Category: Cloud

Debunking Myths

Debunking Myths: Cloud Computing vs. Data Security

August 20, 2024

There is a raft of myths pertaining to data security in the cloud that need to be combated, particularly for those still doubting the relevance and importance of cloud-based solutions. Data access, management, and saving has been revolutionized fully with the growth of cloud computing. However, there are several misconceptions which are linked to the security of cloud data. Here’s looking at some of these myths that should be debunked below. Key Myths Regarding Data Security in the Cloud Let us take a closer look at myths and misconceptions pertaining to secure cloud storage below. Shared Responsibility Models- Key Misconceptions There are several myths relating to shared responsibility models and the potential for security breaches. Some of them include the following: In the shared responsibility model, cloud providers are responsible for various aspects. They have invested considerably in scaling up security levels, which encompass the physical security offered by data centers and also network security. They usually offer certifications for diverse industry regulations too, including PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR. Many companies also end up assuming that providers will configure environments to be more secure as a default service, although this cannot be expected at all times. Misconfigurations are often an issue that leads to security problems. Companies should not only put in a proper tracking system as a part of their shared responsibility, while also understanding that just moving to the cloud does not make them compliant entities. How It Stacks Up For Companies Data security in the cloud has several myths and wrongful perceptions around it, which have been busted above. At the same time, the shared responsibility concept has to be taken seriously by companies as well. There is an element of continual tracking and knowledge regarding regulations and compliance that organizations cannot wish away. Sometimes, cloud security seems improbable due to the lack of understanding among companies in relation to security risks linked to cloud ecosystems. Many a time, companies do not allocate proper resources towards cloud security as well on the grounds of convenience. Hence, this may lead to the absence of suitable security controls and higher vulnerability. The shared responsibility model has to be fully understood, where companies should know the areas of cloud security that they should invest more in and also how to build security blueprints likewise. While providers hold responsibility for securing cloud infrastructure, inclusive of the physical security of data centers, virtualization layer, and network security, companies hold responsibility for the security of operating systems, apps, and other data that run on the cloud-based infrastructure. Hence, while cloud environments are secure enough at a tertiary level, organizations also have to usher in necessary policy and technological changes to make it work. To sum it up, cloud providers hold responsibility for securing the cloud itself, while the companies have the responsibility to secure their data within the cloud. FAQs 1. Isn’t cloud storage inherently less secure than keeping my data on-premise? Cloud storage is not intrinsically less secure in comparison to keeping data on-premises. This is because providers offer similar security levels while having implemented multiple measures and upholding stringent regulations related to data security. 2. Can cloud providers access my data without permission? It is not that easy for cloud providers to access your data without authorization. There are limitations and data security regulations that bind them in this regard. 3. What happens to my data if the cloud provider experiences a security breach? Data may be compromised in case of a security breach at the cloud provider’s end. However, companies hold responsibility to secure their own data within the cloud to prevent any adverse impact. 4. Does cloud computing offer any security advantages over traditional data storage? Cloud computing may offer more advanced security in comparison to conventional data storage, since cloud providers help companies comply with changing regulations, while infrastructure and processes are also regularly updated. 5. How can I ensure my data remains secure when using cloud computing services? Some of the ways to ensure data security in the cloud include not storing highly sensitive or confidential data there, reading user agreements to find out the cloud service storage functions, making passwords in an informed manner, encryption measures, and also using an encryption cloud service.

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Latest Technologies and Future Trends by Top Key Players Forecast to 2030

