IT next the big benefits of big data analytics (june 2015)

Technology Feature

10 Mobile Computing Insights

pg 20

f o r t h e n e x t g e n e r at i o n o f c i o s

THE BIG

Opinion

Why are you being
apologetic about
being in tech?

PAGE 04

Strategy Feature

The Challenges
of Aligning IT and
the Business

PAGE 26

BENEFITS
OF BIG DATA
ANALYTICS

With businesses already deriving big benefits out

of their big data and analytics efforts, and many
still figuring out the whys and wherefores of data
science, here is an account of the big picture of
analytics in India and the innovative initiatives that
are helping companies save millions.

June 2015 | `100 | Volume 06| Issue 05 | A 9.9 Media Publication
facebook.com/t |
@itnext_magazine
www.itnext.com |



Editorial

Get Ready for the
Digital Business
Rapid changes in the Indian
business environment are driving
new expectations—and demands—from
the IT department. More and more business units are
keen to utilize the latest advances in technology to deliver new services to
customers, improve productivity and accountability, increase revenues,
boost customer satisfaction—or to keep up with competition.
While budgets for many of these new initiatives are becoming
available, the big challenge for the IT department is to prepare the
infrastructure and processes to support these escalating enterprise
expectations. And to deliver results quickly. To do this, IT leaders will
need to hone a brand new set skills that will enable them successfully
drive digital innovation.

At the top of the list is the ability to create and deploy mobile
enterprise applications. The demand is being driven both by
employees and customers—and the urgency is real. But, delivering
on mobility can be tricky—given the wide variety of hardware and
software platforms, security considerations, and the brisk evolution
of the mobile eco-system. So, go out and learn more about the
technologies that enable the mobile revolution—and be prepared to
re-think your internal processes and systems.
Closely linked to mobility is the delivery of user experience.
Technology users now expect—and demand—great convenience and
ease of use. They want systems that are intuitive and adaptive, and
have little patience for desktop screens that have been merely re-sized
for the mobile platform. Responsive design is just not enough—users
expect true mobile apps. To do this, you will need to work with
business units to re-design information flows, delivery mechanisms
and user interactions. So, read up on user experience design.
Next on the list is predictive analytics. If you can find a way to
discover useful correlations from the vast amounts of data that
your organization has been collecting, your business users will be
delighted. Even better, put the tool into their hands and train them to
use it. Check out how big data technologies can help you do this.
Finally, keep a close watch on how Internet of Things (IoT) is
evolving. You may be able to deliver great value to the organization
by connecting and integrating information from a wide variety of
smart devices and sensors.
Write in, and let us know how you are getting ready for digital business.

“ IT leaders will need to
hone a brand new set of
skills that will enable

them successfully drive
digital innovation.”
R G iri d h a r

Blogs To Watch!
DevOps-  is a concept dealing,
among other things with
software development,
operations and services.
/>DevOps
IT Operations – DevOp
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DevOps definition: Best
explained by what it’s not
http://searchsoftwarequality.
techtarget.com/
news/2240176588/DevOpsdefinition-Best-explained-bywhat-its-not
DevOps & IT Management
Partners
/>partners/devops/

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1


Content
Fo r t h e l at est t ec h n o lo g y u P DATES G o to i t n ex t. i n

june 2015

Volume 06 | Issue 05

Facebook:
ebook.
com/home.php#/group.
php?gid=195675030582
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LinkedIn
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ugrp_ovr

Page

12
cover story

Strategy

12 The Big Benefits of Big Data Analytics

An account of the big picture of analytics in India and the initiatives that are
helping companies save millions.

15 Big Data Momentum Intensifies

Pulak Ghosh, an analytics expert who is currently in the panel of UN’s

big data group, talks about the current state of affairs as far as big data
adoption is concerned in India.

18 ‘Machine Learning Help Us Save Millions’

Navin Manaswi, a data scientist and a big data specialist with a U.S.-based
food company shares insights on how they leverage data science to forecast
demands of products.

TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

10 Mobile Computing Insights

PG 20

F O R T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F C I O s

Opinion

WHY ARE YOU BEING
APOLOGETIC ABOUT
BEING IN TECH?

PAGE 04

Strategy Feature

THE CHALLENGES
OF ALIGNING IT AND
THE BUSINESS

PAGE 26

THE BIG
BENEFITS
OF BIG DATA
ANALYTICS

cover
Design: PETERSON PJ

With businesses already deriving big benefits out
of their big data and analytics efforts, and many
still figuring out the whys and wherefores of data
science, here is an account of the big picture of
analytics in India and the innovative initiatives that
are helping companies save millions.

June 2015 | `100 | Volume 06| Issue 05 | A 9.9 Media Publication
facebook.com/t |
@itnext_magazine
www.itnext.com |

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38 Disruption Is the New
Normal | Attempting to apply
old-school approaches and invoke

protectionist practices in today’s
ever-changing business environment
is a recipe for disaster


itnext.in

MANAGEMENT
Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha
Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta
Chief Operating Officer - 9.9 Tech: Krishna Kumar

How CIOs Can Ensure
Their IT Teams Are a Good Fit

EDITORIAL
Group Editor: R Giridhar
Online Editor: Mastufa Ahmed

Page

DESIGN

30
Strategy
26 The Challenges
of Aligning IT and the
Business I The issue of aligning
IT with the business isn’t really
a clear-cut business, IT or

management problem, it’s often
a feeling that people experience.

Strategy
38 Between a Cyber-Rock and
a Risk Place | With the board of
directors asking questions about
security readiness, CIOs are under
pressure to assess their organization’s
ability to respond to threats

ESDS
conference
REPORT
36 Innovations Simplify DC
Management | Latest advances
ease resource management, and
ensure reliable service delivery

Sr. Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan
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tech insight
20 Why You Must Leverage
these Mobile Insights I If you

bet on mobile computing, these
insights will help you

ONLINE & MARCOM DESIGN

Associate Art Director: Shokeen Saifi
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PHOTOGRAPHY

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tech insight

sales & marketing

24 “IoT Needs a New Network
Architecture” I To handle the
demands of the IoT environment,
Huawei has extended its enterprise
networking product line

Product Manager: Maulshree Tewari (+91 9717597903)
Sales Director: Mahantesh Godi
Regional Sales Manager - North:
Deepak Sharma (09811791110)
West: Samiksha Ghadigaonkar (09619189019)
Dushyant Mehta (0091 98 192 87928)
South: Abhijeet Ajoynil (09741414154)
Assistant Product Manager-Digital: Manan Mushtaq

Ad co-ordination/Scheduling: Kishan Singh

tech insight
35 “The Implications of Net
Neutrality I The Implications for
Internet users and SMBs

Production & Logistics
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Manager Operations: Rakesh upadhyay
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3


opinion| Shyamanuja Das

m anagemen t

Why are you being
apologetic about
being in tech?
The demands on the CIO to be
knowledgable about business is on the
rise. That does not mean that the CIO
has to be ashamed about his tech core
competence and give it up completely.

