VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Sonata has won the 2014 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for India. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,800 entrants from 117 different countries worldwide. Sonata was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services, as well as demonstrating excellent subsidiary engagement in India. The Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Awards honour partners at the country level that have demonstrated business excellence in delivering Microsoft solutions to multiple customers over the past year. This award recognizes Sonata as succeeding in effective engagement with its local Microsoft office while showcasing innovation and business impact, driving customer satisfaction and winning new customers. On the occasion, Sujit Mohanty, Head- Te

Flytxt was recognized as a leader in Marketing Analytics category at the 2014 Frost & Sullivan India ICT Awards. Flytxt enables Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to increase revenue, reduce churn, enhance customer experience and generate new revenue streams through its integrated multi-dimensional analytics powered solutions.  Frost & Sullivan India ICT Awards, currently in its 12th year, acknowledges the exemplary companies and individuals who have pushed the boundaries of excellence –risen above competition and demonstrated outstanding performance in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in India.  “We are delighted to receive this recognition from Frost & Sullivan for our advanced analytics platform and solutions. It validates our strategy to offer a total solution portfolio of technology platform, business applications and enabling services leveraging our proprietary integrated multi-dimensional analytics framework, to enable CSPs to generate

Christopher Formant, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, has promoted Francis Yip to group vice president of Verizon Asia Pacific. In his new role, Yip is responsible for delivering strategic cloud, security, mobility, network and connected machines solutions to Verizon’s multinational enterprise clients across the Asia-Pacific region. Based in Hong Kong, Yip was most recently Verizon’s managing director for North Asia, with responsibility for Verizon’s business in Hong Kong, China, Korea and Taiwan. Formant said, “Francis is an exceptional talent, and we believe he has the experience and expertise to continue to grow our business in Asia-Pacific. His leadership in North Asia in the past two years has earned him a first-class reputation for commercial acumen. His in-depth understanding of technology businesses in Asia, particularly in emerging markets, willbe instrumental in helping our customers move their businesses forward.” Prior to joining Verizon, Yip was responsible for

Warnings about the impending cyber-attack have gone unheeded and more must be done to tackle the threat of an infection, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).Hugh Boyes, IET cyber security expert said, “Based on the latest statements from the National Crime Agency it would appear that their campaign to encourage computer users to scan for and remove GoZeus and CryptoLocker infections has been only partially successful. He further adds, “The IET believes that more could be done to tackle existing infections. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), for example, could restrict internet access to infected machines or Internet Protocol addresses by redirecting users to a page with information on infection removal. They could also provide telephone technical support to customers to help them to remove the malware.A joined-up approach of law enforcement working with the ISPs to reduce the number of infected computers would benefit everyone.” Useful tips from the IET in

A global fraud study of more than 6,100 consumers across 20 countries revealed that one in four consumers is a victim of card fraud in the last five years. The study, conducted by ACI Worldwide and Aite Group, also highlighted that 23 percent of consumers changed financial institutions due to dissatisfaction after experiencing fraud.  Card fraud is comprised of unauthorized activity on three types of payment cards—debit, credit and prepaid. Cardholders experience fraud at very different rates around the globe, and each type of card has unique fraud challenges. The U.A.E. has the highest rate of fraud overall at 44 percent, followed by China at 42 percent and India and the United States at 41 percent each.  “Given this latest data, financial institutions have their work cut out for them, both in terms of educational and preventative measures,” said Shirley Inscoe, senior analyst, Aite Group. “Consumers lack confidence in their bank’s ability to protect them from fraud, so banks must rem

element14 has announced the winners of ‘Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge’, an initiative to provide an opportunity for young design enthusiasts to develop a consumer device on the very popularRaspberry Pi by creating the ultimate karaoke machine.  Shrenik Shikhare from Telangana is the Grand Prize winner chosen by a panel of judges and Srinivasan Kanni Udaiyar from Tamil Nadu is the runner up voted by the element14 Community. They have been chosen among the 15 shortlisted contestants who submitted unique versions of the karaoke machine. The contestants used the Raspberry Pi and itsaccessories to create a state-of-the-art karaoke experience. Contestants were judged on their creativity and the quality of engagement during the course of their projects through blog posts, videos and designs, including photos and diagrams. The Grand Prize winner received an Apple iPhone 5S and the runner up received a Sony PlayStation 4.  “At element14, we are committed to drive innovation among young develo