Latest Technologies and Future Trends by Top Key Players Forecast to 2030

September 15, 2023

Several emerging technologies are poised to bring about a massive industry transformation as per reports. What is the forecast for future trends and the top key players till 2030? Here’s finding out.  Major Findings Here are some interesting findings related to technological advancements and technological disruptions throughout industries. It also offers insights into the future trends regarding emerging technologies.  Some Other Crucial Insights Here are a few other innovation forecast moot points for the period till 2030:  As can be seen, widespread transformation is at the core of business operations and efficiencies in the period till 2030. What the world is currently witnessing is a transitional phase with several emerging technologies being adopted by leading players in the Asia-Pacific and even worldwide. What is evident is that 2030 will push the bar well higher in terms of disruptions and eventual progress.  FAQs Some of the technologies that are already shaping the business landscape include automation and artificial intelligence, along with machine learning and IoT (Internet of Things). Other examples include data analytics and cloud computing along with blockchain technology. Organizations are steadily embracing these technologies to boost efficiency and offer more personalization to customers while also streamlining their internal operations or business processes. By 2030, the physical and digital worlds will also merge with technologies like AR, VR and 3D being used for creating digital twins in sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, real estate and more. There will also be a shift towards data native from cloud-native along with generative AI usage for closing up gaps between insights and data.  2. Who are the key players in these emerging technologies, and what are their roles in driving innovation? There are several key players for these emerging technologies from multiple standpoints. Countries like Japan, India, South Korea, and China are at the cusp of greater breakthroughs in terms of technological integration into the public and corporate spheres for greater efficiency, mitigation of risks, and many other purposes. At the same time, leading tech giants have a big role to play in terms of innovation and experimentation in order to drive future progress. The biggest players in these segments are chief technology officers or CTOs of companies. They have a vital role in terms of encouraging more innovation and building future technology blueprints for organizations.  There are a few challenges linked to the adoption of new technologies. These include legacy systems and perspectives, lack of training or skill sets, costs of new technologies and tools, and the speed of technological advancements, along with privacy concerns. The latter can be addressed through encryption measures, audits, and compliance with better regulations. Steady investments in up-skilling, training, and future-ready digital infrastructure are also the way forward with regard to tackling these challenges.  Several emerging technologies are poised to have a disruptive effect on various global sectors. Retail will witness a complete revamping of business strategies and models, becoming more personalized and data-driven with technological disruption. Industries like healthcare, manufacturing, insurance and finance should also witness major disruptions in the near future. 

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FinOps Is The Solution To Bridge The Cloud Gap In Banking

April 25, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic made cloud adoption mainstream worldwide and across almost all business sectors. With more companies switching to flexible and scalable IT expenditure models, Cloud FinOps helps keep cloud spending under control while managing the same seamlessly. But that’s for the enterprise space. How then is FinOps filling up cloud gaps in the banking sector? Let us find out. FinOps And Its Functioning Framework FinOps is a cloud-based operating model, enabling a paradigm shift with systems, best practices and tools that collectively optimize and control cloud spending at organisations. It necessitates enhanced cost awareness and promotes this philosophy through a collaborative ecosystem encompassing finance, IT, engineering, business and procurement divisions of any company. Through the promotion of optimized and responsible spending and scaling up accountability from a financial perspective, FinOps enables informed and improved decision-making for businesses. The core of the system is the centralized model of reporting and governance that enables better optimization of public cloud-based resources. The entire spending and performance matrix is brought into a single, decipherable space visible at every level of the company. The Three Phases Of FinOps Inform- Teams throughout the entity are given higher visibility and decision-making capabilities along with allocating cloud spend for showback and chargeback more accurately. Benchmarking via KPIs and metrics for performance tracking and spurring ROI while remaining within the forecasting/budgeting spectrum. Optimize- Actions taken for the identification and tracking of efficiency drives include reducing cloud wastage, storage access optimization and rightsizing resources that are not utilized, under-utilized or over-used. This includes enhancing automation and optimizing the utilization rate while enhancing instances reserved for discounting. Operate- Companies should keep adopting cloud-based usage and governance controls for their resources in the cloud. The phase will also encompass analyzing overall business goals against metrics and overall effectiveness with a view towards KPI-driven improvement. How It Can Help In The Banking Space? FinOps mechanisms may help banking and financial services firms with the following: Forecasting spends. Application of best practices on optimizing costs. Take decisions informed by metrics. Ensure continual savings on costs and greater value. Central governance teams were deployed with finding cost optimization opportunities in sync with cloud providers. Internal benchmarking of metrics, systems and KPIs for tracking performance vis-à-vis business goals for real-time decisions and enhancements. Governance systems are tailored and executed for tracking spending along with optimization recommendations. Opportunities are continually found to optimize cloud architecture and managed services. Real-time insights on costs are available for people at all organisational levels. Such visibility helps manage budgets and detect spending issues before they snowball into severe monthly shocks. FinOps will ultimately mature towards a watershed mark where unit economics or business value will directly correlate and link to cloud spending. Hence, greater spending clarity and the accuracy of metrics will help banking and financial services players (and companies in all other sectors) build achievable goals based on business performance while identifying areas for spending to scale up returns from investments in the cloud, simultaneously generating added value. Wrapping Up FinOps is thus the best solution for filling up the cloud gap in banking and financial services, something that is a necessity in today’s ever-evolving business lexicon. FinOps helps businesses view the tangible value achieved and fills up the gap through a more structured perspective toward controlling cloud service costs and realization of anticipated values. FinOps also has the scope of showing the value of the investment made in the cloud by the organisation, irrespective of its current stage. With banking and other financial services players increasingly transforming towards cloud-based organisations, effective management and spend optimization will be crucial for them. That is the area where FinOps can play a vital role.