M

other India , Amar, Aan, Andaz,
Anokhi Ada, Anmol Ghadi…
what is common to these alltime classics, apart from being
musical superhits? They are all
movies made by Mehboob Khan, with music composed by Naushad. Mehboob-Naushad combination is one of the most successful director-composer
associations in the history of Hindi cinema.
Both Mehboob and Naushad were towering
figures in their own areas. Mehboob was the first

showman; Naushad turned Hindi film music into
a genre by itself.
But why am I getting into musicology here?
Because I believe something that happened
between the two has valuable lessons for all of
us—in this case CIOs.
This is the incident as described by Naushad
himself in an interview, which happened in the
beginning of their association.
“When I recorded my first song for Mehboob’s
‘Anmol Ghadi’, he asked Noor Jehan to change a
note, add a stress there. He was the boss. The next
day I purposely went on to the sets while the song
was being filmed. Mehboob welcomed me saying
‘Look at your song being shot!’ “May I see through
the camera?” I asked. He allowed me.
I peered through it and asked the people around
to move the table to the left, a chair to the right.
Mahboob caught me by the ear and said, ‘Your job
is music, direction is my job’. I said that was the
very admission I wanted from him, that his job

4

itnext | j u n e 2 0 1 5

was direction and not music. Mehboob’s answer
was clear from thereon — never to enter the music
room again, and I did all the films unfettered.”

A pro respects a pro…
The CEO-CIO combination is much like a directorcomposer relationship. At the end of the day, it is
the CEO who is responsible to the shareholders
just as the director is responsible for the film’s
overall success. In India, music plays an important
role in that success.
While it is director who explains the situation;
the mood that he wants; the expression that he
expects; sometimes even recommends the playback artist; he has no business telling the composer to change a note here or use a dholak instead
of pakhawaj for the beats; certainly not in a commanding tone. The responsibility of producing a
good tune is the composer’s.
But why did Mehboob—known in the industry
for his life-size ego—listen to a 27 year old?
Reason No 1: his ego notwithstanding, he was a

A good CEO must know the strengths of the
CIO and he should not interfere with the
decisions in his functional area.

Suggestion BOX

Sheryl Sandberg
examines why
women’s progress
in achieving
leadership roles
has stalled. She
explains the
root causes and
offers compelling

solutions that can
empower women

great professional. Reason No 2: he had immense
faith on and respect for Naushad. Anmol Ghadi
was a 1946 movie; they went on to produce many
super hits after that. Almost all the names that I
mentioned in the beginning were made later.
Translated to our lingo, a good CEO must
know the strengths of the CIO, must respect him/
her. While being ruthless in getting the business
outcomes is needed, he should not interfere with
his decisions in his functional area.
What is worrying is that some CIOs have
unwittingly started believing in this. They are
almost apologetic about the fact that they come
from a technology background; they try to play
up their ‘business profiles’.
Why is a CIO ashamed of his core function? I
myself have argued so many times the need for
an understanding of business and appreciation of
business outcomes expected from application of
IT. No one can argue otherwise. But that does not
translate to being sorry about technology.

Shyamanuja Das heads business research practice
at Juxt SmartMandate, an analytics and research
firm based in Gurgaon.

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Update
I n d u s t r y

trends
deals
products
services
people

comes with different configuration
capabilities, thus allowing developers to test their apps for different
configuration of hardware capabilities and Android platforms..
Jar of Beans
Android Emulator
Jar of Beans is an Android emulator
that runs on the Jelly Bean version
of the Android platform and is supported by Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM),
for hardware acceleration and
improved performance..

5 Free Mobile Device
Emulators
TECH TRENDS | A mobile device emulator allows you to test the responsiveness and functionality of your app across platforms including iOS,
Android, and Windows without actually having the devices with you.
Native Android Emulator
Android SDK comes with a virtual mobile device emulator that allows
developers to test and run their apps without having a physical device. It

ess
Businte
y
a
Str g

With the usage
of web from
smartphones
and other
smart devices

escalating, it’s
important to
test run your
apps on multiple platforms
before you set
off your journey

CFO-CIO: A Growing Collaboration
Insufficient understanding of IT
issues among finance executives

42%

Processes and tools are incompatible
across the two functions

36%

Lack of finance resources to
dedicate to the IT agenda

34%

Our organisational structure prevents
this kind of collaboration

Source: ey.com

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Windows Phone Emulator
The windows phone SDK comes
with its own emulator that
allows developers to test their
apps on a virtual device. The
default memory allocated to the
tool is 512 MB so that you can
test your apps for lower memory
phones available in the market..

44%

The absence of a clear set of key
performance indicators (KPls) that link
financial performance and he IT agenda

I do not perceive any barriers

BlueStacks Android
Emulator
Bluestacks is very much an
Android app player that allows
you to run Android apps on your
Windows PC or Mac. However,
you can also link it with Eclipse
to test your apps. Also you can
install the apk file of your app and
test it using this tool.

31%
11%

Nokia S40 Emulator
Nokia Asha SDK 1.2 comes with
an emulator for testing apps
targeted for Nokia Asha 502
phones. Emulator comes with
full UI interaction, messaging
features and network communication features. This emulator
helps developers run and test
their apps without having a
physical device.


Sony Xperia M4 Aqua

Micromax Canvas Doodle 4

The phone has the new ‘cap-less’ USB port
for charging. The micro-USB charging slot
on the left side of the device
is the USP. M4 Aqua is can
be submerged in up to 1.5
metres of water. It is priced
at ` 23k (approx)

The Canvas Doodle 4 has a 6-inch HD
display with 720 x 1280 pixels resolution.

The smartphone has a quad-core 1.3 GHz
processor and runs Android
5.0 Lollipop. It has an 8 MP
rear camera, and is priced at
` 9,499

Hooq, online streaming
service
Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and
Warner Bros have teamed up to launch
this streaming service.
Hooq will be available in
India from June for ` 199
a month.