Internet Explorer has released Developer Channel, a fully functioning browser designed to give web developers a sneak peak at the web platform features. Developer Channel can run alongside and independently of IE11 and is available for developers using Windows 8.1 and Windows 7. It has all of the features from IE11 plus some new ones: support for WebDriver, support for the Gamepad API, updates to WebGL and enhancements to the F12 Developer Tools. IE Developer Channel comes with more improvements to the F12 developer tools, including - •    An enhanced debugging experience with event breakpoints that help you get to your event-driven bugs faster. •    Richer analysis capabilities throughout the Memory and UI Responsiveness profilers, which support further reduction of noise through multi-dimensional timeline filter, while further increasing the semantic value of the data being reported by lighting up performance. •    An improved navigation experience that provides more keyboard shortc

Netmagic has been named Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Provider of the year at the 2014 Frost & Sullivan India ICT Awards. Netmagic was felicitated with this award in recognition of its outstanding performance, market leadership, and new technologies application in cloud services. Its feature rich self-service, pay-as-you-use, project governance capabilities and end-user confidence delivered through public cloud grid at major cities in India has positioned Netmagic as a holistic cloud consulting partner and a value-for-money service provider who offers best in class cloud infrastructure and solutions that empower enterprises with fully automated access, control, security, and scalability. Sharad Sanghi, Managing Director and CEO, Netmagic , says, “It is a moment of honor and elation for us to have received this esteemed award. What makes us even happier is that we have been recognized by a jury consisting of some of India’s best analysts and leaders in the ICT industry,

More than six months after Xb ox One's initial launch, Microsoft has announced that it is bringing the gaming console to India at a price of Rs 39,990 without Kinect and Rs 45,990 with the Kinect senso r. Xbox One will be available in the Indian market starting 23 September 2014.  The Xbox One bundles will include the Xbox One console — which features a 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray player and built-in Wi-Fi, one Xbox One Wireless Controller and a free 14-day trial of Xbox Live Gold for new members.With the Kinect sensor, the console offers features like gesture controls, biometric sign-in, controller paring, Skype video calls, personalization, instant scanning of QR codes, and enhanced features available with games such as 'Kinect Sports Rivals,' 'Dead Rising 3,' and 'Project Spark.' The Xbox One gaming launch line up in India will include gaming titles like 'Forza Horizon 2' and 'Halo: The Master Chief Collection,' which comes with the 'H

SafeNet has appointed Prakash Panjwani as the company's new President, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. The 12-year SafeNet veteran has held several executive positions within the organization, most recently the position of Senior Vice-President and General Manager of the company's rapidly-growing Data Protection group. Panjwani will succeed current President and CEO, Dave Hansen, who has chosen to leave the organization for personal reasons. "The board would like to thank Dave for his leadership, significant contributions, and continued support of both Prakash and the organization," said Dave Fishman , a Partner at Vector Capital and member of SafeNet's Board of Directors. "Prakash has been the driving force behind many of the company's most critical initiatives for over a decade. He not only has a proven track record for driving positive change within the organization, but is an inspirational leader

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   HPS  has announced that it has entered into a global services alliance agreement with  Tech Mahindra . Under this agreement, HPS' flagship PowerCARD payments technology  will now be available to Tech Mahindra’s customers worldwide. The alliance will enable Tech Mahindra’s financial institutions and payment processing customers of all sizes to improve their cards and payments businesses by replacing legacy hardware and software with a single, flexible and cost processing effective platform. Abdeslam Alaoui, Managing Director, HPS , said, "Tech Mahindra benefits from a truly global network, and its expansion plans are very much in line with our own strategy. The collaboration between HPS and Tech Mahindra has been excellent and HPS will continue working with Tech Mahindra to deliver modernization programs in electronic payment for any financial institution that is looking to win market share or escape the technology legacy t