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10 Tips to Optimize Your Explainer Video for Search Engines

The Tech Opportunity In Indian Healthcare Services

April 4, 2022

The marriage of Indian healthcare with technology has been a productive one, with both parties anticipating a never-ending honeymoon ahead. If there were ever a metaphorical statement for the rapidly growing health-tech segment in the country, then this would be it. In fact, even NITI Aayog agrees, based on the clarion call given by its CEO, Amitabh Kant, highlighting the growing health-tech opportunities to the Indian healthcare system.   Governmental Innovation Is Propelling The Sector The Indian Government is laying a steady foundation for the growth of digital healthcare and newer platforms. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission has been a game-changer and Amitabh Kant, the NITI Aayog CEO, stated that it is now on the technology players, start-ups, and healthcare players along with other stakeholders to create new offerings in the field of digital health which meet growing demand and spur the same as well. Amitabh Kant’s statements came at the 8th Annual Summit of Nathealth and assume greater significance once you consider the backdrop. The country already has the infrastructure to create “compelling, accessible healthcare solutions that provide equitable access and can be rapidly deployed and scaled up” as per Kant. Take other factors into consideration like the increasing penetration of internet connectivity and smartphones throughout the country and the increasing trend towards e-pharmacy, telehealth, and digital healthcare solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and you get the picture. Digital healthcare or health-tech presents a massive opportunity for growth, particularly in still-nascent segments like technology-driven home healthcare, e-diagnosis, and e-pharmacy services. Conventional healthcare institutions, investors, and start-ups would find this the right time to enter the space and “build a position which would be hard to beat in subsequent years” according to Kant. Now take the National Health Policy of 2017 into context. It creates a roadmap for creating a digital health-tech-based ecosystem and integrates various aspects like health delivery, cloud, wearables, and IoT (Internet of Things). It also envisions a National Digital Health Authority for the regulation, development, and deployment of digital healthcare solutions throughout the entire care spectrum. The policy recommends deploying digital solutions for greater efficiency of the entire healthcare setup along with better outcomes, in addition to ensuring a healthcare information system that caters to all stakeholders. The aim here is to ensure superior outcomes in terms of quality, access, reduced disease burden, affordability, and better tracking of health-based citizen entitlements. Some other Government initiatives that have struck a chord include the following: The National Health Stack concept, which became the National Digital Health strategy and the final National Digital Health Mission, launched on 15th August. Integrated health data and information portal with the aim to integrate EHR within the purview of the medical setup. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana 2.0 IT portal which wishes to integrate insurance and provider platforms for various benefits. Every individual will have a health ID, offering access to integrated healthcare solutions, enabling Universal Healthcare coverage and delivery. How And Why India Is Bullish On The Health-Tech Opportunity? Consider a few facts in this regard: E-health services and similar platforms may completely revolutionise healthcare. 65% of current e-commerce users are projected to use digital healthcare offerings in the future. Nathealth created its vision paper which emphasised Rebuilding, re-structuring, and re-imagining resilient healthcare systems in India in a post-pandemic era. The clear takeaway is that the pandemic ushered digital healthcare into the mainstream and consumers now consider it a necessary service. KPMG reports indicate a valuation of INR 116.6 billion for the digital healthcare sector in 2018 while this is anticipated to touch INR 485.4 billion by the year 2024, indicating a 27.4% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate)  in this period. With face-to-face interaction going down, patients are increasingly opting for online services in healthcare, with a demand for solutions that enable more affordable healthcare consultations and accessible interfaces. The digitalisation of the healthcare space is helping in filling up availability gaps in Tier-II cities and rural zones. E-Pharmacies have also helped in transparent price listings and better consumer options along with better accessibility. KPMG estimates this opportunity at a whopping $30 billion in healthcare technology. It has also talked about how start-ups will play vital roles in enabling healthcare access throughout the country. Estimates of 70% of the population of India (roughly 892 million individuals) living in rural zones with limited/zero healthcare access and the fact that India spends just 4.7% of the GDP on healthcare, throw up the magnitude of the opportunity. KPMG encourages start-up hubs for encouraging more players to invest in the health-tech space and advocates national and local Governmental support for the same along with a health innovation fund. The biggest pharmaceutical players, hospital brands, and diagnostics brands should adopt a mentorship role and sync with these health-tech companies. The market size was estimated at $830 million for telemedicine in India (as of 2019). It is projected to shoot up to $5.5 billion by 2025 (indicating a 31% CAGR). The NITI Aayog and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have already released their telemedicine guidelines, with more than 1 million consultations taking place by December 2020 via e-Sanjeevani in 550 Indian districts. Health-tech in India grew by 51% (annual) in 2021 as per Redseer, collectively encompassing consultation, pharma, and diagnosis. 47% is the growth in the NPS (Net Promoter Score), indicating how customers are more inclined towards using e-health platforms and are clearly recommending them to their loved ones. The Redseer report also highlighted how the average consumer acquisition cost had reduced for players, indicating scope for growth and profitability. E-Pharma still dominates this segment owing to rewards and discounted offerings. Redseer estimates acceleration in GMV to $9-12 billion by 2025 for the e-Health space and possibly $40 billion GMV by 2030. The Take-Aways (What Is Happening And What Can Happen?) Indian mainstream healthcare is at the tipping point of future-proofing itself through technology, while meeting rising demand via technology. These are the core takeaways that we need to keep in mind. Indian healthcare industries