Significant Increase in DDoS
Attack Activity
TECH TIDINS | Accoding to
Akamai, Q1 2015 set a new record
for the number of DDoS attacks
observed across the PLX routed
network--a jump of more than
35 percent over the last quarter.
Not only has the volume of
attacks increased, the profile has
also changed. Last year, high
bandwidth and short duration
attacks were the norm. But in Q1
2015, the typical DDoS attack was less
than 10 gigabits per second (Gbps),

and endured for just over 24 hours.
There were eight mega-attacks in Q1,
each exceeding 100 Gbps.
During the past year, DDoS
attack vectors have also shifted. This

Akamai’s
latest Internet
security report
identifies new
threats from
IPv6

quarter, Simple Service Discovery
Protocol (SSDP) attacks accounted
for more than 20 percent of the
attack vectors, while SSDP attacks
were not observed at all in Q1 or
Q2 2014. SSDP comes enabled
by default on millions of home

Around The World

and office devices—including
routers, media servers, web
cams, smart TVs and printers—
to allow them to discover each
other on a network, establish
communication and coordinate
activities. If left unsecured and/or

misconfigured, these home-based,
Internet-connected devices can be
harnessed for use as reflectors.
Gaming has remained the most
targeted industry since Q2 2014,
consistently being targeted in
35 percent of DDoS attacks. The
software and technology sector
was the second most targeted
industry in Q1 2015, with 25
percent of the attacks.

quick byte

Attacks on Mobile Wallets and
Virtual currencies on Rise
New research from F-Secure warns
of Growth in Extortion Malware. The
company has witnessed SMS message
sending trojans and ransomware attacks
on Mobile Wallets and Virtual currencies
on rise in the H2, 2014. According to
the report, both Android & iOS have
experienced malwares which have tried
to attack the banking applications and
mobile wallets in H2, 2014.

Steve Jobs (1955 –2011)

“That’s been one of my

mantras —focus and
simplicity. Simple can
be harder than complex;
you have to work hard to
get your thinking clean to
make it simple.”

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7


update

Huawei Tackles Security
Threats with a New Strategy
Interview
Adv. Prashant Mali

Cyber Law & Cyber Security Expert

The devices
are equipped
with reputation
system and
multilayer
inspection
technology,

and can inspect
over 180,000
files per day.

DDoS. The software can can be flexibly deployed on SDN switches and
routers to provide security capabilities to network element devices. The
software firewall supports many
popular virtual environments
including VMware, KVM, XEN
and UVP, as well as Netconf, RESTful and OpenStack architectures.
It employs Intel’s latest Data Plane
Development Kit using Single Root
I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) technology to deliver compresehnsive
security for cloud environments,
and the software pattern-matching
engine is claimed to deliver up to 40
Gbps performance.

Government in India to Spend
$6.8 Billion in 2015
Internal services refer to salaries and benefits paid to the information services staff of
in India will reach $6.8 billion US dollars
an organization. The information services
in 2015, an increase of 5.7 percent over
staff includes all company employees that
2014, says Gartner.
plan, develop, implement and maintain
“IT services, which includes consultinformation systems.
ing, implementation, IT outsourcing and
Software spending will grow 10.2

business process outsourcing,
percent in 2015 to reach $860 million
will be the largest overall spendUSD, up from $781 million USD in
ing category throughout 2019
Software
spending
2014, led by growth in vertical spewithin the government sector,“
will grow
cific software (software applications
said Dr Anurag Gupta, research
10.2 percent
that are unique to a vertical industry.
vice president at Gartner. Interin 2015 to
These are stand-alone applications
nal services IT spending will
reach $860
that are not modules or extensions of
increase 8.8 percent in 2015 to
million USD,
horizontal applications).
reach $1.6 billion USD in 2015.

TECH Tidings | Government IT spending

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From data center to boardroom, how
do you see the responsibilities of CSOs

evolve?
CISO now shares common responsibility of
all cyber crimes committed in his organisation. For example, if an organisation is
traced via its IP address for a cognizable
offence and the organisation lacks reasonable security practices by not finding the
right accused, the CISO is implicated as
accused. The dominant trend is to rely on
security solutions vendors --to shift the
responsibility on the solution offered by
vendor, which is a sad state. Security needs
holistic approach backed by strong man
and machine policies.
In the wake of IT Act 2000 & the Companies Act 2013, has the rule of the
game changed for CISOs?
IT Act 2000 & the Companies Act 2013
have made the CISO as statutory designation --designation recognized by law that
makes all organisations to hire CISO or
designate one for them. They have become
important resource in organisation and
security has become the board matter.
What’s your advice for CSOs to have
smooth sailing with regard to implementation of best practices keeping in
mind regulations, compliance, etc?
The CSOs should have compliance chart
ready encompassing ISMS, IT Act, 2000,
SEBI, Companies Act and other rules and
regulations his organisation is subjected
to. He needs to become “Security Hawk”
in the organisation because he has a legal
responsibility and he is also responsible

for the legal risk his organisation gets
exposed.
Till September 2014, 15k sites were
reportedly hacked in the country; a
majority of the cases have been filed
under the IT Act. What’s the message
for the CSO from this?
India and Indian organisations are on constant radar of malicious attackers. I advise
that every large organisation or large
group should have its own CERT . This
CERT can have parallel relationships with
other CERTs across countries. This brings
better resilience to a scenario like “Zero
Day Exploit” or mass “Cyber Attacks”.
PHOTO /I LLUSTRATIO N/IMAG ING CRE DIT

Leveraging its deep relationships and expertise in the telecom
services industry, Huawei has
announced an APT security solution that aims to provide comprehensive protection to the cloud,
pipe, and devices. The solution
combines Huawei’s FireHunter
security sandbox products, a Cybersecurity Intelligence System, and a
software firewall product. Huawei
has also announced plans to form a
Cloud Clean Alliance that will provide real-time cleaning services for
denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Huawei’s FireHunter security
sandboxes are designed to detect
and defend against APT attacks.
The devices are equipped with

reputation system and multilayer
inspection technology, and can
inspect over 180,000 files per day.
The Huawei USG6000V series
of virtualized cross-platform software firewalls integrate multiple
security functions including traditional firewall, VPN, intrusion
prevention, antivirus, DLP and anti-


update

Honeywell to Manage Risk for
Industrial Sites
The
Honeywell
solution is
designed
to simplify
the task of
identifying
areas of cyber
security risk

Tech Tidings | Honeywell launched the

first digital dashboard designed to proactively monitor, measure and manage cyber
security risk for control systems for refineries, power plants and other automated
production sites throughout the world
that are at increasing risk of cyber attacks.
The Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security

Risk Manager, is designed to simplify the
task of identifying areas of cyber security
risk, providing real-time visibility, understanding and decision support required
for action. It monitors and measures cyber
security risk in multi-vendor industrial
environments.
The threat of cyber attacks on industrial
targets is a major concern according to a
global survey on cyber security conducted
by Ipsos Public Affairs in September 2014
on behalf of Honeywell. More than 5,000

News @
blog

adults in 10 countries were surveyed about
the threat of cyber attacks on critical industries in their countries. Three quarters of
respondents said they were fearful that cyber
criminals could hack into and control major
sectors and elements of the economy. Twothirds of those surveyed thought that the
oil and gas, chemicals and power industries
were particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Risk Manager uses advanced technologies that translate complex cyber security
indicators into clear measurements and
key performance indicators (KPI), and
provides essential information through an
easy-to-use interface. The intuitive workflow allows users to create customized risk
notification alerts and perform detailed
threat and vulnerability analysis so they
can focus on managing risks that are most

important for reliable plant operations.

