Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group’s CyQureX Sign a Global Strategic Partnership

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions, announced a global strategic partnership with Hinduja Group’s CyQureX, a leading provider of advanced Cyber Security solutions world-wide, with a view to offer world class cyber security solutions in support of clients through successful digital transformation.  

The strategic partnership will enable the organizations to become leaders in the emerging ‘Zero Trust’ environment, leveraging CyQureX’s core SDP (Software Defined Perimeter) technology and solutions, alongside Tech Mahindra’s strategic focus on cybersecurity and other next generation technologies. The partnership will enable Global customers to have access to state-of-the-art cyber security protection for Data Assets across the entire life cycle i.e “Data in Motion”, “Data in Use” and “Data at Rest”.

With decades of consulting and digital transformation expertise, Tech Mahindra will provide consulting, planning, designing, integration, orchestration and automation of services. CyQureX, which represents a new and critical business vertical of the well diversified, multimillion dollar turnover transnational Hinduja Group, with research and development centers in India and USA and offices spread across USA, Europe/United Kingdom, Middle East and India, will prioritize capabilities in the ‘Cyber Security domain - the new middleware of the future’.

CP Gurnani, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, “Organisations have accelerated their digital transformation journey to emerge stronger and smarter from the current crisis. As a global leading provider of digital services, Tech Mahindra is committed towards leveraging new-age technologies to unleash new business opportunities and experiences for our customers and partner ecosystem through strategic partnerships and world class solutions. We see cybersecurity not only as an essential service but as a key business differentiator for our clients. The partnership with Hinduja Group’s CyQureX aligns with our core business proposition, and will further strengthen our position as the cybersecurity partner of choice for our customers globally.

GP Hinduja, Co-Chairman, Hinduja group is of the view that “This partnership is a game changer in the cyber security domain. It brings the leading security services company Tech Mahindra, and our newest technology company, CyQureX, together to create a highly secure, agile and resilient digital world. I am extremely delighted to see this strategic partnership formed, as it is in line with one of the core principles of our founder, Partnership for Growth. With rapid transformation of business to digital, we believe cybersecurity will be the cornerstone to protect all digital assets, particularly for digital transformation of India and other geographies. We are committed to develop many more indigenous state-of-the-art cyber security products and technologies in the coming years, with a vision to be a major global player in the emerging cyber security solutions market”.

“I am very excited about the alliance with Tech Mahindra” observes M.K.Narayanan, Executive Chairman of CyQureX, a Former National Security Advisor and Special Advisor on Intelligence and Security to the Prime Minister of India.  “This is a critical alliance and I am hopeful that it will be the catalyst to leverage next generation technologies like Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and create Cyber Security platforms to protect businesses, critical infrastructure and government. It promises to take digitalisation to the next level, providing clients across the globe with fully integrated cyber security solutions.”

The strategic partnership between Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group’s CyQureX  will not only provide affordable protection to critical data, and defend nations against ‘stealth offences’, but would provide Cyber Security solutions for agile deployment that are critically important for business continuity, competitiveness and flexibility. Together, given TechMNxt charter, which focuses on leveraging next-generation technologies, and Hinduja Group’s CyQureX as a leading provider of cyber security solutions, exciting new opportunities have become available in the arcane world of Cyber security. Simultaneously, Tech Mahindra and Hinduja Group’s CyQureX will work towards Product Development, Consulting Services and Delivery in the Cyber Security space.

About CyQureX

Established in 2017, CyQureX is a cyber security solutions provider headquartered in London, UK. A Hinduja Group company, CyQureX focuses on design, development and delivery of next generation cyber security portfolio and services. Providing Software defined perimeter based network security solutions to a diversified set of industries such as banking, engineering and financial institutions.

About Hinduja Group

The Hinduja Group is one of India’s premier diversified and transnational conglomerates. Employing nearly a 150,000 employees, with presence across 38 countries it has multi-billion dollar revenue. The Group was founded over a hundred years ago by Shri P.D. Hinduja whose credo was "My duty is to work so that I can give."

The Group owns businesses in Automotive, Information Technology, Media, Entertainment & Communications, Banking & Finance Services, Infrastructure Project Development, Cyber Security, Oil and Specialty Chemicals, Power, Real Estate, Trading and Healthcare. The group also supports charitable and philanthropic activities across the world through the Hinduja Foundation.