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Former CTO of SAP, Vishal Sikka  has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and MD of  Infosys(NYSE:INFY) . He will join as a whole time Director of the board on 14th  of this month and take over the position of CEO and MD from S D Shibulal on August 1. Previously he was a member of the Executive Board of SAP, steering innovation globally.  On his appointment, Sikka said that he is honored to lead Infosys and that he looks forward to work with and learn from talented Infoscions around the world. He is grateful to the Infosys Nominations and Governance Committee, Kamath, Murthy and the board for the opportunity. The board has also elevated UB Pravin Rao, President and whole-time Director, as the Chief Operating Officer, with effect from June 14. Executive Chairman, N R Narayana Murthy and his son Rohan Murty  will step down from their position as Executive Chairman and Executive Vice-Chairman respectively on June 14. Murt

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Juniper Networks(NYSE:JNPR)  and  Aruba Networks  have signed a strategic agreement to deliver open, converged wired and wireless network solutions based on best-of-breed technologies. The partnership includes both joint development efforts and go-to-market collaboration, with the goal of providing innovative solutions for the toughest problems facing enterprises. As part of this effort, Juniper is enabling technology partners, like Aruba, to take advantage of Juniper's programmable silicon by making available key software elements and new programmable application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the High-IQ enterprise - an open, smart approach to enterprise networking that allows customers to fundamentally transform the user and operator experience. This will help foster industry collaboration to accelerate innovation for customers and partners. "Juniper is delivering best-of-breed High-IQ networks to customers t

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   As organizations continue to migrate mission-critical applications to the cloud, secure access to sensitive data and application workloads remains critically important,  Fortinet(NASDAQ:FTNT)  has announced support for secure access to the  Microsoft Azure cloud platform . With immediate effect, customers can benefit from a secure  virtual private network (VPN)  access to Microsoft's Azure cloud offering while leveraging Fortinet’s broad and multi-layered security technologies across network, application and content security. "Microsoft Azure's cloud scalability, performance and economic benefits make it a convincing choice for customers wanting to leverage the cloud while continuing to use existing on-premises infrastructure. These customers require secure VPN access from office and branch networks to the cloud, and Fortinet’s next-generation firewall platforms extend on-premises data centers to the cloud while enabli

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Uganda's telecommunication regulator  has given a nod to the Indian telecom giant  Bharti Airtel  on the acquisition of  Warid Telecom . This acquisition will help the giant to bolster its position in the country. In a statement by the company, it is said that Airtel's proposed acquisition of Warid Telecom has received approvals from the Uganda Communications Commission. With this, Airtel will further consolidate its position as the second-largest mobile operator in Uganda with a combined customer base of over 7.2 million and market share of over 39%. Airtel Uganda Managing Director VG Somasekhar  said that the acquisition will create a superior and wider network and the company will invest more in the key areas such as technological innovation and customer service. The company will continue to invest in the country and the Warid customers will be able to retain their existing mobile numbers. Moreover, customers will al

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC)  has selected  Tata DoCoMo  to set up  Wi-Fi services in the Connaught Place (CP) area, New Delhi . Covering more than 4 kms, deployment of Wi-Fi hotspot will ensure seamless connectivity in the inner and outer circles of one of the most significant business and leisure centres in the city. CP, which is a prominent place in the National Capital with its historic and business perspective, is frequented by thousands of people visiting every day for business as well as casual and hang out. The place is rated as one of the most expensive business destinations in the world, according to global property consultant CBRE Group. Avinash Gabriel, Chief Operating Officer, Wi-Fi Business, Tata DoCoMo , said, "We are proud of our long-term partnership with NDMC and feel honoured to be chosen as a trusted partner for deploying Wi-Fi connectivity at Connaught Place. We are targeting business and non-business

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   According to the latest report, Barcode printer maker  Zebra Technologies is all set to acquire Motorola Solutions' enterprise business. Going by the reports, the latest deal will close for $3.45 billion in cash. The deal will help Zebra to tap the opportunity presented by the profusion of devices, ranging from cars to smoke alarms, connected to the Internet. After the acquisition, about 4,500 Motorola Solutions' employees will join Zebra. According to the official statement by Anders Gustafsson, CEO, Zebra Technologies, the company has entered into an agreement to acquire the Enterprise business of Motorola Solutions. Zebra’s acquisition of the Enterprise business will combine the complementary offerings of two industry leaders in asset tracking solutions to create a market leader in enterprise asset intelligence for the Connected Age. Motorola Solutions’ mobile platform captures real-time data about physical assets, peo

