IBM to host gen-next technology competition

As part of its University Relations programme, IBM has rolled out a novel gen-next technology challenge titled "IBM Blue Battle" in over 25 leading engineering colleges across India.

The first in the "IBM Blue Battle" series has been launched at IIIT Hyderabad and is being conducted on IBM Multi-core architecture for gaming. Colleges to follow include UVCE Bangalore, JNTU Hyderabad, Madras Institute of Technology (Anna University) Chennai, few IITs and NITs.

Amol Mahamuni, programme director, WebSphere Solutions and Technology and University Relations-IBM India/SA, said, "The challenge will enhance the students' knowledge on technologies that are at the helm of innovation across the industry and provide them with an opportunity to develop innovative solutions in real work scenario." It hones their technical skills while learning basic on-the-job skills such as teamwork, organization, and working under deadlines, he added.

The competition will enable participants to work on technologies such as Multi processors/Nano technology, electronics, service oriented architecture (SOA), Multi Core Architecture, Enterprise Computing (IBM System z), Information Management, Web 2.0, cloud computing, virtualization and High Performance Computing (HPC). Mentors from IBM, along with the college faculty, will closely work with the students throughout the programme.


This competition will also enable students to work on projects using IBM products, applications, tools and services in the future through further collaboration and mentoring by IBM experts.


The winners of this competition will receive prizes including Lenovo Ideapad laptops, along with certification from IBM.

IBM's University Relations has been partnering with academia to drive evolving open standards-based IT skills.

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Syntel has joined hands with Relativity Technologies for the modernizeation workbench platform to deliver enhanced system transparency and business efficiency.

Syntel Inc., a global information technology services and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) company, has selected Relativity Technologies' Modernization Workbench platform to support its rapidly growing application maintenance and migration practices.

Market pressures demand that companies stay agile in the face of an increasingly competitive global economy, but many core application portfolios are inflexible and inefficient, which hampers an organization's ability to adapt. A successful modernization effort requires first gathering a great deal of intelligence on the application portfolio.

A recent report by Forrester noted that "emerging application management disciplines such as application portfolio management (APM), application dependency mapping (ADM), and other portfolio disciplines are changing the way CIOs think about applications under maintenance and all work done in IT." The report continued, stating that "…increasingly, corporate management is tapping information to help distinguish the applications that should be kept and modernized from those that must be replaced and retired."

In order to help its customers make these difficult decisions, Syntel has integrated Relativity Technologies' Modernization Workbench into its Application Maintenance and Migration Centers of Excellence.

The Modernization Workbench is a market-leading suite of applications that analyzes a diverse array of legacy mainframe, mid-range and distributed applications and captures application data and business rules in a centralized repository. It generates rich technical and business intelligence about clients' application portfolios, which can be used to gain an insight into how well an organization's systems align with their business goals, enhancing Syntel's ability to deliver efficiency to clients' core business processes.

Syntel has successfully migrated the core operations of numerous Fortune 500 companies to more efficient architectures, and the Modernization Workbench promises to accelerate future initiatives by discovering, isolating, and reusingmission-critical business processes within a service-oriented architecture.

"We believe enterprises today understand that a legacy modernization strategy is crucial for maximizing the value of their investment. Application modernization can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership and align IT investments with business imperatives," said Keshav Murugesh, Syntel President and COO.

"After an intense, ROI-focused evaluation, we decided to standardize our migration framework on the Modernization Workbench. Syntel is pleased to partner with Relativity Technologies, and we look forward to expanding our deployment of this technology," said Murugesh.

"Syntel's adoption of the Modernization Workbench is a major validation of our technology," said Steve Maysonave, Chairman, President, and CEO of Relativity Technologies. "Our combined solution amounts to business intelligence for application portfolios, and enables outsourcers and clients to collaboratively address core business challenges. The result is an application warehouse that improves IT governance, efficiency and alignment with strategic goals like agility, security, and regulatory compliance."