ServiceNow Named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools

ServiceNow, the company that makes work, work better for people, has been named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Asset Management Tools. ServiceNow was recognized for its Software Asset Management (SAM) solution. This recognition comes just two and a half years after ServiceNow first launched its SAM product.

ServiceNow’s SAM solution provides customers with the ability to help reduce software spend and license compliance risk, allowing companies to gain a more complete picture of their software assets deployed in their datacenter, on end user computers and in the cloud. With ServiceNow, customers can optimize IT productivity, cost, and resilience. This is crucial for companies, especially during times of economic uncertainty, where companies are looking to drive even greater efficiencies with their capital.

At ServiceNow’s recent Knowledge 2020 Digital Experience, customers such as Accenture, Exelon, and Microsoft presented on their successful journeys with ServiceNow SAM to achieve high value.  Many customers are finding opportunities to save millions of dollars very quickly by eliminating unused software.

“Now more than ever, companies around the world are looking to drive efficiencies and reduce costs,” said Manish Srivastava, VP and GM of IT Asset Management at ServiceNow. “We feel Gartner’s recognition of ServiceNow as a Leader for Software Asset Management tools is a reflection of our solution’s unique ability to not only provide insights, but automate taking action on these insights using the ServiceNow workflow platform, accelerating savings realization, and compliance remediation.”

ServiceNow’s SAM product runs on a single architecture, natively interacting with other critical functions such as Hardware Asset Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), IT Operations Management (ITOM), and IT Business Management (ITBM). The single data model provides workflows to connect the enterprise throughout the full IT life cycle.  ServiceNow’s single system approach modernizes and simplifies how SAM gets done.

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Netmagic Launches SaaS Based Application Performance Monitoring Services Based on the AppDynamics Platform

Netmagic  (An NTT Company), and a leading managed hosting, security and multi-cloud hybrid IT solution provider in India, today announced its partnership with AppDynamics, a Cisco company, to provide Application Performance Monitoring (APM) as a service to enterprises in India to ensure deep visibility into their customers’ critical applications and end user experience.

This service enables businesses to deliver flawless digital experiences consistently by connecting end-user experience and application performance to business outcomes. APMaaS is intuitive to configure and deploy, automatically discovers business transaction, consumes little production overhead, monitors every line of code, and dynamically baselines performance to proactively identify and resolve application performance issues before they impact customers and the business.

Contemporary businesses rely heavily on digital technology to deliver a superior customer experience. Technology today includes a complex fabric of multi-cloud, IOT, distributed services, microservices, containers, APIs and much more that need to work in harmony to ensure that the application performance as experienced by the end user is of high quality.

Speaking about this, Nitin Mishra, Senior Executive Vice President, and Chief Product Officer, Netmagic (An NTT Company) said, “We are extremely pleased to partner with AppDynamics to offer Application Performance Monitoring Service (APMaaS) empowering businesses to navigate this turbulent pandemic period and emerge stronger and more scalable. With the business transaction-centric management of most complex and distributed applications, the APM service will bring value and enhance customer experience by providing clear visibility on the underlying components of the application. Apart from narrowing down to the source of the problem in the entire application flow, it will also provide deep user insights and analytics that will help the customer deliver significantly improved end user experience”

Adding further, Abhilash Purushothaman, Managing Director, India & SAARC, AppDynamics, said, “Our partnership and joint solution offering with Netmagic is a significant milestone for the AppDynamics India business. In India, adoption of online application-led services has sky-rocketed across all industry verticals in recent years. Now with the recent pandemic and increased reliance on remote working, our customers have shared that managing digital user experience in real time is no longer nice to have but a necessity. This strategic partnership will help us scale and deliver APM as a service across all business and industry segments.” 

The modules of this tool that will help in delivering the APM services include Application Performance Management – Core, Performance Management – Microservices Application Performance Management – SAP, Synthetic Transactions Monitoring, Browser Real User Monitoring, Mobile Real User Monitoring, Database Visibility, Infrastructure Visibility, and Business Analytics.

The benefits of the service that would add value to customers’ applications management are –

* Uptime and availability of the applications.

* Slowness in response in terms of time and database can be identified using this service.

* Application performance monitoring for end-users who use browsers and mobiles, tablets etc. to access the applications.

