InTech50: Perpetuuiti Among 50 Most Innovative Firms

Perpetuuiti Technosoft Services, a global software product company in business continuity, disaster recovery and process automation space, announced today that its ‘Continuity Patrol product has been shortlisted by InTech50, a joint initiative by iSPIRT and Terrene Global Leadership Network, providing platform to Indian software product companies to showcase their products to the global audiences, among the 50 most promising software product companies in India for the year 2014.

There were more than 200 nominations and each nomination was reviewed and judged from a panel of over eight Global CIOs and Venture Capitalists. The shortlisted companies will receive advice, on-going mentoring, product marketing support, and funding to scale their offering to the global markets. The event will be held on April 9 and 10, 2014, in Bangalore.

Speaking on the occasion, Rohil Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO, Perpetuuiti Technosoft, said, “We are glad to be shortlisted among the 50 most promising software product companies in India. The recognition is an embodiment of Perpetuuiti’s perpetual endevour to innovate and excel in the space of business continuity and disaster recovery.”

Sharad Sharma, Co-Host, InTech50, Governing Council Member & Co-Founder, iSPIRT Foundation, said, “InTech50 Innovators stand out for having embraced scale, security, social, smart, and seamless in their product offerings. They have the potential to be effective partners to CIOs for driving the innovation agenda within the enterprise.”

The shortlisted 50 companies will be given a chance to present a 10-minute pitch to the global CIOs, and a chance to discuss their ideas further with companies interested in their products. Apart from being a platform to showcase their innovative products, it will also be an opportunity for entrepreneurs to network with big names in business, which might prove to be a stepping stone for mergers and acquisitions for them in the future.

ITC Infotech Offers IMS To FRHI Hotels & Resorts

ITC Infotech, a leading global IT services and solutions company, and a fully owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd., announced that the company has successfully deployed Helpdesk and Infrastructure Management services (IMS) at FRHI Hotels & Resorts (FRHI), a luxury hotel management company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company operates three distinct brands: Raffles Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts, which together provide a distinctive portfolio of luxury and upper upscale hotels.

Says Vineet Gupta, Executive Vice President & CIO, FRHI Hotels & Resorts, “With a significant footprint globally, we required a highly technical and experienced partner to support our IT infrastructure and make our helpdesk processes more streamlined and efficient. ITC Infotech ensures faster turnaround for issues that are reported by end users. Technical challenges are well supported by ITC Infotech, enabling our team to focus solely on strategic business initiatives. We are pleased to be associated with ITC Infotech whose top management focus is helping the company grow.”

ITC Infotech, with its proven capabilities in technical helpdesk management and extensive experience in service management and monitoring solution implementations offers a 24x7 Internal Help Desk support, Guest Help Desk support and Monitoring Services for FRHI from a dedicated offshore delivery centre. ITC Infotech’s rich experience in the hospitality industry, and their capability to provide multilingual support in languages such as English, French, Mandarin and Arabic  offer unmatched value for FRHI.

Commenting on the deployment, L N Balaji, President - North American Operations, ITC Infotech said, “We are happy to have partnered with one of the most prestigious hotel groups worldwide. Handling the helpdesk operations and monitoring infrastructure of a global hotel company that operates more than 105 properties, with over 40,000 users, is challenging and complex. Our deep understanding of the hospitality domain and proven capability in infrastructure management services makes us one of the leaders in this space. We are confident that FRHI Hotels & Resorts will benefit from this partnership and be able to realize significant value.”

ITC Infotech is a niche player in the workspace transformation domain and has been helping global enterprises to blueprint their infrastructure roadmap while evaluating and adopting right fit technologies. The company designs, builds and manages scalable infrastructures and ensures 24X7 availability of all business applications. ITC Infotech’s services have delivered consistent total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction for Fortune class customers, through multiple delivery models and service-level agreement (SLA)-based services which guarantee the best solution for customers.

Jay Bhow Joins NetApp India As VP Engineering

NetApp has announced the appointment of Jay Bhow as vice president of Engineering, based in Bangalore. In this role, Jay will be responsible for NetApp’s global Quality Engineering function for the industry-leading, world-class Data ONTAP storage operating system.

