VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Apple signs pact with Cisco Systems’ internet networking expertise to sell more iPhones and iPads to corporate customers. The aggressive push into the corporate market is part of Apple’s strategy to reverse a slump in the iPad. Sales of the pioneering tablet have fallen from the previous year in six consecutive quarters, reflecting competition from less expensive alternatives and consumers’ aversion to upgrading to the latest iPads as frequently as they have with new versions of the iPhone. The alliance announced calls for Cisco to ensure that corporate internet connections relying on its gear deliver content quickly and securely to iPhones and iPads. Cisco will also help Apple develop ways for iPhones to interact more smoothly with workers’ office phones... Read more

The launch of high-speed 4G data services is set to become the next high-stakes battleground for telecom companies, and media buyers are expecting operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio Infocomm to spend millions of dollars on advertising over the next few months to grab market share. According to a person who in his previous job helped Bharti Airtel formulate its media plan, it will all depend on what Jio’s plans are. While an advertising war is inevitable, people will see the maximum action when Reliance plays its cards. All advertising will peak at that time. It is easy to understand why media buyers are salivating at the prospect of a reprise of the ad wars between telecom companies. Bharti Airtel, the only telecom operator to offer 4G services in India so far, is already promoting its services with an aggressive marketing campaign and media buyers expect Rs.400-Rs.500 crore to be spent by the operators over the next three-six months... Read more

Of late, around 20 management-level executives of Tata Teleservices’ Kerala operation have joined Reliance Jio Infocomm with a 20-30-per cent hike in salary. With the Reliance Industries unit in the job market shopping staff for its yet-to-be-launched service, and ecommerce majors fattened by foreign funding always on the lookout for the best talent, telecom companies such as Tata Teleservices are seeing a flight of executives in the marketing, customer service and technology functions. Meanwhile, the heightened activity in the human resources market has also boosted the pay that top performers get in the telecom sector... Read more

Telecoms group Altice has named long-serving sector executive Michel Combes as its Chief Operating Officer and Chairman of its Numericable-SFR mobile phone business, saying the appointment would help accelerate the group’s expansion. Combes is joining a company controlled by Patrick Drahi, who has been on a buying spree, including the purchase of Vivendi’s SFR, a French mobile firm, to create Numericable-SFR. Combes is leaving his role as head of telecoms equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent ahead of its takeover by Finland’s Nokia Corp.Combes, who joined Alcatel from Vodafone in 2013, has more than 25 years of experience in the telecom industry and has a record as a cost-cutter... Read more

Telecom operators including Vodafone, RCom, Aircel and MTS India are investing in technologies such as big data and analytics amid growth in data consumption as they look to retain subscribers and increase revenue per user. Analytics allow telecom companies to improve their data product offerings by better understanding customer demands and usage patterns, according to the operators. The equipment and networks that provide data services generate significant a lot of data that the operators use to identify and proactively address the network issues they face. This also helps the operators plan their network expansion strategies better. Vodafone India’s outgoing chief information officer Anthony Thomas said that the company has deployed big data technology and is piloting various scenarios to get insights into the company’s customers, usage pattern and needs... Read more

VMware has announced VMware EVO SDDC and VMware Virtual SAN 6.1. Serving as the foundation of VMware’s Unified Hybrid Cloud platform, the software-defined data center extends the virtualization principles of abstraction, pooling and automation across all data center resources and services. By extending virtualization across the data center, IT organizations can slash CAPEX by as much as 49 per cent, while reducing deployment and provisioning time from days to hours. VMware EVO SDDC will include foundational components of VMware’s hyper-converged infrastructure-VMware vSphere, VMware Virtual SAN and VMware NSX, which will enable the convergence of compute, storage and networking onto a single, integrated layer of software that can run on any commodity x86 infrastructure... Read more

The EMC Federation has announced new innovations, partner programs and customers across its Hybrid Cloud portfolio. The EMC Federation provides customers with the industry’s most complete Hybrid Cloud portfolio, able to support all workloads and all cloud models – private, public and managed clouds.  Through a common platform, customers are now able to manage multiple clouds and multiple cloud service providers as one logical cloud with the distinction between on premises and off premises being eliminated. The newly acquired Virtustream by the EMC Federation helps enterprises around the world migrate, run and manage their I/O-intensive, mission-critical applications in the cloud. Its cloud credentials in support of SAP solutions are outstanding in the industry, having deployed in production environments more than 200 SAP solutions and one of the first implementations of the SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (SAP S/4HANA) in the cloud. Today, Virtustream has announced that it is no...

Xerox has planned to expand its Managed Print Services (MPS) value proposition to wider segments in the country. This will be undertaken through their strong channel partner network and will allow the company to significantly expand the reach of its advanced MPS solutions beyond the top corporate accounts to fast-growing and large potential SMB businesses. Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director, Technology, Channels & International Distributor Operations, Xerox India, said, “Our Xerox Partner Print Services (XPPS) is a unique program which will help our partners to deliver Managed Print Services to our common customers. We are training select top channel partners to be able to deliver these solutions and are sure that this will excite both our channel partners and our customers. Xerox Partner Print Services will streamline and cost-effectively manage Xerox and non-Xerox print devices and help reduce overall print costs for customers by as much as 30%. Besides improving a compa...

ESET has elevated Zakir Hussain Rangwala to Country Head. Prior to his promotion, Zakir was National Sales Manager-Enterprise and SMB. In his new role, Zakir Hussain will be responsible for spearheading the overall operations for ESS Distribution Pvt. Ltd, exclusively promoting ESET brand in India, including sales, marketing, client services and support. Zakir comes with twenty years of experience in the IT security and technology sector. Having two decades of experience in engaging new partners, distributors and sub-distributors for various technology brands, including security software products he will drive ESET India’s revenue growth through implementation of aggressive sales and marketing strategies and building the company’s channel programs in this market... Read more