The modules will be wrapped under different packages and offered to customers. The APM solution is based on the package and can be scaled up depending on business requirements. This service can be delivered as a standalone offering or as an enhancement integrated with Netmagic’s Infra Manage Services.

About Netmagic (An NTT Company)

Netmagic, an NTT Company, is India’s leading Managed Hosting and Multi-Cloud Hybrid IT solution provider serving more than 2000 enterprises globally. Headquartered in Mumbai, Netmagic also delivers Remote Infrastructure Management (RIM) services to various enterprise customers globally across Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific region. The Company was the first in India to launch services – Cloud Computing, Managed Security, Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) and Software-Defined Storage. Netmagic has been recognized with 8 awards at the CIO Choice 2020, and 2 awards at the Datacenter Dynamics India 2019.

Siemens and SAP Join Forces to Accelerate Industrial Transformation

End-to-End Software  

* Together, industry leaders Siemens and SAP will deliver integrated end-to-end software solutions across product lifecycle, supply chain and asset management.

* Partnership leverages expertise and technology of both companies to provide a true digital thread that helps enterprises eliminate process and information siloes, drives digitalization and delivers a comprehensive solution for the 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0).

* SAP will offer Siemens’ Teamcenter software as the core foundation for product lifecycle collaboration and product data management. Siemens will offer SAP® Intelligent Asset Management solutions and SAP Portfolio and Project Management applications to maximize business value for customers over the entire product and service lifecycle and enable new collaborative processes between manufacturers and operators.

Siemens and SAP SE has announced a new partnership that will leverage their industry expertise and bring together their complementary software solutions for product lifecycle, supply chain and asset management so their customers can deliver new innovation and collaborative business models that will accelerate industry transformation globally. Through this agreement, both SAP and Siemens will be able to complement and integrate their respective offerings in order to offer customers the first truly integrated and enhanced solutions for product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain, service and asset management. This will enable customers to form a true digital thread integrating all virtual models and simulations of a product or asset with real-time business information, feedback and performance data over the entire lifecycle.

"Digital transformation will be critical for the manufacturing industries to increase productivity, flexibility and accelerate innovation, so companies must come together in new ways to enable the digital enterprise,” said Klaus Helmrich, Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries. “This exciting collaboration between two industry leaders is about more than just interoperability and interfaces; it is about creating a truly integrated digital thread that unites product and asset lifecycle management with the business that enables customers to optimize production of products.”

Silos between engineering and business have existed in enterprises for decades. This new partnership will help customers to break down these siloes so manufacturers, product design teams and service managers have the information needed to quickly create and manage customer-centric product and service offerings.

“As manufacturers design and deliver smarter products and assets, access to real-time business information across networks is critical to bring new and improved innovations to market faster,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and responsible for SAP Product Engineering. “Bringing together expertise from SAP and Siemens to offer Industry 4.0-enabled business processes allows enterprises to create a digital thread for the entire product and asset lifecycle. With this end-to-end solution, teams across the business network can efficiently work together to design and deliver innovative products productively, profitably and sustainably.”

Going forward, both SAP and Siemens will be able to offer new solutions that combine their technologies in order to help companies shorten time to market by leveraging Industry 4.0-enabled data using intelligent assets and products. This will also give organizations the benefit of incorporating customer insights into product development through a comprehensive solution, from product design to service and asset management. As a first step in the partnership, SAP will offer Siemens’ Teamcenter®  software as the core foundation for product lifecycle collaboration and data management and Siemens will offer SAP® Intelligent Asset Management and SAP Portfolio and Project Management software to maximize the business value for manufacturers and operators across networks. Both companies will collaborate to develop applications from an end-to-end lifecycle perspective to help customers achieve a seamless digital thread that improves overall business performance.

“Combining Siemens’ Teamcenter and SAP S/4HANA® software provides companies an end-to-end process capability from product design to decommission,” said Bob Parker, Senior VP of Industry Research at IDC. “The IT benefits of pre-integration of PLM, ERP, asset management and supply chain applications and the business benefits from having a more resilient response to changing market demand make this a compelling consideration for companies seeking a competitive advantage in the digital economy.”

