping customers to combat all the available threats and attacks.

Prof. V. Rajaraman, while addressing the gathering, said, "Cloud computing is quite fashionable today. But one should not forget that reaching a destination involves a journey. In the same way, technology is all about evolution." He also added that when computing speed is doubling every 18 months, storage size doubling every 12 months and communication bandwith doubling every nine months, the future of Cloud is bright, but at the same time he highlighted the challenges which need to be considered and addressed for its full take-off. "It is not that Cloud is an unsecured platform but still Security of multiple perspective and not just data in the public cloud is a major concern till date."

Sivakumar SK (Motorola) elaborating on the role of WiFi in India and Motorola’s wireless portfolio.	Ganesan Arumugam (VMware) sharing the company's offerings in Cloud and how they are still relying on their loyal channel for selling of Cloud.	Rajiv Rao (Lenovo) sharing the importance of IT as a tool for the SMBs to reach their customers.

Taking a cue from the Professor's speech, Dr. D. S. Ravindran elaborated on "Computer is not an end but a means". He also gave the Government of Karnataka's perspective on Cloud and the various strategies recently undertaken. He shared that Technology is a great enabler to deliver good service.

Amancio Britto (eScan) sharing present day's security concerns and how they are addressing the issues thanks to their vast channel presence across India.	Ms. Syeda Beenish Khalid, Associate Editor, VARINDIA giving the valedictory note

The most-awaited session of the event, panel discussion on "Future of VARs in an era of Cloud Computing" was moderated by Lux Rao of HP. The panelists included Dr. D. S. Ravindran, K. Manohar Raja, Ganesh Arumugum, Rajiv Rao, Bhavin Bhatt, Anand Swaminathan, and G. Dharanibalan, Vice-President - Offering Management & Development, Global Technology Services, IBM India. The panellists stated that people today are aiming at more slim and trim, cost-effective, highly secured, productive and efficient business infrastructure. And, all agreed that Cloud offers all the desired advantages in one go.In the evening session, Sivakumar SK from Motorola elaborated on the morning's Nabiraj's presentation by detailing some more products for their wireless portfolio and the role of channel. Also, Amancio Britto and Ganesh added the role of partner in their presentations in the evening session as the evening session was attended more by the channel partners.

Manohar shared that customers doubt the reliability of partners role in cloud selling. And at the same time, Rajiv both brought to light that margins still have been a concern for the partners. While analysing the current situation, other panellists advised that its the right time when partners should emphasise on the ownership of their customers and should look for long term association with vendors. Cloud would be the technology which would act as the business enabler that too at the time when the margins are shrinking.

Based on his experience at IBM, Dharanibalan interestingly summarised that if partners start acting as the trusted advisor, and are ready to evolve as solution providers, 80% of the problem is solved. To this Ganesh added and informed the audience that no vendor wants to approach customers directly. If partners are ready and show interest vendors are actually doing lot of initial handholding while approaching customers as they are the 'feet on streets for the vendors'."Don't be afraid of Cloud like any past technology. Partners can and have a major role to play provided they once again believe in the Spirit of Transformation. Cloud adds that real 'value' to their names VARs," concluded Lux Rao.

The SIITF platform was used for networking by the IT industry towards making cloud a success. 

Syeda Beenish
beenish@varindia.com