Category: Information Technology

Evolution of cyber warfare — how it has moved up from conventional threats to a digital siege

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Organisations today face a constant barrage of threats — right from malware and phishing attacks to ransomware and social engineering – as cybercriminals adopt newer tactics to exploit vulnerabilities and gain unauthorised access to information with more sophisticated and pervasive attacks. 

These challenges are compounded in today’s distributed working environments where data can be spread across limitless services, devices, applications, and users. What has added to the complexity is the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). While its impact on the digital world cannot be neglected, it presents a double-edged sword for security practitioners. 

However, the larger advantage of AI lies with defenders. After years of needing to be right all the time while attackers only had to be right once, we can start to see how the scales could tip in favour of defenders with AI. If your organisation has the right platforms and the right telemetry, you can apply AI to operate at machine scale, draw meaningful insights, enhance team capacity, and move from simply detecting and responding to predicting and preventing.

AI — The Force Multiplier In Cybersecurity  

Globally, there are an estimated 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs unfilled. Despite the high stakes to a company’s operations, revenue and reputation, many security teams remain understaffed due to the skills shortage. Through automation and interactive natural language interfaces, AI can enable workers with less specialised training to take on important, fulfilling, and well-paying positions around the world. While many contend that AI will eliminate jobs, I believe AI will help draw top talent with non-traditional security backgrounds to our field and expand the available market. 

Helping make this possible, AI “assistants” are transforming the day-to-day lives of security professionals. With GenAI natural language interfaces, we are enabling the intuitive machine-to-human and human-to-machine interactions to augment individual and team outcomes.

These interactions monitor and flag issues for security workers like potential threat anomalies, while freeing them from time-intensive tasks around logs, policy and rule updates, patching, and ongoing security hygiene — many of which can be handled predictively and proactively by the security assistant in minutes instead of days. I see a world where a single security professional could scale their capacity by a factor of 10x or more, and where security teams operate with far greater efficacy. 

Overcoming security obstacles with AI 

A recent study by Cisco shows that in India only 4% of organisations are at a level of readiness we would define as mature, while 88% of companies feel confident in their ability to stay resilient amidst this evolving cybersecurity landscape. We cannot underestimate the threat posed by our own overconfidence.  

That’s why we need to take big steps with AI to improve security resilience. Here are just a handful of today’s security obstacles that AI can help us overcome: 

1. a. Currently, the average security team manages up to 70 point solutions, many of which do not interoperate with one another. AI-powered platforms can simplify and streamline the web of networks, clouds, devices, remote end-users, and applications that give security leaders headaches. Today’s organisations need to prioritise investments in AI-powered integrated platforms with shared telemetry in order to operate at machine scale. 

1. b. AI is being used effectively by our opponents. Cybercriminals have access to the same sophisticated AI-enabled technologies that we do. For example, with generative AI, today’s phishing emails are more convincing and often highly personalised. AI can help us spot these threats as well as correlate data across email, web, endpoint and networks to identify high-level alerts that would otherwise be missed.  

1. c. Why hack when you can simply log in? Identity-related attacks are on the rise, and we need new techniques and technology to keep data secure. Historically we have asked if someone “can” access a system, but really, we should be asking “should” they be accessing a system. If an identity appears correct, but there are anomalies in behaviour — whether from a human or a machine — AI can pinpoint those suspicious patterns and automatically protect assets. 

1. d. Securing everything is hard when network infrastructure is becoming more and more highly distributed with edge applications and end points leveraging hundreds and thousands of microservices. This creates a scale problem for security that only AI will be able to help us with. For example, during my recent trip to India I learned that they are expecting to install 250 million smart metres across the country. That is 250 million end points that will need to be secured, monitored, and updated. Security at this scale requires a hyper-distributed approach powered by AI to be orders-of-magnitude more autonomous than how we operate today. 

We have a tremendous opportunity where AI can help us overcome obstacles like these and reimagine security to build a more sustainable, equitable, and secure future for everyone. By investing in integrated platforms, leaning into the responsible use of AI, and synergising human ingenuity with the computational capabilities of AI, today’s organisations will begin to operate at machine scale and finally tip the scales in favour of defenders. 

—The author, Jeetu Patel, is EVP and General Manager, Security & Collaboration, at Cisco Systems, Inc., the US multinational digital communications technology conglomerate. The views expressed are personal.  

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Headcount at top-4 IT companies declines for the first time in over a decade

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The headcount at India’s top four information technology companies–Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, and HCLTech–declined for the first time in over a decade.

From April 2023 to March 2024, the net headcount fell by over 62,000, following net increases of over 84,000 in FY23 and more than 240,000 in FY22–the year when IT companies hired aggressively in the post-pandemic digital boom.

January-March was the fifth consecutive quarter when the four leading IT companies reported an aggregate decline in headcount.