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Corporate Branding

The Gateway To Anywhere And Anytime Working

March 3, 2022

Working, and that too from anywhere, anytime seems strange right? However, with what the Delta-Omicron tag team event has taught us, nothing should feel strange anymore. After being bruised by the pandemic, the addition of salt to the wound for remote workers is sticking to fixed working hours.  As magical as it may sound, there exists a solution to these problems – a hybrid cloud implementation.  What Is It? It is the mixed computing service, and storage environment encompassing the public and private cloud features.  The turbulent environment makes it even more difficult for organisations as they require some employees to stay present on the premises too. Can you believe that remote working has become so trendy that employees are even accepting 10% pay cuts to avail the facilities from their offices? True, Owl Lab’s survey has reckoned that 23% of respondents are willing to make compromises.  The working motivational factors differ from the office and home premises, so adapting to those is crucial. The next question is, how to handle both categories simultaneously? A study of 30,000 people from 31 different countries backs the idea of implementing the hybrid workplace model to deal with the in-office ‘cubicle’ workers and remote ‘anywhere’ workers at the same time. But, Is It Easy To Implement? Dealing with the hurdles is essential if you want to reap the benefits of these concepts. Just imagine, if you cannot convey the goals, and objectives to all the employees, do you think you will be able to prosper? All you will face is a struggle to achieve success. Keeping all the employees on the same page through cutting-edge structures and communication modes is essential.  As you cannot apply similar strategies for the defenders and the strikers in a football match, the same goes for organisations in relation to management strategies. Managers need to figure out different approaches to deal with remote workers and in-office workers to avoid process hindrances.  It’s Not Easy, But It’s Worth Doing A 2022 forecast says 91% of organisations globally would rely on the hybrid workplace model, integrated with the hybrid cloud helps in working from anywhere and anytime. This will accelerate the workflow and strengthen the collaboration and cooperation among cross-functional teams within organisations through cloud application development.  This would lower internal operating costs, leverage efficiency, improve security, and increase business agility for a unified workforce experience and improved budget pliability. Resource optimisation, interoperability, security, and scalability are the benefits that you get when you incorporate the hybrid workplace model with a hybrid cloud. And Finally, The Long Road Ahead The world is changing daily, why sit back? Let’s be more dynamic, adaptive, trendy, and flexible to stay ahead by updating the hybrid cloud continuously in the hybrid workplace model for better working anywhere from any time.

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AWS-vs-AZURE

What To Choose AWS Or Azure For IaaS In 2021?