Tech TRENDS

Healthcare
Providers in India
to Spend US $1.2
Billion on IT in 2015
Health care providers in India
are expected to spend $1.2 billion
US Dollars (USD) on IT products
and services in 2015, an increase
of 7 percent over 2014, according to Gartner. This forecast
includes spending by healthcare
providers (including hospitals, as
well as ambulatory service and
physicians practices) on internal
services, software, IT services,
data center, devices and telecom
services.
Internal services will achieve
the highest growth rate amongst
the spending categories with a
17 percent increase in 2015 to
reach $297 million USD. Internal
services refer to salaries and
benefits paid to the information
services staff of an organization.
The information services staff
includes all company employees

that plan, develop, implement and
maintain information systems.
Software spending will grow 6.2
percent to reach $103 million
USD in 2015, up from $97 million
in 2014, led by growth in vertical specific software (software
applications that are unique to a
vertical industry.

Nasscom’s Task Force for cyber Security

‘Nasscom Cyber Security Task Force’ aims to make India the hub
for cyber security related research, training and products. Led by
NIIT chairman Rajendra Pawar, the task force is going to form a
comprehensive cyber security plan within the next 12 weeks.
Source: Nasscom

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9


powered by
Vodafone

Vodafone Managed
Video Conferencing:
Solutions for the New Era

Thanks to the changes that are sweeping the business landscape,
enterprises were rediscovering new use cases for already
established technology tools. Video conferencing, for example, is
providing a whole new set of business values. Judicious selection
of a partner is key to optimize that value creation.

"From a cost
save, video
conferencing
has transformed
itself into a value
creator in the new
business regime."
Satish Mittal
Sr. VP, Vodafone Business Services

B

usinesses are increasingly realizing the power of
collaboration. Technologies that catalyze collaboration and enhance the quality of collaborative
processes are now being looked at with new expectations.
Video conferencing stands right on top of the list of
such tools.
To be sure, video conferencing is not new at all. It
has existed in large enterprises for long—as a replacement for travel. The ROI for such systems were initially
justified comparing the investment with cost incurred
on travel. Those ROIs are still largely valid.
But that is not the reason why businesses are looking at video conferencing with renewed interest. From
a cost save, video conferencing has transformed itself
into a value creator in the new business regime.

10

itnext | j u n e 2 0 1 5

There are multiple ways businesses are using it to
derive value. Some of them are as follows
I mproving efficiency: The traditional ROI justifier; by
reducing the requirement to travel, video conferencing not just saves on travel cost but also on travel
time. That contributes to enhanced efficiency in the
organization.
 eal time collaborative processes: Whether it is
R
a product development or a classroom teaching;
decision making or a professional discussion, video
conferencing closes the distance gap between teams
and individuals. Verticals from health care to education; services to government have found their own


vodafone | custom series

innovative use cases. The value derived from
these collaborations—not possible without the
technology—goes far beyond the cost savings.

Why
should the decision wait? This is a fairly
new application of video conferencing. Mobile
has revolutionized the way businesses work.
With connectivity and power coming to mobile

devices such as phones and tablets, one is never
too far from one’s colleagues, partners, clients
or vendors. So, why should a decision wait?
Increasingly, there is expectation that users
should be able to smoothly join a video conferencing from device of his choice. A hassle free
mobile video conferencing capability is increasingly becoming important while choosing video
conferencing applications and vendors.
 ust hanging out: However strange it may sound,
J
a few knowledge enterprises are now having
video conference just to keep each other abreast
of what is happening, in what is called no-agenda meetings.
VCs, law firms and other such professional firms where individual teams by and large work on their own, are using video
conferencing to share knowledge. Needless to say, no organization would do these meetings if travel were required!

Choosing a Solution

Changes in technology and business environment have
made enterprises look for hassle free management and
investment protection while choosing a technology solution.
It is no surprise many of them are choosing managed video
conferencing solutions.
While investment protection and easier manageability come
naturally with managed services, choosing a right partner for
managed services is a little different from choosing a traditional
product vendor. Product features keep changing frequently but
a partner without the requisite “services” experience creates
problems in the long run. This has resulted in many businesses
turning to their trusted telecom partners.
There are questions that need to be answered before embarking on a video conferencing journey. For example, how will the

video conferencing be used in the enterprise? Is it for specific
applications or enterprise-wide? What will be the usage volume?
Will it be used simultaneously by many groups? What kind of
information would be exchanged? How to plan for bandwidth
based on estimated usage? Will the meetings be required to be
recorded? How will video be integrated with other communications tools/devices in the enterprise?
Once the answers to these basic questions are obtained, the
actual solution has to be decided based on careful evaluation of
some basic as well as newer expectations.
Here are some of the more sought-after features being looked
for in a video conferencing system.
Smooth experience: Today’s consumer technologies—led by
Apple—have thrived by creating better than expected experience. No user is going to compromise on quality of experience.

Vodafone managed video conferencing solution provided full
high-definition (HD) video quality for near real experience.
 eterogeneous network connectivity: Video conferencing
H
has to work in all types of network—be it corporate multiprotocal label switchng (MPLS) virtual private netwrk(VPN)
or a public Internet or a small integrated services for digial
netwrok (ISDN) connection in a branch office. The Vodafone
video conferencing solution is network agnostic.
 nytime, Anywhere connectivity: In the age of bring your
A
own device (BYOD), one of the most important user demands
for any enterprise application is accessible from mobile phones
and tablets. As many are now using video conferencing to do
on-demand instant meetings to speed up decision making, mobile
connectivity is a must. Video conferencing solution from Vodafone
is device agnostic and supports all major mobile devices.