Hyundai Motor India Announces Nationwide Hygiene Drive in India

Hygiene Drive

* 17 Day Sanitization Drive to ensure complete hygiene and safety of Vehicles across all workshops in India

* Wide range of benefits on interior smoke sanitization, interior surface sanitization, Free 50-point check-up & much more

 

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., country’s first smart mobility solutions provider and largest exporter since inception, today announced the commencement of Nationwide Hygiene Drive across all Hyundai workshops, with an aim to promote complete sanitization of vehicles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers can avail special incentives and offers on sanitization for their Hyundai cars. This 17-day Hygiene Drive will begin from 15th July and go on till 31st July’20.

Commenting on the Hyundai Hygiene Drive, Mr. Tarun Garg, Director – Sales, Marketing & Service, said, “At Hyundai, we place our customers’ safety and hygiene on top priority. The Hyundai Hygiene Drive is an initiative aimed at providing a seamless car sanitization experience for our valued customers at various touch points for their complete peace of mind. With over 1300 service outlets, HMIL is committed to provide the most comprehensive and qualitative service.”

Keeping in line with respective State regulations, all Hyundai Showrooms and Workshops are adhering to the government guidelines that promote safety and hygiene among Customers and Employees. Customers’ offers and benefits for Hyundai Hygiene Drive include:

Free 50 points general check-up and hi-touch points sanitization

Complete interior smoke sanitization starting at ₹ 599

Complete interior surface sanitization starting at ₹ 999

Exterior Dry Wash starting at ₹ 340

Special offers on new car purchase

 

Hyundai service facilities can also be experienced via 360° Digital & Contact-less Service. From online service booking through Hyundai Care App, Vehicle status update via WhatsApp, Pick and Drop from home/office and online payment facility, a touch free service experience is ensured for the customers, wherever they are and whenever they want to. Hyundai has always outpaced the industry with best service initiatives and our ranking as No.1 by JD Power in Customer Service Index for 3 years consecutively is a strong testimony of that.”

Hyundai Salutes India’s Strong Spirit - Releases ‘Haq Hai Humara’ Corporate Brand Anthem

Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), country’s first smart mobility solutions provider and largest exporter since inception, today released an anthem as a tribute to the ‘Indomitable Spirit of India’. The corporate brand anthem ‘Haq Hai Humara’ aims to bring together the people of India and salute their resolve to stand united and stay strong in this unprecedented adverse situation.

‘Haq Hai Humara’ features Hyundai Corporate Brand Ambassador Mr. Shah Rukh Khan and depicts gratitude to all frontline workers and the citizens of the country who have risen up to this challenge with their steadfast spirit and for their invaluable contribution in the fight against the COVID -19 pandemic. The anthem in association with Universal Music Group & Brands (UMGB) has been composed and sung by prolific music composer and singer Mr Vishal Mishra and written by acclaimed lyricist Mr. Manoj Muntashir.

Speaking at the release of the Anthem, Mr. SS Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. said, “Hyundai has become an integral part of India over the last two decades, our success is intertwined with that of our valued customers who strongly believe in the Spirit of Hyundai. Through these challenging times, we have stood by the citizens of this great nation and looking back, we must salute the standing strong spirit of India that is witnessed in the people’s fight to bring back Normalcy. Haq Hai Humara is our humble tribute to the country’s solidarity, relentless spirit and never give up attitude in these testing times. We truly believe Together We Can and Together We Will build a ‘New India’.

He further added, “As a responsible and caring brand and in-line with our Global Brand Vision ‘Progress for Humanity’, Hyundai has been at the forefront of providing relentless support to the Government of India in its fight against the pandemic. We will continue to play an active role in economic recovery and chart a path for growth.”

Despite all challenges, the team put this song together shooting from distant locations over virtual platforms. The anthem encourages and motivates each and every Individual to keep their spirit high, hoping for better times ahead.

Commenting on the spirit of this song, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan, Corporate Brand Ambassador, HMIL said, “I am proud to be a part of Hyundai’s ‘Haq Hai Humara’ anthem which is a salute to the spirit of humanity, the ceaseless commitment from the frontline heroes and the small acts of kindness all around us which are the pivots for rebuilding the nation. As we all look forward to the future, I’m sure this anthem will bring positivity and hope for a better tomorrow!”