January 13, 2021

Before we understand these two cloud infrastructure providers, let us first know a little about these giants. AWS: Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary of Amazon providing cloud computing platforms and infrastructure to companies, governments, and personal users based on various plans like pay as you go, etc. It was founded in 2006. Azure: Microsoft owned cloud infrastructure and managed services for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers. It’s users also vary from companies, governments to personal users, and come with various payment schemes. It was released on 1st February 2010. Now let’s go ahead and see what AWS and AZURE have to offer: Processing Power- AWS: If you are looking for something on the more customized approach of power like the size of the RAM, Power of the processor, or the number of VMs, then AWS is the option to go for. Also, if one is opting for different regions or zones from where the server runs, AWS gives that option. Azure: The User needs to configure the amount of processing cores and Memory size based on which a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) would be created, up and running. Storage- AWS: It comes with a short-term storage facility that gets destroyed once a process or instance is terminated. It also comes with block storage similar to Hard Drive, which is detachable with any instances. It has facilities like Data Archiving and supports relational databases and Unstructured Databases and Bigdata. Azure: It offers a temporary storage facility via D drive and detachable storage through Page Blobs. It has support for both Structured and Unstructured Databases through Azure Table and HDInsight. It also offers site recovery, Import-Export, and Azure Backup for additional archiving and recovery options. Security and Compliance- AWS: Both government bodies and private entities have partnerships with AWS. It strictly follows compliance like ITAR, DISA, HIPAA, CJIS, FIPS, and more. They also have access restrictions so that only legitimate and authorized users can have access to sensitive data. Azure: Their security complaints are within the 50 most sought after, which includes: ITAR, DISA, HIPAA, CJIS, FIPS. Their security is also robust, and not anyone can trespass it at ease. Costing- AWS: They have a pay as you go model, where they charge per hour basis. Instances are purchasable on the following models: On-demand: Pay per use model with no fixed charges. Reserved: Reserve for 1 or 3 years but pay as you use. Spot: Bid for extra space as demand. Azure: Microsoft has flexibility between the pay-as-you-go model to pay-per-minute, which is more cost-effective. It has an option between prepaid or monthly charges. Hybrid Capability- AWS: A 100 TB hard drive for shifting workloads between cloud and client data centers. Snowball Edge added a much needed Hybrid capability with VMware to burst users into its cloud environment. Azure: A full circle of Hybrid cloud services like Azure StorSimple, Hybrid SQL Server, and Azure Stack to bring their own on-premises data centers using the same pay-as-you-go pricing model for its public mode. Network and Content Delivery- AWS uses a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) that allows users to create isolated private networks. It takes advantage of the API gateways for cross-premises connectivity. Load Balancing techniques are used for smooth operation during high usage time. VPC comes with various options that give you the flexibility to create subnets, private IP ranges, route tables, and network gateways. Azure makes use of the virtual networks that grant users the ability to create isolated networks, as well as subnets, private IP ranges, route tables, and network gateways. If someone needs cross-network connectivity, one can go for the VPN gateway. Load Balancing is handled using a load balancing application gateway. Concluding the battle between AWS & AZURE Although both offer top-notch services, and it is very hard to declare one the winner. But considering all the features and services offered by both Azure would be the option for the following reasons: Value Added Offers better Remote based services. Segments and Targets Feature catering more towards the SME and Agencies. End- End Delivery services all in one platform. Higher Return with Lesser Investment. At INT. where we are the Gold Partner for Azure services, we have seen the growing computational power of this platform.

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agile-product-development-team

Agile And Outsourcing Product Development. Get It? Else, Forget It!