Easy manageability: One of the nightmarish experiences of
the old-age video conferencing is managing the meetings and
application. Vodafone managed video conferencing solution
provides web self-care portal for scheduling and reporting.
 ecording for non-participants and analysis: Recording is
R
becoming another much sought after feature. Vodafone video
conferencing solution incorporates features for on-demand
recording.
Of course, the managed services model allows the users to
avail of pay per port as they grow and protects investments.
Vodafone, with its years of experience as a service provider,
understands delivery side issues very well. It also understands
the new needs arising out of demand for mobile access.
As sweeping changes happen in business and technology
environments, enterprises have to keep pace. And that should
reflect in their choosing a technology solution. As the technology strategy of businesses moves more towards buying technology as services, those with experience of delivering high quality
services would be natural allies.

j u n e 2 0 1 5 | itnext

11


cover story | Big data & Analytics`

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THE BIG
BENEFITS
OF BIG DATA
ANALYTICS
With businesses already deriving big benefits
out of their big data and analytics efforts,
and many still figuring out the whys and
wherefores of data science, here is an
account of the big picture of analytics in
India and the innovative initiatives that are
helping companies save millions.
By Mastufa Ahmed
Design by Haridas Balan | Illustration by Peterson PJ

INSIDE
15 | Big Data Momentum Intensifies
18 | ‘Machine Learning Helps Us Save Millons’

june

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13


cover story | Big data & Analytics

B

ig data and analytics is all the rage
today with several big initiatives
taken by Indian businesses
delivering results already. Among
those who’re reaping the benefits
from their data-driven efforts include banks and
ecommerce companies. Etailing players who were in
the league of early adopters have transitioned from
just analyzing customer sentiments to betting on data
and analytics to a deeper level to leapfrog to the next
level. FlipKart’s analytics report, for instance, is being
leveraged by over 200 decision makers on a daily
basis. So are Amazon and Snapdeal.
Coming to large banks, analytics have proven
to be a crucial ingredient of success with banks
like ICICI, CITI, having their own analytics wings
comprising of data scientists and statisticians.
Quality of data makes the case for the banking
industry to invest on big data and analytics. The
largest commercial bank of India, State Bank of India
has recently started a vertical on analytics with a
group of experts comprising of statisticians, banking
professionals and computer scientists to develop
advanced analytics methods. This new data-driven

Why e-commerce companies
deploy big data solutions
Snapdeal deploys Big Data for better consumer experience. They have
moved their systems from Relational Database Management System to
a real time In-memory NoSQLDB with Big Data capabilities to empower

the Snapdeal portal with scale, speed and real time information. The other
technology that has been implemented at Snapdeal is the recommendation
engine; the Big Data element of the engine provides intelligent recommendations to the frequent visitor.
­‑Vishal Chadha, Vice President, Market Development, Snapdeal
The recent mobile-first move of the ecommerce giant FlipKart is an experiment underpinned by insights from the data they gather everyday. Seventy
per cent of FlipKart’s traffic comes from the mobile app. Plus, app can
serve users’ request better than mobile sites. So, if the top priority of the
company is to add on to the user experience and grow their business, then
the top driver for them to enable this change is analytics.
‑Ravi Vijayaraghavan, VP- Analytics, FlipKart

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business model gave them an impetus to their initiatives
of doing more business with the existing customers.
Analytics transcends beyond the walls of business
verticals in terms of its use case scenario. The
biggest election victory, in over three decades, for
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resulted from the
process of capturing and analyzing humongous data.
Auto makers such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki
India, and even Hero MotoCorp are all in the process
of sieving through data pools amassed through
customer interactions to rev up their decision making
and advance efficiency of selling more vehicles.
Adoption of analytics is also picking up in Indian
healthcare. Fortis and Apollo are some of the
healthcare providers that bet on analytics. Apollo

Hospital seeks consultations on project basis in areas
like resource optimization, dashboard analysis and
segmentation of patients. A fresh new concept called
‘health eCommerce’ starts gaining traction recently.
We spoke with the Pulak Ghosh, a big data and
analytics expert who is a professor in IIM-B in the
Quantitative Methods and Information Systems
area. Ghosh is also a member of United Nations’
big data group and he lectured extensively on how
business can benefit from data-driven efforts.
This month cover story gives you a big picture
of big data and analytics in India, how it all started
and what is the current level of adoption. This is
an in-depth analysis of why and how analytics is
set to gain momentum with an exponential rate
soon. This also features in some of the top issues
and challenges facing data science including the
dearth of professionals.
So, if you are seriously contemplating over betting on
your stored customer data pool, this piece will provide
you some insights on how you can leverage the same.
Navin Manaswi, a data scientist and a big data
specialist shares how General Mills, a multinational
food companies in India, saves millions of dollars
using machine learning algorithms.
Navin discloses how they leverage data science
practices to forecast demands of products and save
money. The data wizard also gives some advice
for IT managers on how to identify strengths
and limitations of all popular machine learning

algorithms and do classification, clustering,
prediction, associate mining, optimization and
mathematical modeling, to be able to help business
leaders take better decisions.


Big Data
Momentum
Intensifies
Pulak Ghosh, an analytics expert who
is currently in the panel of UN’s big
data group, talks about the current
state of affairs as far as big data
adoption is concerned in India.
By Mastufa Ahmed

How do you see big
data and analytics
initiatives being
embraced by
businesses?
While the potential
benefits of Big Data are real and
significant, and some initial successes
have already been achieved, there
remain many technical challenges that
must be addressed to fully realize this
potential. Big data is supposed to be a
$25 billion industry and India has the
great opportunity to take a large share

from it. However, Big data is in a nascent
stage in general and more so in India
and many believe that this technology
is about large volume of data. While this
is true and has always been there, what
compounds its intricacy is the nature of
data which is mostly ‘unstructured’. The
real value of big data is combining off-line
(structured) and on-line (unstructured)
and making the inference real-time.
Firms in India are yet to combine the
two in this real-time fashion. Either
they are doing analytics on the massive
data or they are doing analytics on social
media data (mostly very simple negativepositive sentiment analytics only), but
separately. While some start-ups are
moving in this direction, the wave is yet
to become a tide. Heterogeneity, scale,
timeliness, complexity, and privacy
problems with Big Data impede progress
at all phases of the pipeline that can create
value from data. In India, analytics is
mostly service based and very few are
product-embedded. Companies here
are weighing in its benefits while many
eTailers are already storing data to
underpin their likely future initiatives.
They may not be cashing in on the data
insights yet, but this is what big data
tackling warrants to start with, and then

move onto advanced analytics initiatives.