With over 25 years of industry experience, Jay joins NetApp from Oracle India, where he was vice president of the Retail Global Business Unit. Although a significant part of his career has been spent in the United States, Jay has led multicultural teams across multiple countries. After working in start-ups including Retek and Inteka and in established corporate entity Oracle, Jay has a rounded view of how a business operates globally

Commenting on Jay’s appointment, Deepak Visweswaraiah, MD, NetApp India R&D, said, “We are delighted to have Jay join the NetApp family. At NetApp, we have repeatedly set industry standards with game-changing innovation that can transform businesses. India plays a pivotal role in our global product innovation focus and is one of our fastest-growing markets. Jay brings with him rich experience in product development, sustained engineering, and product quality engineering. This experience will certainly strengthen our commitment to deliver cutting-edge technology to enable customer success. NetApp continues to add key global roles based in India.”

Rich Sanzi, VP of Engineering for Data ONTAP, said, “I am very pleased to have Jay own the quality mantle on the team. Given his experience in product quality engineering I am confident that Jay will build on NetApp’s tradition of delivering high-value innovations for our customers. We are thrilled to have him on the team, and look forward to his contributions to customer success.”

Jay, whose work has taken place in fast-paced environments with a strong focus on building excellence in both start-ups and large organizations, said, “Excellence is what I strive for, and I believe it is the key differentiator that enables us to deliver world-class products to our customers.”

Acknowledging the fact that the culture and values of a company play a critical role in motivating employees to excel and explore their potential, Jay added, “NetApp’s culture of ‘one team’ cross-functional collaboration, combined with a rich technology focus, puts NetApp in a position of strength. We have an opportunity to expand on the leadership position of Data ONTAP.”

The commitment to outperform, outexecute, and continually push boundaries to explore new opportunities is what keeps the spirit of innovation alive at NetApp.

Jay holds a B.E. degree in computer engineering from the University of South Florida.

Girls in Technology To Pep-Up Nasscom's 10,000 Start-ups Programme

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has celebrated the one year anniversary of its 10,000 Start-up Programme. It was announced that under this programme In the future, NASSCOM will also strengthen this initiatives such as ‘Girls in Technology’, ‘Start-up connect’ sessions’ and aims to introduce more initiatives that will support start-ups and build India as entrepreneurship friendly nation.

NASSCOM also aims to build more start-ups warehouses in different regions of the country to provide necessary support to budding businesses. The initiative started in March 2013 was aimed at providing the necessary support to Indian technology start-ups and create 10,000 domain specific start-ups in the country.

Addressing a group of start-ups in Bangalore, R. Chandrashekhar, President,

NASSCOM and Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, NASSCOM Product Council highlighted various achievements and developments in the journey of NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups Programme.

NASSCOM had commenced the programme with the support of Google, Kotak, Microsoft and Verisign. In April, last year NASSCOM invited the first round of entries and shortlisted entrepreneurs were provided funding ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 2 crore through leading angel investor networks of the country. Selected start-ups were also offered 3 to 4 months of incubation at leading incubators of India, along with co-working space at affordable cost. The second phase of applications commenced in October 2013

NASSCOM, along with partners focused on multi-fold activities aimed at fostering entrepreneurship, building entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and providing robust early stage support through mentorship. One of the major developments during the journey was the launch of the Start-up Warehouse in Bangalore to create a micro-ecosystem where start-ups and entrepreneurs can work together, share their learnings and best practices with each other.

Speaking on the occasion, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM stated “We are overwhelmed with the response received for the programme and have processed more than 7000 applications in two cycles. NASSCOM is glad to have initiated this programme and is successfully enabling start-ups along with VCs, angel investors and other relevant communities that provide support to start-ups accelerating its growth.” He further added that “With a strong focus on innovation, NASSCOM remains committed to build a vibrant tech start-up ecosystem in India to sustain this momentum.”

Recently, NASSCOM nominated 25 innovative technology start-ups from India for Innotrek – a visit to US for salient entrepreneur focused events. With this initiative NASSCOM aims to provide a global platform for innovative young businesses to ‘Collaborate, Connect and Co-create’. It will be a week long immersive experience in which these start-ups will have a first-hand experience of Silicon Valley product ecosystem, access to global VCs/Angels and chance to connect with big tech enterprises. InnoTrek aims to help the selected start-ups to understand what it takes to build world class products.