October 14, 2019

In today’s world, Agile methodology and outsourcing product development are hot topics. The beginning of the 90s witnessed the starting of outsourcing product development. Companies jumped at the opportunity to save bucks by hiring top talents at reasonable rates. Agile methodology, when infused later in the 90s, became the cherry on the cake.  Agile is a well-known methodology and most development teams prefer it. It all started in Oregon in the spring of 2000. A group of seventeen software professionals got together to talk about how they might shorten development periods and get new products to market faster.  We have studied the scaling up of the Agile method at most companies, including small firms. Larger companies like Spotify and Netflix were born agile and have become more so as they’ve grown. Also, big shots like Amazon and USAA (the financial services company for the military community), are already in the transition from traditional hierarchies to more-agile enterprises. The CollabNet VersionOne 13th annual State of Agile Report shows a 71% increase in project cost reduction as a primary reason to adopt agile. There was also a 27% increase in “Project Cost Reduction” as a reported benefit of implementing agile.  Additionally, there was a 74% increase in accelerated software delivery from which we can easily conclude that the talent pool became smarter than ever. What is outsourcing software product development? Software product development outsourcing means assigning a third-party company for a particular or all operations linked to a product’s development and maintenance.  The outsourcing vendor provides necessary skills and resources for providing solutions during the product development lifecycle.  Is it possible to implement Agile in outsourcing product development? Many experts had a misconception that the Waterfall approach is the only feasible option in product development outsourcing. Customer satisfaction is a top priority for the Agile method, which aims to accomplish it by delivering software or solutions early and frequently.  Usually, Agile methodology uses practices like: DevOps Scrum Crystal Extreme Programming  However, while outsourcing, implementation of Agile methodology can be challenging. But it’s not impossible either! After all, overcoming challenges will help you achieve success.  Challenges in implementing Agile in product development outsourcing  As we discussed earlier, following Agile methodology can be challenging while outsourcing. So, here are a few challenges that you may face: Insufficient Agile Experience Does your outsourcing vendor follow Agile methodology? This is the first thing that you need to ensure. Due to its growing demand, many IT outsourcing companies are adopting Agile methodology. So, try to choose an outsourcing vendor that follows the Agile way.  The absence of a team structure Teamwork is an integral part of Agile methodology. It requires cross-functional teams to collaborate to provide outcomes to the end client. Assigning software development to individuals can obstruct the Agile way. Because a single person cannot collaborate in the same way as a team. So, make sure to assess the teams of outsourcing vendors. And find out whether they are compatible with Agile or not. Focusing on groups rather than individuals might assist you in developing a network that allows you to remain flexible. Not having clear communication The Agile method is largely reliant on open, continuous communication. So, managing an outsourcing team might be difficult. One of the most efficient methods to tackle this problem is through email or video conferencing. Besides, you can schedule a few team visits every year to better connect with your offshore development team. “We are trying to figure out how to transition from our regular, current cubicle kind of workspace to a more collaborative workspace,” Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO at TCS, tells ET Magazine. Source: Targetprocess blog Why might this be? What led to the rise of the agile manifesto is that people slowly started to realize that the waterfall approach they’ve used with their outsourcing vendors is not that great after all. Fixed price contracts stopped making sense as they do not guarantee real value. The more labor is outsourced to other countries, the higher are the costs. Hence, the main point for outsourcing which is cost-saving loses its foothold. There’re other even deeper-lying consequences. On one hand, the country which outsources – or businesses in this country, not the country itself – they save bucks but lose in the long run as they do not grow their own engineering minds, let alone all the problems that you have working with remote teams – yes, we have all this telecom and internet in place, yet face-to-face communication is irreplaceable. If you often go on business trips to the outsourced destination to talk to your team – again, it’s more costs. Well, the crux is not about how good or bad outsourcing is. The companies which outsource on the other hand – have legacy outsourcing teams. They need to get going as well, to stand up to all the funds they’ve already invested in their outsourcing partner. Agile adoption at INT. 80% of the projects of INT. in FY2020 are classified as Agile. The remaining 20% are the projects whose life cycles are highly predictable. In such cases, the client was clear of the feature set and scope. Eventually, it led to the outcome being divided into a known set of deliverables. These projects usually follow the traditional Waterfall model. Scrum framework adoption at INT. A major chunk of Agile projects at INT. use a Scrum framework. Those Agile projects that do not follow Scrum are typically small (<5 persons). In those teams, the Scrum framework can become a ‘heavy’ process load. In such cases, lighter processes surrounding agile processes are followed. Client Process Adoption at Indus Net Technologies (INT.). Process adoption before working with INT: 31% had a full process in place at the project start 25% had a partial process in place at the project start 46% had no process in place at project start Process adoption after working with INT: 75% had a full process in place 14% had a partial process in place 11% still do

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The Rise of Banking-As-A-Service: A Global Phenomenon