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15


cover story | Big data & Analytics
What are major drivers of big data
and analytics and who’re the
frontrunners in India?
Let’s understand the growth pattern in India’s big data
and analytics ventures. When I came back to India
back in 2009, after having a decade-long stint in United
States as a data scientist in health care and biostatistics,
there was almost nothing on data analytics. It was
mostly data analysis! Use of data based analysis in
healthcare and clinical trial was almost non-existent
and nowhere comparable to the western market.
However, some movement started happening in the
banking sector. Post 2008, banks started realizing
the potential of the humongous customer data they
already had stored. This eventually led them doing
more business with the existing customers by betting
on customer preferences and addressing their pain
points. Banks did move fast also because they always
had quality data! The new data-driven business model
gave them a fillip to their new initiatives of doing more

business with the on-board customers, given that

data in a combined way. For example, e-commerce
companies also need to develop algorithm for crosssell /up-sale. However, with nearly 1.5 lakh product on
display how does one develop the algorithm in realtime. Added with that, the problem of sparseness in the
data because not every product get sold frequently and
there is an inherent minimum time before a customer
buys the same product again!
The third segment where I see more and more use
of analytics is in retail and FMCG.

What’s the current level of adoption of
data-driven initiatives across businesses?
Appreciation of analytics is gaining momentum with
an exponential rate! Already convinced players like,
banks, e-commerce companies are taking the analytics
expertise to the next level. While, Citi, HSBC, HDFC,
ICICI and Axis bank has now a dedicated team to
look at problems using advanced analytics, the largest
commercial bank of India, State Bank of India has
started a vertical on analytics with balanced group
comprising of several statisticians,
banking professionals and computer
scientist
to develop advanced
analytics methods. Coming to retail,
Amazon and FlipKart started betting
on their data following the early
success stories scripted by the banks.
Snapdeal has also started on analytics

recently.
More and more firms are today
Extraction/
Integration/
Acquisition/
Analysis/
convinced
that there is a great deal
Cleaning/
Aggregation/
Recording
Modeling
Annotation
Representation
of competitive advantage in taking
decision which is supported by
findings through analytics. Some
of the new players in this league
are Madura Fashion, ITC, Marico,
Spencer to name a few.
Bangalore today has some 500+
analytics firms, while 80% of Indian
Overall system
firms are not yet over to analytics.
Apart from retail and banking,
analytics adoption in healthcare is
also picking up in India. Fortis and
Apollo are some of the healthcare
Source: www.purdue.edu
providers that bet on analytics. Apollo

Hospital seeks consultations on project basis in areas
banking data is more reliable than the data from other
like resource optimization, dashboard analysis and
business verticals such as retail. So, it wasn’t unless
segmentation of patients. A fresh new concept called
the year 2010/11, when some frontrunners like ICICI
‘health eCommerce’ starts gaining traction recently.
Bank, and HDFC Bank jumped onto the bandwagon
Former CEO of iGate Phaneesh Murthy is launching
on a serious note. State Bank of India started investing
an online healthcare marketplace.
on Big data analytics heavily.
Another area which is being leveraged by almost
The next big player for use of big data analytic are
all firms having a presence across social platforms
e-commerce companies such as FlipKart, Amazon, etc.
is ‘social media analytics’. This move transcends
They are mostly using unstructured and structured

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Human
Collaboration

Privacy

Timeliness

Scale

Heterogeneity

The Big Data Analysis Pipeline. Major steps in analysis of big data are shown in the flow at top. Below it
are big data needs that make these tasks challenging


Big data & Analytics | cover story
the borders of business verticals where product
companies keep a tab on users’ sentiments and
feedbacks. Today customers’ sentiment analysis
is one of the most common modus operandi for
companies to gauze their product strengths and
weaknesses which many are working upon.

India would see a huge demand for data
experts in coming days. How do we get
the manpower given that we don’t have
interdisciplinary course available in India?
This is a genuine problem. Those who understand
business are not comfortable with programming or
for that matter visualisation tools. In other words, a
programmer may not find statistics intriguing and
hence this gives rise to another problem of hiring
multiple people --one for statistics and one for
programming, and so on. Additionally, we don’t have
enough number of statisticians in India. Having said,
things are changing and I hope soon we would see
interdisciplinary courses starting off across institutes.

What steps, best practices, and how-tos
do you suggest for those seriously
pondering over leveraging analytics for
business gains?
There are three pillars of analytics. Technology, data
science and business insight. This is a team work. In
the technology domain, knowledge of mapR, Hadoop,
etc play a major role. While in data science two main
divisions are statistics and machine learning. This
is where the maximum job are created and will have
more and more demand. This is also the hard one to
get a grasp over. Third one is the business insight.
Often analytics does not bring the desired fruit
because of lack of business insight.
By business insight I do not mean business
communication, but asking the right question.
More often asking the right question needs great
deal of business insight and half of the advantage of
analytics lies in asking what to be solved and half is
how to solve.
In statistics one has to understand that a lot of
existing predictive models usually won’t work in a
big data framework. A very simple example is, ‘is
“mean” still a summary measure for a 40 million
transactional data?’ Does random sampling still
work, as doing random sampling for a large data will
have higher chance of having multimode? Similar is
the case of machine learning. Usually, ML tools are
not very robust and with slight change of variables,
the entire results can change. So how one can develop

more robust algorithms? These are some, among
many, issues that analytics industry is struggling due
to the lack of academic and industry collaboration!

Could you cite a few innovative datadriven initiatives being undertaken by
Indian businesses?
Well, one of the first things that come to my mind is
the use of data analytics in the recently concluded
National election campaign of the BJP! Bigbasket.com

More and more firms today are
convinced that there is a great deal
of competitive advantage in taking
decision supported by analytics.
is working on an innovative idea of creating a digital
smart basket which will be individualistic and will
help the shoppers online to shop more effectively.
HDFC bank is using analytics to get a complete 360
degree view of customer. State Bank of India is using
a very innovative algorithm combining both online
(social media, blog) and offline (customer level) data
to come up with a recommender system on realtime to send promotion. Gitanjali Group, the global
integrated diamond and Jewellery manufacturer
and retailer, uses Visual Analytics to explore and
analyse business data such as supply chain and
profitability metrics.