In the past one year, the programme has received a very encouraging response from the start-up community. Playing the role of catalyst, NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups Programme has provided a platform for young businesses to have access for suitable incubation, mentoring and funding through multifold activities. Start-up events included fireside chats, pitch sessions, mentoring sessions, whitespace discussions, skill building workshops, recruitment events, and co-founder hunts. 

Is Google's Android TV Rollout In The Cards?

Google is working on a version of its Android software for televisions, leaked documents have revealed to the media.

The firm had previously tried to work with manufacturers, including Sony, on a range of Google TV boxes, which flopped.

However, documents obtained exclusively by The Verge reveal that Google is about to launch a second attempt at a TV box.

Major video app providers, including Hulu, Netflix and Vevo already have apps running on the platform, the screenshots The Verge obtained showed.

Google is currently asking developers to create TV apps for a simple set-top-box interface, said to be a set of scrolling "cards" that represent movies, television shows and games. According to The Verge, users will be able to resume content on their television, even if first started on a mobile device or tablet.

Android TV provides a way for Google to recommend its own content to users, while it also offers a full TV interface that supports specific remotes.

Google's Android TV comes just a week after Amazon revealed Fire, its TV set top box.

Yahoo and Microsoft have also revealed plans to create their own TV shows in the ever-expanding battle for the living room.

KL Varsity Opts HP Converged Cloud For Research

KL University has announced that it has selected HP Converged Cloud solutions to enhance research capability through increased IT availability, efficient utilization of its IT infrastructure and to drive employability for its students with immersive learning experiences and HP Certification programs.

Spread across a 50 acre campus, KL University houses more than 74 academic laboratories across multiple disciplines including Engineering, Science, Humanities, Management, and Commerce. Additionally, the University also supports up to 25 research laboratories, six industry collaboration labs and four centres of excellence. 46 research groups work in these laboratories conducting research in areas sponsored by different governmental agencies such as Department of Science & Technology (DST), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University Grants Commission (UGC), Naval Science & Technological Laboratory (NSTL), and Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) among others.

With an increase in student intake, KL University wanted to centralize its datacenter operations to foster collaboration between research teams spread across various academic disciplines. The University required a scalable technology infrastructure in the cloud to meet the dynamic IT demands of the research groups, faculty, scholars and students. The University was on the look-out for a simplified network infrastructure that could host their applications, anywhere, in the data center or the cloud; and that users can access anywhere, and from any device.

To address this, KL University selected HP Converged Cloud Solutions which include a state-of-art Data Centre housing the HP CloudSystem Matrix which integrates servers, storage, networking, security and management and deliver Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for its users according to their research requirements. The University has also enhanced its network experience by implementing a complete suite of unified wired & wireless network, which proudly out-lines campus Wi-FI by having industry’s latest & best 802.11ac.

“Established in 1980, KL University has always been at the forefront of technology adoptions that enable our students to innovate,” said, Mr Koneru Satyanarayna, President, KL University. “With HP Converged Cloud, we can improve our IT efficiency while providing students with a highly scalable environment that accommodates their research requirements and other computing needs.”

The HP solution, consisting of HP Software-Defined Storage; HP 3PAR Storserv 7000 and HP Data Protector is adopted to effortlessly store, protect, and manage the massive data generated by the student and research groups on campus. HP Unified network management has been implemented to manage the entire network and includes HP Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) solution to provide flexibility to users, allowing them to have their devices connected to the network seamlessly. With this, KL University is also slated to become the first university in the country to implement the latest wireless solutions, introduced by HP.

New Indian Election Analysis Portal By ZT Analysis

ZT Analytics (www.ztanalytics.com) launches its elections analysis portal “A Social View of India Elections 2014”. The site uses tools and techniques from sentiment analysis to study and present the social and media sentiment around the candidates, parties and issues that dictate the 2014 elections. 

The world is watching the coming elections in India with great interest. The largest democracy of the world, with an electoral strength of 81.45 crores (814.5 million), goes to the polls in 9 phases from 7th April, 2014 to 12th May, 2014. Voting will take place in 543 parliamentary constituencies. 

The co-founders - Madhu Jalan, Raghuram Lanka and Reva Maheshwari, who met as part of the Certificate Program in Business Analytics at ISB Hyderabad said, “The analyses presented show daily sentiment for particular parties and candidates. These have been correlated with news events to verify their accuracy and provide even better insights. Enthusiasts around the world who are keen on following the sentiment in both social and news media can visit our site for the latest updates.” 

www.ztanalytics.com