September 12, 2019

A number of banks around us are working hard to innovate and create a unique customer experience using the possibilities of digital banking. However, the whole banking architecture needs to adapt to the required viability and flexibility to become future proof. A way to do it is to open up the bank’s capabilities to essentially empower anyone who wants to develop their own financial products and services- ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ (BaaS). Though this goes against the fabric of traditional banking as they had always preferred an end-to-end service delivery model. However, the recent consumer centricity that is taking over the market with born-digital FinTechs is big. According to Bloomberg, most big banks are spending more on digital than the total investment in all the FinTech start-ups Source: Bank disclosures, data compiled by Bloomberg and KPMG Pulse of Fintech Report based on Pitchbook data. This data does give an idea as to where banks are heading to but don’t give us the complete picture. A number of instances like Fidor, a German online bank founded in 2019 is allowing its customers to access loans through P2P social lending service Smava Barclays is inviting Credit Unions to offer payday loans through their branches and help payday firms stop charging high interest ICICI Bank uses SmartyPig to offer iWishes to their millions of customers as social savings All this collaboration shows how banking is gradually becoming a service and banking is not limited to the banks only. Another area of interest is open banking. So, what is the difference between BaaS and Open Banking? Though BaaS goes hand in hand with Open Banking, however it relies on the collaboration of financial institutions, service providers and customers based on APIs. On the other hand, BaaS focuses on using APIs to provide simple access to banking and payment products while meeting regulatory requirements. These platforms help reduce the need for businesses to invest in their own technology and screening mechanisms as these platforms carry out all the processes needed for financial and regulatory operations. Thus with BaaS a bank can use a module, component or function of a bank and allow FinTechs to create an application packaged and network-enabled as a banking widget. The balance statement widget; the payments transaction widget; the loan application widget; and so on. For example, a personal finance company of Mint aggregates data from customer’s different accounts and provide bank-like service outside a bank-owned channel that is leveraged by open banking. While a company like Digit relies on access bank’s infrastructure to provide a host of services like automatic savings, overdraft prevention services that the bank doesn’t offer to consumers. So how does BaaS work? BaaS allows third parties to tap into existing banking systems through application development interfaces (APIs) that allow communication between banks’ software and the third parties’. These open APIs expose the banks’ functionalities to anyone intending to access them, which includes independent developers, FinTechs, non-financial institutions like restaurants and welfare clubs; enabling them to build their own features on top of the banks’. APIs enable banks to share data with internal developers, partners and third-parties, such as FinTechs, which then manipulate this data to build valuable service offerings, including mobile payment applications, peer-to-peer lending solutions, analytical dashboards among other solutions. Banks can also tap into the capabilities of the FinTechs to facilitate their own customers. Some more examples; TransferWise, a remittance company that reroutes money from a bank account within the receipt’s country so that it does not have to cross borders. This makes its international money transfer service cheaper, UK’s Monzo bank partnered with TransferWise to integrate the service into its banking app. Notable financial institutions embracing BaaS include US bank Bancorp, which has leveraged the BaaS model to a point of supporting 75 million prepaid cards and over 100 non-bank partners who use it to provide financial services. Evidently, as BaaS emerges as a new business model and an effective competitive toolkit, banks must shift focus to financial management solutions assemblers. An efficient BaaS implementation strategy should focus strongly on enabling plug-and-play operations which different Fintechs can plug and provide tailor-made services to meet customer needs. By adopting these methodologies, banks will also experience better standardization and cost reduction. Starling bank’s Banking-as-a-Service partnership is with Raisin UK, the online savings marketplace that allows customers to pick the best savings deal on the market to meet their individual needs. The relationship allows Raisin UK to use Starling’s APIs to open accounts for each customer, collect their deposits and place them at their expanding network of partner banks that participate in its marketplace.  It is clear that there are a number of benefits in BaaS and in creating an API ecosystem. Banks will also find new revenue sources and acquire new customers, especially digital natives seeking more innovative offerings. From a customer’s point of view, a BaaS platform enables them to take out loans at a digital point of sale, invest in funds at the push of buttons and also transfer money. Companies are able to combine payment functions directly with the rendering of services, for example supplying electricity, machine activities or transports. In the current platform debates, we are led to believe that an API already makes a bank a platform – however it is merely a necessary technical requirement, but not a platform sufficient feature. They provide for varied features, for example, in Germany, the Wirecard Bank, Solaris Bank and the Sutor Bank operate BaaS platforms; each with different points of focus.

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Why Cloud Based Innovation Is the New Norm for Insurers Globally?