Except HCLTech, all the other three IT companies – TCS, Infosys, and Wipro reported a net headcount decline in FY24.

The biggest headcount cuts were seen in Wipro and Infosys at approximately 24,000-25,000 employees for the full year.

Let’s look at the reasons for the sharp drop in headcount

Growth slowed down materially:
As the discretionary spending environment turned adverse due to high-interest rates and cautious client consumer sentiment in their mainstay markets of the US and Europe, the growth rate declined from double-digits to low-single-digits. Wipro reported a decline in its revenue in FY24.

Companies overhired in FY22:

This was primarily due to elevated demand and elevated attrition. The FY22 hiring of 240,000 employees matched the total hiring by these companies from FY18 to FY21.

Attrition has meaningfully come down:

During the COVID period the great resignation gripped the tech sector. In FY22, the attrition was high, at nearly 20%. However, attrition rates have now treaded back to normal levels around low teens. Therefore, companies need to hire less to backfill.

The growth outlook continues to remain dim:

Both HCLTech and Infosys are guiding for low single-digit growth in FY25 and the current demand can be serviced by improving the utilisation of their employee base through productivity enhancement measures. The biggest reason to hire is growth, and demand so far hasn’t been forthcoming.

What the companies said during Q4 results:

TCS: “We have commenced fresher hiring from campuses and continue to recalibrate our lateral hiring focusing more on utilising the capacity that we have built over the prior years.”

Infosys: “We started the year with 77% utilisation including trainees and the demand environment was different. Our utilization has now gone up to 82%, including trainees. There is still some headroom because we have always said 85% is achievable utilisation. Attrition has significantly come down. Plus, we got some benefit from our value-based selling in terms of pricing. So, all of that has also resulted in lesser requirement in terms of headcount.”

For more, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

These are the five ways AIOps could transform retail networking

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Today, as artificial intelligence (AI) innovations take centre stage, there are parallel discussions on how AI for IT Operations (AIOps) is poised to transform various aspects of our technological landscape. As per a recent report of NASSCOM, in India, over 50% of businesses have initiated the integration of AI into their workflow, with either full implementation or the initial stages underway. Consequently, AIOps will play a crucial role in the ongoing digital transformation of enterprises. The next thing that should be on the business radar is AI Networking, which will be relevant for wireless, wired, and wide area networks (WAN). 

In the retail industry, the current AI investments stand at US$5 billion and are projected to surge to US$31 billion by 2028, as per EY’s report. Before exploring the new facet of AI innovation, let’s take a step back. It is imperative to understand the key characteristics of an effective AI solution and provide clarity around how AI, machine learning (ML), and automation can help retail organisations.

What AIOps can do for the IT team  

AIOps, a term coined by Gartner, is a solution that uses big data and ML to automate IT operations processes such as anomaly detection and causality determination. It’s like DevOps in that it consolidates service and performance management, teaming this with automation to deliver continuous insights that enable improvement.

So, where do networking, storage, and support services fit into the equation? Gartner clarified these roles in a new term — AI Networking. A subset of AIOps, AI Networking is considered a more efficient way to manage Day 2 network operations — the phase after design and implementation, when the team is analysing and optimising the modern networking system. 

On the other hand, AI Networking sits within the broader infrastructure but is specific to work around wired, wireless, and WAN networks. AIOps and, more specifically, AI Networking provide intelligent automation, for faster response to connectivity issues, or even prevent network outages. Given the sheer volume of cloud-based services, digital users, and IoT devices across the various locations the retail network supports, it enables them to handle these tasks much more rapidly than humanly achievable.

Use cases for AI Networking 

Intelligent AI-powered solutions are already helping IT pros solve today’s biggest retail networking challenges in the following ways: 

• Remote management of multiple stores: Today, it’s standard to see centralised IT teams managing dispersed locations. With this in mind, AI Networking features provide near-real-time visibility into network activity wherever it is taking place. This includes determining which devices are being connected to networks, identifying sites that are struggling with LAN or WAN issues, and collecting essential data logs automatically.
• Accurate identification of issues: In the same way that ML models are designed to point out patterns of behaviour and deviations from them, AI Networking insights and alerts help uncover wireless, wired, and WAN gateway issues that traditional tools miss. For instance, AI Networking can help you see the difference between a device that’s misbehaving due to a hardware failure or something intermittent that a firmware upgrade can fix.

• Improvement of user journeys: Modern customers not only expect products that meet their needs; they also demand high-quality in-store experiences. Subsequently, IT departments need to find ways to deliver exceptional guest and employee access, in an environment where technical expertise is often sparse and on-site troubleshooting can be difficult. The most advanced AI Networking features address this challenge by recommending how one can boost network performance, without costly upgrades, while delivering on operational expectations and customer experiences at the same time.

Why to choose AI-powered solutions?