Also commenting on the thought behind the lyrics of the Anthem, Mr Vishal Mishra, Music Composer & Singer and Mr Manoj Muntashir, Lyricist & Writer said, “Firstly we would like to congratulate Hyundai for conceptualising this song that will help bring about positivity and cheer amid this crisis. Haq Hai Humara is an expression of infinite gratitude that we all feel towards the COVID warriors. Through this song we wanted to convey that ‘Aazadiyaan, Manmarziyaan, Oonchaaiyaan,’ (freedom, free-will and the spirit to soar higher) is our right and no matter what the circumstances may be, it is our tough resolute that will get us back on our feet and help us to keep moving forward. The song is an articulation of the New India.”

Hyundai Records Landmark 1.5 Million Visitors on ‘Click To Buy’ in India

Online Retail Sales

* Fortifies the ‘Future of New Online Automotive Retail’ in India recording over 1 900 online vehicle bookings

* Strong traction & acceptance of online car buying channel with more than 20 000 registrations and over 20 000 enquiries

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., country’s first Smart Mobility Solutions Provider and largest exporter since inception, announced an overwhelming response for India’s First and Only Comprehensive Online Car Buying Platform Click To Buy that has recorded over 1.5 Million visitors and over 20 000 Enquiries since its launch in March 2020.  

Commenting on the record breaking success of ‘Click To Buy’, Mr. S S Kim, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd., said, “Hyundai is redefining the online automotive retail space with its revolutionary digital sales initiative Click To Buy. The platform has seen outstanding traction, recording over 20 000 Registrations and over 1 900 Bookings is a testament of customer trust in brand Hyundai. With digital buying becoming a ‘New Normal’ during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hyundai will continue to provide smart mobility solutions such as Click To Buy ensuring a seamless online car purchase experience for our customers.”

The customer response on Click To Buy, highlights strong acceptance and showcases comfort of purchasing cars online. The Click To Buy platform has revolutionized the online retail experience and provided unparalleled Future Retail Experience to Indian customers.

With Click To Buy, Hyundai is offering a complete end-to-end online car buying solution that enables customers to purchase cars from the convenience & safety of their homes. Hyundai has also partnered with leading Banks HDFC and ICICI, in India to facilitate application of loans online without the need to visit a Bank/ Branch for approval, all on the Click To Buy platform that integrates over 600 dealerships. 

Godrej Security Solutions Launches UV Case; Expands Health Security Portfolio in India

Godrej Security Solutions (GSS), the leading player in future technology of security solutions, announced its venture into the health security segment with the COVID Defence Security Range of products in May. To meet the growing demand for products in the health security space, Godrej has launched ‘UV Case’ and expanded its health security segment.  The  portfolio address the issue of sanitising daily objects, equipment and surfaces that come in contact with several people before entering a premise.

The newly launched UV Case from Godrej Security Solutions uses the UV-C light disinfection technology that helps to create a multiple barrier approach to reducing the transmission of the virus and germs based on current disinfection data and empirical evidence. Worldwide, UV-C Sterilization is the most established scientific method for dry killing more than 65 families of pathogens, viruses and bacteria, including SARS-CoV-1.

Commenting on the launch Mehernosh Pithawalla, Vice President, Godrej Security Solutions said, “Studies show that UV-C light has been used extensively for more than 40 years in disinfecting drinking water, wastewater, air, pharmaceutical products, and surfaces against a whole suite of human pathogens. Today, health security has become a priority for everyone. There is an increased need for a product post-COVID-19 that would sanitise anything that has been brought home from external environments. The Godrej UV Case meets this need; it disinfects and decontaminates almost everything used by an individual daily from mobiles, masks, newspaper, clothes, accessories, books, bags and many other innumerable articles. It will also be helpful for the healthcare sector for sanitisation of PPEs kits. As a market leader, it was incumbent on us to launch a product only after rigorous internal and external testing before it could reach consumers. With the UV Case, we move one step closer to achieving our mission of making the world a safer and healthier place.”

Mehernosh added, “Godrej Security Solution estimates the total addressable health security and safety market for FY-2021 in the country is around INR 200 Crore. We seek to capture at least 20% share of the addressable market. Homes, work-places of the future, as well as many industries, will have to ensure minimum human interference and combat spread of infectious diseases through surface contact. The product enables homeowners and commercial establishments to sanitise their daily-use items like watches, wallets, keys, mobiles, clothes, parcels, among others. Stationery, medical equipment, and salon products can be disinfected in the case to protect and sanitise them before use. Shop owners can disinfect their items for sale before and after customers have had a touch and feel of the same.”