If Booz Allen, KPMG, Apple, Wallmart,
Terradata, Netflix, Intel, Dell are the top
hirers for data scientists in US, who all do

you think would be the top hirers of data
wizards in India?
Banks (both private and public) including Citi,
HDFC, ICICI, and SBI. E-commerce companies
including FlipKart, Amazon and Snapdeal. Master
Card and American Express. Retail firms like future
group and shoppers Stop, etc.
What do you do in the UN’s
big data group?
My role is three fold: I lend my expertise to the
development of guidelines and practices that
mitigates risks associated with privacy in Big Data,
while preserving utility for global development. To
contribute on how Big data analytics can be used for
responsible social value creation and participating
in an ongoing privacy dialogue, providing feedback
on proposed approaches and engaging in a privacy
outreach campaign.

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cover story | xXpensation SURVEY

‘Machine
Learning HELPS

US SAVE MILLIONS’
Navin Manaswi, a data scientist and
a big data specialist with General
Mills --a U.S.-based food company,
shares insights on how they
leverage data science to forecast
demands of products.
By Mastufa Ahmed

Give me an overview
of how big data and
analytics is being
leveraged by Indian
enterprises?
Indian Big Data market would touch $
1 billion by 2015 from nearly $ 0.2 billion in 2011 and global Big Data market
would grow at the same rate and touch
nearly $ 25 billion by 2015, according
to NASSCOM and CRISIL. In only a
few big companies, big data analytics is
being applied to understand, help and
lure customers and to maximize the
revenue while others are just storing
Big Data in Data Warehouse and trying
to create some basic reports.
Gradually, e-commerce, telecommunication, giant retailers, media,
oil-exploration and mobile tech business entities are recruiting data science professionals and that too, with
hefty packages that indicate the boom
of data science and big data analytics.
What are some of the top

trends currently in the big
data and analytics domain?
Leveraging machine learning algorithms and graph theory: Data scientists
leverage machine learning to predict
and strategise to get a compact and clear
picture of the future business trends by
using past data. Every business stakeholder including manager, executive,
investor is interested in finding weekly,
monthly, quarterly or yearly forecasts
in aggregate and detailed form in crosstabular or/and graphical analysis so that
they can optimize their resources and
save millions of dollars.
Using R/Python programming
languages: Every bit of data science
including machine learning, data visualization, data manipulation, and web
based and interactive visualization is
done on R or python, mostly. Industry
verticals including finance, telecommunications use R or python.
Working on distributed computing
including Hadoop clusters: With the

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Big data & Analytics | cover story
emergence of Internet of Things, mobile devices and
the increasing interaction among these, data size and
its analysis are increasing more than exponentially. So

the need of faster real- time analytics and large mobile
data storage has been increasing exponentially.
Using Tableau/Spotfire/Qlikview and D3 for visualization: All industry verticals need to analyze interdependencies and complex relationships between
indicators including KPIs by using lucid and powerful
visualization capabilities including network graphs,
tree-maps, surface and contour plots and hexbin plots.

What are your prime responsibilities in
General Mills as a (supply chain) data
scientist?
Forecasting demands of products each week accurately is the most important job of Supply Chain
Management. Understanding the linear or nonlinear
relationships between different KPIs (key performance indicators) to get the best possible insights
is the second most important job.
Understanding the customers, suppliers based on data and then classification or clustering them is another
important job. Here analysts use R
and python languages for doing predictive analytics and optimization.

in making it consistent and clean before applying
various modeling and optimization techniques. In
addition, we need to be ready to know the business
more holistically and more deeply before we start
working on any project.

Can you share some insights on the tools
that you use?
Time series clustering helps us cluster products
based on various parameters. Bayesian networks
and markov models help us get big insights out of
data pool. (Bayesian networks is a statistical model

that represents a set of random variables and their
dependencies via a directed acyclic graph. For
example, Bayesian network could represent the
relationships between diseases and symptoms.
Markov model is a random probability pattern
describing a sequence of possible events in which
the probability of each event depends only on the
state attained in the previous event.) Understanding

Data Science Challenges

How do these initiatives
translate in terms of
adding to the business?
We try and solve business problems more accurately with help of
machine learning. Having solved it
and built the confidence of stakeholders, our team has started new
projects on prediction, classification, clustering and optimization.
All these initiatives have helped
our company save millions of
dollars with the help of accurate
prediction of demands and understanding of complex relationship
between different KPIs. Please note
that one percent accuracy improvement in demand
forecasting translates to huge savings for a company. Plus, minimization of the production cost and
transportation cost also brings in a lot of savings in
supply chain management.
Data science being in the nascent stage
in India yet, what all challenges do you
face today?

Data format and management are not consistent
throughout the system. The main challenge lies

the delivery networks through graph theory also
helps us reduce transportation cost significantly.

What’s your advice for IT Managers on
how to leverage analytics tools?
IT Managers are supposed to be aware of strengths
and limitations of all popular machine learning algorithms and should be thinking where they can do
classification, clustering, prediction , associate mining, optimization and mathematical modeling, so as
to help business leaders take better decisions.

june

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19


TECHNOLOGY
i n s i g h t

Tech-Voice

“I admire people
who are very
successful. But if
that success has
been achieved

through too much
ruthlessness, then
I may admire that
person, but I can’t
respect him.”
­‑ Ratan Tata
Ex-chairman of
Tata Group

In an interview with IT Next, HTC Global
Services’ Practice Head –Mobile CoE, Venkat
Alagarsamy shares these tips that can help
tackle your sensitive data.
by Mast ufa A hm e d

20

itnext | j u n e 2 0 1 5

Unlike web applications where the security is implemented at the server level,
for mobile apps the security is installed
in the device that could be reverse-engineered and exploited
As a lot of sensitive data resides on the
device, the same can be easily extracted
by using the right tools
Reverse engineered apps on opensource platforms can be repackaged
with malicious code and redistributed
There is minimal or no control over
using enterprise apps on jail-broken /
rooted devices

Mobile apps are often used in less

IMAG e by Isto ckphoto.co m

Why You Must
Leverage these
Mobile Insights

5 Ways mobile applications are
extremely vulnerable and least
secured


TECHNOLOGY
secured / unsecured public networks
and Wi-Fi zones

Top mobile vulnerabilities that might
compromise enterprise security
Connectivity using unsecured protocols
Offline corporate data residing in the
devices
Weak Encryption techniques
Losing the device
Weak or no password protection to
open the device or to use the application
Building applications that could be
easily re-engineered
Inadequate, improper or no enterprise
mobile application security strategy /

policy
No enterprise wide mobile device /
application management
Malicious mobile apps from unauthorized sources / stores
The real loss of the device happens
due to the device getting stolen at public
places - restaurants, work locations, public transport bus /train etc.
This happens mostly between 12 PM
and 5 PM. Device loss or device theft
results in loosing identity, productivity,
company data, money, credibility, etc.