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   In a bid to help customers take advantage of  Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) ,  Master Data Management (MDM)  and Big Data, Dell Services and Informatica have  announced a relationship to provide technology and business solutions. "At Dell Services, we are focussed on our customers' future and how IT can help them get to where they need to go to achieve their business goals, as well as actively listening to understand our customers' needs and business environment," said  Suresh Vaswani, President of Services, Dell. Brad Kern, Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Alliances , Informatica, said, "This collaboration will help uncover the many synergistic opportunities that exist between the two companies and ultimately benefit customers by helping them gain a competitive advantage in today's global information economy." Dell and Informatica will leverage each other's capabilities to deliver a

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   In the wake of a large number of scams that have surfaced in the defence off late, the government has taken a step to adopt an e-procurement platform. On June 6 the Defence Ministry issued an order that purchases above Rs 10 lakh will be sourced only through this platform. The limit will be made even tighter at Rs 5 lakh from April 1, 2015. Orders for high-value items including armaments will also move to this platform, which in turn will be visible to all potential suppliers. The order said that necessary instructions in this regard may kindly be issued for strict compliance of e-procurement by all organisations\offices under the  Ministry of Defence . As per the report,  Savitur Prasad, Principal Integrated Financial Adviser  in the ministry said that till now departments were required to only put up their tender notices on the portal. But from now, tendering for any item required by the ministry will have to be processed

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Dell(NASDAQ:DELL)  has revealed that more than 75 per cent of countries surveyed are not meeting the most fundamental conditions required for female entrepreneurs to prosper in its annual  Gender-Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) .  Commissioned by  Dell, the Gender-GEDI  is the world's only diagnostic tool that comprehensively measures high potential female entrepreneurship by analyzing entrepreneurial ecosystems, business environments and individual aspirations across 30 developed and developing economies spanning multiple regions, providing a systematic approach that allows cross-country comparison, benchmarking, and identifies data gaps. "At Dell, we are committed to empowering people everywhere with technology solutions to fulfil their ambitions and reach their full potential. The Gender-GEDI Index provides key insights designed to help countries advance female entrepreneurship and ultimately

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Aircel  has observed that these stores are extremely convenient touch points where customers can get access to a variety of services. Hence, it has embarked on a strong retail footprint to enable retailers to extend support and convenience to the customers. Keeping this in mind, Aircel has expanded its retail footprint across the country by setting up  200 XPRESS Stores . These XPRESS Stores are based on the  FOFO (Franchisee-Owned Franchisee-Operated) model  and will exclusively provide Aircel’s products and services, new connections, recharges and top-ups, resolution of customer queries, assistance and support to all new and existing Aircel customers. Furthermore, Aircel plans to increase the number up to 500 by the middle of next year to expand across India. Vipul Saurabh, National Head - Operations and Customer Support, Aircel , said, "We are delighted to expand our national retail footprint by opening up 200 Aircel XPR

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Red Hat(NYSE:RHT)  has extended the company's strategic alliance with SAP AG(NYSE:SAP)  to make it easier for customers to adopt and run the SAP Data Management portfolio, including the SAP HANA platform,  SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP ASE) ,  SAP IQ software , and the SAP SQL Anywhere suite on Red Hat's open-source solutions. The expanded collaboration is expected to enable real-time, in-memory innovation by providing an open, scalable, integrated and highly-available platform for solutions from SAP along with those that are custom-built in an effort to expand customer choice when it comes to fuelling business performance and helping enterprises realize increased value from cloud computing and big data. As the foundation of the enhanced partnership,  Red Hat Enterprise Linux  is now available and qualified for production use of SAP HANA and supported by partners’ SAP-certified hardware solutions.  SAP HANA  enables c

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   In a move to fulfil the company's commitment to connect the next billion to the Internet,  Microsoft Devices  has announced the launch of Nokia 225. Slim, sleek and stylish, the Nokia 225 offers affordable internet access through the cloud-powered Nokia Xpress Browser, on a beautifully designed 2.8” display. Available in bold colours, the  Nokia 225  is available at a best buy price of Rs.3,329. "Offering a rich media experience and simple functionality combined with Nokia trust and quality, the Nokia 225 enables us to bring the affordable mobile phone experience to consumers across the spectrum. It is a true testimony of our commitment to connect the next billion to the internet," said  Sari Harju, Head of Mobile Phones, Nokia India Sales Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile Oy . The large display is ideal for quality entertainment on the go, including gaming, taking photos, online browsing and downloading an

