Interop 2013 Gets High on Innovative Tech

The Interop 2013 provided a good opportunity for some 100+ IT solutions providers to gel with IT decision makers and admins across small to larger enterprises. There were several tracks on varied IT topics that panned across three days, 20-22 November, at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center in Mumbai. The key topics discussed were:

1. Why enterprises need to evolve a hybrid strategy around BYOD

BYOD is a hot topic doing the rounds across IT industry these days. And the Consumerisation of IT was the topic of discussion of a panel discussion comprising key IT heads and moderated by, Romi Mahajan, IT and Marketing Author and President of KKM Group. That employees shall want to bring their best mobile devices to work is an irreversible trend and cant be wished away, was the ground from where the discussion was initiated. During the course of the discussion, the panel got divided into two groups, based on their views: one in favor of allowing employees to bring their devices, and the other that was vehemently opposed to it. The first group wanted BYOD to be encouraged so that employee motivation and morale gets a boost in the hard economic scenario while the second group belonged to the old school that is to afraid to let security get compromised, any which way. It was concluded that some sort of a hybrid BYOD strategy needs to be chalked out so that both groups have their way.

 2. Moving from a device-centric IT infrastructure to an app-centric infrastructure

The plenary session conducted by Swapna Bapat, Head Market Strategy, Enterprise Networking Group, Cisco India focused on the IT solutions that shall shape the Next Gen Network Solutions. She empasised the changing face of IT network, from a client-server model to a mobile-cloud model, wherein the key business apps are going to be hosted on the cloud and accessed anywhere through mobile devices. The days of the old client-server architecture shall fade away. Also, the focus on people to people interaction through PCs, laptops, tablets, etc shall move towards machine to machine interactions as devices gain in intelligence and IoT gets stronger. This shall mean the app ecosystem for mobile devices hosted on cloud shall become more prominent as compared to apps hosted on the Web. There shall be more focus on analytics rather than on data stored within individual apps.

3. Internet of Things to help you in daily chores

Dr. Prasad Ramanathan, AVP (Software), iGate gave an interesting account of how IoT shall help mankind in their day-to-day lives. The technology is evolving or rather has evolved significantly to cover our cars, smartphones, utility gadgets, key infrastructure in cities through the use of sensors that can sense and relay data through the internet. This data can be analysed to come up with useful advice/warnings and instructions to save time and help people. Just imagine traveling by your car in Mumbai and you happen to pass by the place called Dindoshi. The old Dindoshi flyover might develop a crack somewhere but it is too small to be picked by the naked eye. Now with the help of sensors fitted on the flyover this information can be passed to your car's GPS and you shall be advised to take a detour. This is just one key aspect of IoT that's going to enrich people's lives. There are many, many more such applications where IoT can impact human lives in a big way.

4. CIOs, Think Like Criminals!

This was the key message conveyed by Dinesh Pillai, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group through his session. The approach to securing an organisations assets both physical like the IT equipment, and virtual like information, need the same resolve and determination as shown by security forces against terrorists. A key thing to note here is that the criminals are the first to embrace the latest technology solutions and have used them to the maximum in terrorist operations in the past. So, to protect their assets, organisations should double check each and every opening to their assets and protect them with the most suitable technology and physical force. More often than not, an innocuous pen drive or an unsecured mobile device can cause immense damage to the security of an organisation.