The sanitisation process of the UV Case is a chemical-free case that helps to kill 99.9% viruses and sanitises everything from cash, jewellery, mobile phones to masks, and PPE Kits. The new product has found industry-wide applications in Hospitality, Healthcare, Leisure, Retail, and Homes. The UV Case comes in 3 sizes – 15L, 30L and 54L which gives consumer maximum usable volume ranging for home use to industrial use starting at INR 8,999. Currently available across stores from GSS and will be available on their e-commerce website (shop.godrejsecure.com).

SAP Unviels Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore

SAP AG formally launched its Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore, the third such lab in the world by the company. The lab that started its operation in October last year, joins the league of similar labs in Palo Alto and Tokyo. "The main goal of this lab is to create a platform for collaboration between SAP and its customers and partners on solutions to different challenges in the industry", said Satyajit Singh Mecker, Senior Vice President, Global Ecosystem and Partner Group.

The SAP Co-Innovation Lab hosts a simulated heterogeneous datacenter, integrating hardware and software from SAP and other participating sponsors. "This lab is not like a R&D lab, but it is a real lab, where partners and customers can solve their problems by collaboration", said Satyajit.

Wipro Technologies, a SAP partner, was one of the first to benefit from this SAP initiative. An Insurance Claims Analytics solution was developed by Wipro by working on a platform that was developed in the SAP Co-Innovation Lab. Some of the other partners associated with the lab include Cisco, HP and Intel.

SAP India that now has over 3,800 customers with 2,900 SMEs in the list, wants to tap the potential in the Indian market by this collaborative effort. "India, especially Bangalore has been a region that has seen explosive growth and the global meltdown has not diminished its stature in the global market", said Dr. Axel Henning Saleck, Vice President and Head of the Global SAP Co-Innovation Labs.

"In 2006, SAP had announced a total investment of one billion dollar in India over 5 years and establishment of this lab is part of the investment", said Satyajit. According to Satyajit, the company sees tremendous potential in the Indian market in segments like information technology, engineering, construction, chemicals and automotive. "The current challenge that we see in India is to maintain a balance between customers and partners and keep the focus right", added Satyajit.

Agencies

Cut costs & beat recession with cloud computing

The global recession is taking a toll on every industry and the construction industry is no exception. However, Aurigo Software Technologies, a provider of software and solutions for the construction and real estate, is offering companies its web-based products on a cloud computing model to save on huge IT expenditure.

Established in the US in 2003, Aurigo launched its solution BRIX for the Indian market in early 2008. Aurigo has three customers in India now - RDS Projects, IDEB and Navin Housing. All three companies have opted for the cloud computing model, thereby reducing their burden in managing the IT infrastructure, investing in the server hardware and software components and also on the power that is a huge expenditure.

Talking to CXOtoday, Balaji Sreenivasan, Founder and CEO of Aurigo Software, said, "Cloud computing is becoming a necessary requirement by customers seeking to deploy IT solutions even in the construction and real estate industries and is here to stay for the long haul."

Cloud computing helps companies and end-users access solutions without the hassle of having to invest in the computing power (hardware and software) required to run that solution internally. So if you are using gmail or hotmail to access your email, you are already a cloud computing proponent.

"As customers generally do not own the infrastructure, they merely access or rent, they can avoid capital expenditure and consume resources as a service, paying instead for what they use," said Sreenivasan. Many cloud computing offerings have adopted the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utilities like electricity are consumed, while others are billed on a subscription basis.

Other benefits of time-sharing style approach are low barriers to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overheads and immediate access to a broad range of applications.

In fact, IDEB's cloud computing model is expected to go live within the next six months, while RDS Projects, which has multiple projects spread across six locations in the country is expected to go live in the next 8 weeks. The remotely located and managed servers belong to various server farm providers that are highly secure, ISO 9001:200 certified and are located across India with overseas backup mirror locations with a committed 99.96% uptime.

Since these projects are yet to go live it would take a minimum of six months to one year to assess the actual ROI. However, BRIX is fairly well deployed across the US and at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), which is involved in a $3 billion bridge reconstruction, they have experienced a near 40% boost in productivity. This was measured by computing the reduced time to carry out inspections, transmit the data and increased information retrieval speed after deploying BRIX. The solution has been delivered on the cloud computing model with the entire solution being hosted on a central server and accessed by all the stakeholders at ODOT.

CXOtdoday