September 9, 2019

A number of insurers have started migrating their core business functions into the cloud, a sight which was rare a few years ago. A report by Ovum a few years ago had highlighted how 67% of CIOs from the insurance industry predicted that cloud computing will “completely transform the insurance industry in five years or less”. Today, we are excited to see that it is happening. But the bigger question is why is it happening? The reasons for adoption enlisted at a strategic level include enhancing operational efficiencies, adapting to agility and seamless access to disruptive technology that can drive innovation. Let us see a simple use case of FinanceFox AG, they have teamed up with Salesforce to integrate CRM applications with its insurance brokerage platform.  The platform lets users manage all exiting insurance policies and get advice on insurance coverage gaps. This has given users complete control and the organization is acting as a virtual advisor 24×7. Cloud-based insurance solutions have ushered in an era of innovation to such an extent that large enterprises are craving for a pie in this segment already. For instance, Alibaba Cloud had partnered with eBaoTech to launch ‘eBaoCloud’, an insurance cloud platform that grants insurers access to standardized insurance capabilities without the need to self-build or deploy their own systems. Recently, China Continent Insurance (CCIC) launched its next-generation Core System based on ‘eBaoCloud InsureMO’ as middleware. ‘InsureMO’ provides a comprehensive set of APIs to develop an ecosystem for connecting all internal staff user interfaces and workflows. If we look around we see a dynamic range of companies that are leading the race with cloud-based innovations. Source: Accenture Though we assumed that cloud solutions are only for boosting operational efficiencies and agility but they are evolving themselves to play a crucial role in combating insurance fraud that has plagued the industry for a long time.  For example, CNA Financial Corporation uses Shift Technology’s ‘FORCE’ fraud detection solution to automate the insurer’s fraud detection capabilities. ‘FORCE’ is a SaaS-based solution and claims to have a 75% hit rate. CNA Financial is charged based on the volume of claims processed. Did you know? According to Insurance Thought Leadership.com, insurers across US and Europe fall prey to insurance frauds worth approximately Euro 60 bn per annum. While an estimated 65% of fraudulent claims go undetected, about Euro 240 mn is spent by insurers to tackle fraud. Journey to Being Cloud-Native By now you must have already started planning on leveraging cloud for growth. Let us help you make the first move. An insurance company which provides motor insurance plans to decided of creating a smarter claims prevention mechanism and move it to the cloud. They would then be engaged in a number of considerations and scenarios like: The application and infrastructure model should be designed to account for unpredictable data flow The system must be able to decipher possible business implications from a weather alert of a possible thunderstorm It should have the necessary ability and algorithms to prioritize sending of push notifications and warning messages to policyholders while not hindering other workloads. While they check and analyse the requirements and possibilities they have to keep the core principles intact. But what are these core principles? Clear identification of all possible infrastructure requirements, architectural patterns and application models Well established difference between infrastructure resources that required smart configuration, and provisioning in case of an unforeseen scenario Drafting of architecture patterns for achieving scalability and flexibility of services to cater to the surge in data flows Finalization of application model to optimize solutions for both low configuration and scale-out scenarios Figure: Guardian Life’s shift to AWS Now we feel like we’re in a platform. And we’re capable of testing and learning a lot faster than we have in the past with much less of an investment. But we also have access to these new technologies and just as importantly, the people that are developing these new technologies.”- Dean Del Vecchio, EVP, CIO and Chief Of Operations at Guardian LifeThe partnership between insurers and cloud is here as to stay with cost advantages, co-creation possibilities and higher sustainability. With major giants already deciding to get out of the business of owning and operating its own data centres is a huge milestone for the new cloud-first approach.

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Digital Success Summit 2019: What to Expect

July 18, 2019

A stimulating conference program focused on digital innovation and transformation. Over the years Indus Net has partnered in digital systems with a number of established players. We regularly innovate in Cloud/Data center, AI, Cyber Security, IoT & Mobile Technologies providing organization with the opportunity to keep in pace with global trends. Our Digital Success Summit V2.0 on 8-9 August 2019 with the theme, ‘Growing Digitally, Growing Profitably’ will encompass 7 deep dive workshops on Day 1 and back to back sessions by speakers from around the country on Day 2. Attend Day 1 to gain actionable insights on How to leverage businesses through powerful storytelling with Indranil Chakraborty The need and know hows for digital innovation with Abhishek Rungta How you can leverage content marketing to build your consumer base with Shubho Sengupta Learn the sorceries of social selling with Kiruba Shankar Get your digital marketing right with Aji Issac Mathew How can you use a combination of storytelling, imagery, and testimonials to boost business with Soumitra Paul Learn the best branding practices for your brand sustenance with Laeeq Ali Attend Day 2 to learn from discussions with the likes of Amit Ranjan is Co-Founder of SlideShare, which got acquired by LinkedIn. Since then he has worked with Government of India to build the DigiLocker project, which is used by more than 10 million citizens. Amit has always been passionate about building outstanding products that sell themselves. Learn from him about building virality into the product or service design. A star teen entrepreneur, Atreyam (Leo) Sharma who has been addressing leading technology events globally since 2014, including TEDx talks in India and Luxembourg.He started coding at the age of 11 and the following year, Co-Founded Workshop4Me. Vikas Malpani, a serial entrepreneur who also co-founded, India’s leading property listing platform-CommonFloor.Com. He is ranked as Business World’s India’s Hottest Young Entrepreneur & has won MIT TR35 Young Innovator Award for his growth advices. And hear many others speak on how to make your product or service viral, sales team management hacks, how to build and manage a remote team, consumer marketing on a shoestring budget and about personal branding Why Should You Attend? We are flying in a delegation of 500+ representing 100+ business covering the country, providing your organization with the opportunity to reach an audience including Enterprise CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, MIS / IT Directors PLUS Cloud Operators, Telcos, SPs, etc. Our Summit provide a highly efficient, cost-effective and proven formula for tech industry CEOs and senior execs, to learn through networking in a single location, in just 48 hours.

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