15 Best practices that corporates
follow to ensure data security
1. Installation Protection – Restrict
installation authorization only on non
jail-broken or non-rooted devices and
subsequently disable running the app
if the device is jail-broken or rooted
after installation
2. 
E nable Application Expiration –
Enable the application to run only for
a specific period before it is set to timeout due to inactivity
3. Authentication – Build a proper authentication process like SSO, device authorization, biometric verification, etc.
4. Device Data Encryption – Implementing stronger encryption algorithms
like FIPS 140-2 and Suite B for sensitive and user-critical data
5. Data Connection Encryption – Use of
strong encryption algorithms for data
transferred OTA with absolutely no

compromise on keys.
6. Application Connectivity protocols
– A protocol to give access to only

The real loss of the device happens
due to the device getting stolen at
public places - restaurants, work
locations, bus/train, etc
its specific functionality and not the
entire device.
7. Copy /Paste and Screen-shot Protection – Disable copy /paste option and /
or screen-shot data capture within the
application
8. Remote Wipe – Application should
have the feature that would remotely
wipe the data without MDM
9. Data Integrity Check – Build an algorithm that verifies the data integrity to
avoid any worm data that is part of the
data model
10. A
 pplication Integrity Check – At the
time of app login, calculate the checksum of the app with the checksum of
the app when it was first downloaded
to check for integrity
11. Auto update – Verify the new versions of an app and facilitate for the
automatic updating of the application to keep in line with bug fixes and
security enhancements
12. Log Enabling – Enable app logs to
track user activity and capture crash
logs and share it with mobile apps

admin without the intervention of
user
13. Track application usage and analyze
– Track application usage data and
share it with mobile apps admin
14. Implement MDM and MAM tools
that best addresses the enterprises’
needs. Air-Watch is one of the best
MDM tools. WSO2 is an MDM tool
and is licensed free.
15. Install sound antivirus protection
tools on mobile devices

4 New methods vendors are embedding into their devices for enhanced
security
I mproved authentication using fingerprint, face authentication, voice
authentication etc. Vendors are investing hugely to come up with better

authentication methods – for example,
body authentication etc.
Vendors are improving the encryption
methods for data connectivity and
local data storage
New methodologies, process, and

workflow are getting implemented in
authorized stores to identify malicious
applications
Still the big challenge of tracking lost /
stolen devices exists. Vendors should

build stronger techniques to track stolen /lost devices

5 Areas security technologies are
evolving towards tighter security
1. Newer encryption techniques
2. Mobile Locks
3. Device tracking and Remote wipe
4. Mobile activity Monitoring and Audit
5. Proactive data management using Big
Data

2 Latest Indian mobile security
breaches
1. Security Researchers at F-Secure Corporation, an antivirus firm, have conclusively shown that Xiaomi RedMi
1S handset sends a lot of personal
and sensitive data to the “api.account.
xiaomi.com” server located in China,
and this includes:
IMEI Number of your phone
IMSI Number (through MI Cloud)
Your contacts and their details
Text Messages
2. A German security firm stated that the
low cost and popular Chinese Android
Smartphone, Star N9500, comes preinstalled with a Trojan that allows the manufacturer to perform unrestricted spying
on their users’ personal data and conversations without the users’ knowledge.
Find more at online on the website
www.itnext.in/resources/articles

june

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21


new revenue streams.

IMAGe by istock p hoto.com

4. Most cloud solutions provide a narrow

Strategy

Cloud’s ROI Is More
Than a Numbers Game
Analyzing ROI based on specific factors will
enable buyers to find the right cloud delivery
model to meet business needs
By Stanto n Jones & Scott F eu l ess

F

or companies that are not born
in the cloud, moving to a cloudcentric delivery model involves
choreographing a complex
migration of many parts, each with its own
associated risks and rewards. Calculating
the return on investment (ROI) for making
these moves involves measuring the cost,

the benefits and how those will change over
time for both a traditional on-premises
solution and one or more potential cloud
solutions. While figuring cloud ROI is
not easy, it is a critical calculation that will
inform decisions about how IT delivers
value to the business and how the business
invests in IT.
Here are six factors to keep in mind
regarding cloud ROI.
1. S
 tart by actually measuring it. Many
believe that the cloud is inevitable and
simply take it on faith that the ROI will

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be there. But going through the exercise
of figuring ROI—learning where cloud
makes business sense, how the greatest
benefits are realized and what the tradeoffs are—can be incredibly valuable in
supporting key decisions as you form
and revise your cloud strategies.
2. A cloud buyer’s ROI will look different
depending on the delivery model that
the company employs. The ROI on software as a service (SaaS), for example,
may take much longer to realize than
the ROI on more infrastructure-focused

cloud services.
3. Like many business decisions, moving to the cloud is not all about saving money. Much of the ROI from a
cloud delivery model may come from
the agility that goes with faster provisioning times, improvements in
service or the opportunity to support

set of services, and most still require
support from the buyer. When buyers
see X dollars per person per month for
SaaS, or Y cents per hour for IaaS, they
are seeing only a portion of the cost buyers will incur to successfully implement
and run a cloud service. Including ITILbased support and governance costs in
ROI calculations is critical.
5. For IaaS services, ROI will vary tremendously depending on the size and type
of workload going to the cloud. If you’re
bursting a high-performance computing application to the cloud during the
two days per month when you need to
double its compute capacity, you’re payback could be significant. Meanwhile,
applications with relatively steady use
may have modest returns or none at all.
6. ROI will change dynamically over time.
Many organizations have shown that
they begin to achieve increased organizational efficiencies and reduced costs
after they reach a certain tipping point,
a point at which they have moved a
certain significant percentage of their
infrastructure to the cloud. Being freed
of the ongoing work involved with
purchasing, installing, configuring
and upgrading hardware pays off over

months and years, but when buyers
begin avoiding major tool purchases,
or when they are able to close a data
center, then there is often a sudden,
step-wise increase in the return.
The cloud creates significant new opportunities to reduce costs and move faster.
However, these opportunities vary dramatically depending on the cloud delivery
model, the workload and the amount of time
buyers are willing to commit. Analyzing
ROI based on these, and many other factors,
will enable buyers to find the right delivery
model to meet business needs.
­—Stanton Jones is an analyst of Emerging
Technologies at ISG, and Scott Feuless is a principal consultant at ISG.
This article was first published in CIO Insight.
For more stories, please visit www.cioinsight.com.

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