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Twitter's  user base will increase 24.4% in 2014, according to  eMarketer's first-ever forecast  of Twitter users worldwide. But what is even more surprising is that more than 40% of the Twitter users worldwide will be in Asia-Pacific alone by 2018. The user growth is expected to continue growing with double-digit gains through 2018, as eMarketer estimates, thus opening up significant opportunities for Twitter to increase its audience across emerging markets. According to eMarketer, the number of Twitter users in Asia-Pacific has already eclipsed those in North America and Western Europe by a wide margin-even excluding China where there is a ban on the site. In 2014, the Asia-Pacific region will account for 32.8% of all Twitter users, compared with 23.7% in North America and by 2018, Asia-Pacific will break the 40% mark in terms of worldwide market share. eMarketer’s latest forecast dissects Twitter’s total users by regio

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Apple  is set to acquire Beat's music streaming service as well as the audio equipment arm, which will its biggest ever deal so far. The deal which is worth $2.6bn in cash and around $400m in Apple shares will see co-founders of the brand, music producer Jimmy Lovine and rapper Dr Drejoining Apple.The announcement comes nearly three weeks after the negotiations of the deal were leaked to the media. "Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple," said  Apple's Chief Executive, Tim Cook , in a statement. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.” Established in 2008 by both Dre and Iovine, Beats Electronics has worked in collaboration with music superstars such as  Lady Gaga , Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj and creates

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   As per the latest update,  NVIDIA  has released its  Geforce GTX Titan Z graphics card . The new GTX TITAN Z has 12GB of 7 Gbps video memory, a 12-phase power supply with dynamic power balancing, full-speed double-precision support, 5,760 CUDA Cores, and two GK110 GTX TITAN Black GPUs to power 3840x2160 resolutions. Due to the unrivalled power efficiency of our Kepler architecture,  GTX TITAN Z  is able to deliver ultimate performance in a simple and convenient air-cooled solution. The double-precision computational power of a GTX TITAN Z-accelerated system now eclipses that of multi-million dollar supercomputers, while using a fraction of the power, and a fraction of the space.  So, for researchers, scientists and other CUDA developers, GTX TITAN Z delivers unparalleled double-precision computational performance in a PC chassis that can fit under your desk. GTX TITAN Z is now available from the leading system builders.....

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   HP(NYSE:HPQ)  has announced that  IDC  has named it a leader in the "MarketScape: Worldwide Mobile Application Development, Testing, Management and Infrastructure ( mADTMI ) Services 2014 Vendor Assessment for its Mobile Applications Services".  Following an evaluation of 14 companies against 117 criteria, HP was recognized in the leader category in part for its capabilities in research and development (R&D), financial management and functionality delivered.  The report states, "HP's capabilities and forward-looking strategy positioned the service provider as a leader in the  mADTMI services IDC MarketScape ." "Our goal is to enable customers on their journey to becoming a mobile enterprise centred on their users - offering mobile devices, infrastructure, networks, apps and service. At HP, mobility is a top priority, and our entrance as a leader into IDC's MarketScape report is further confirm

VARINDIA- INDIA'S FRONTLINE IT MAGAZINE   Seagate Technology(NASDAQ:STX)  and  Avago Technologies  have announced that they have entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement, under which Seagate will acquire the assets of LSI's  Accelerated Solutions Division ("ASD") and  Flash Components Division ("FCD")  from Avago for $450 million in cash. The acquisition strengthens Seagate’s strategy to deliver a full suite of storage solutions, providing Seagate with established Enterprise PCIe flash and SSD controller capabilities to deliver solutions for the growing flash storage market. LSI’s ASD business, which is the second- largest player in the PCIe flash space, offers a highly differentiated enterprise-grade PCIe flash solution focussed on the high-growth cloud and hyperscale markets. LSI’s FCD business, led by its SandForce SF2000 and SF3700 controller products, is driving a multi-product roadmap to address volume markets. "Seagate is com