Although every AIOps solution enables you to automate efficiencies to an extent, some solutions offer significantly more capabilities than others. The most innovative options cover Day 0 and Day 1 tasks as well as Day 2 responsibilities. One should keep these attributes in mind while finding a solution that will comprehensively address their retail networking needs:

1. 1. Intuitiveness and effectiveness: Aside from including a streamlined dashboard, other characteristics of an innovative AIOps solution include built-in natural language search to help with basic Day 0 activities such as configuring a service set identifier (SSID) or setting up a guest network. For advanced needs, the best solutions allow you to tap into capabilities like automatically baselining the performance and behaviour of each of their locations without any manual configuration of service level expectations. 

1. 2. Ability to detect behavioural anomalies: Behavioural change is a clear sign of an impending device failure or security breach. Therefore, one should seek an AI Networking solution where the AI and ML are trained with data from thousands of deployments and millions of devices and endpoints, along with clustering technology to differentiate each location by size, number of network devices used, and how many clients connect daily. In bringing together external data with the internal information your locations generate, an advanced AI Network tool offers accurate insights for sorting out behavioural anomalies.

1. 3. Actionable-insights generation: AI Networking should go beyond basic number crunching and churning out lists of issues to resolve or opportunities to optimise. The most advanced AIOps solutions present their findings as actionable recommendations. Such suggestions could range from changing the settings for a location’s Wi-Fi access points (APs) to reduce power consumption to replacing a cable between a specific AP and switch to eliminate the source of intermittent wireless issues. 

1. 4. Full-stack Zero Trust approach: The best solutions use AIOps and AI Networking methods across their entire network to maximise efficiency, and this includes enhancing security. AI-powered Zero Trust features offer accurate client information and visibility into which applications are being accessed by IoT and guest devices, and whether devices are displaying behavioural changes. For example, if a stationary point-of-sale (POS) device appears to be displaying roaming behaviour — or starts communicating with unknown resources — a best-in-class AI Networking solution will be able to flag this as a behavioural anomaly so that one can rapidly pinpoint the source of an issue.

1. 5. AI built into the network architecture: Alongside a full-stack approach, the savviest AI solutions come from networking vendors that integrate AI Networking into their overall architecture — from network devices to management platforms. In this way, the vendor is reducing acquisition and maintenance costs, minimising manual configuration tasks, and decreasing the time it takes to develop competency across your organisation. As a rule of thumb, tightly integrated solutions are more likely to give you higher-value insights at no extra cost.

When any retail organisation is deciding on a suitable networking solution, it should explore how AI plays a role in it. Today, always-on networks are a competitive advantage in the retail landscape, so they must consider how AIOps can provide them with actionable insights, help automate tasks to free up IT resources for higher-value projects, and provide the ability to improve business and competitive outcomes overall.

—The author, Prakash Krishnamoorthy, is Director – India at HPE Aruba Networking, the security and networking subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. The views expressed are personal

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s the roadmap of India’s pioneering AI regulation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s stance on regulating artificial intelligence (AI) is a dynamic process, evolving in tandem with global developments while addressing domestic challenges. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has articulated its intent to regulate high-risk AI applications, emphasising user protection, potentially through dedicated rules within the proposed Digital India Act.

However, the enactment of a bespoke AI legislation is yet to materialise. Recognising the need to catalyse emerging technologies’ growth, including AI, MeitY underscores the importance of establishing guardrails for safe and ethical AI use, ensuring accessibility to trustworthy AI, averting misuse, and leveraging AI’s potential as a catalyst for India’s digital economy.

Challenges and Considerations

AI regulation in India is met with various ethical and risk-related challenges, encompassing concerns such as bias, privacy violations, lack of transparency, and liability attribution ambiguity. In response, central and state government agencies have initiated efforts to standardise responsible AI development and promote best practices. Despite these endeavours, MeitY acknowledges that India’s current AI strategy falls short in adequately addressing these concerns.

Global Influences and Collaboration

India seeks to align its AI governance with global trends, particularly inspired by the European Union’s (EU) recent regulatory milestone — the AI Act. This legislation, featuring harmonised rules based on AI risk levels, serves as a benchmark for India’s regulatory aspirations. MeitY aims to collaborate with like-minded democracies to negotiate a global AI regulation agreement and establish a supranational institutional framework based on international consensus. The timeline for such global agreements remains optimistic, with expectations of tangible progress within the next six to nine months.

India’s Initiatives

India’s AI journey is punctuated by various initiatives and reports, including the National Program on AI (NPAI), Indiaai portal, Gen AI Report, recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), and the Responsible AI Report. These efforts underscore India’s multifaceted approach to AI governance, encompassing skilling, capacity-building, and sectoral integration.

MeitY has formed expert groups to deliberate on India’s AI program goals and design. These groups submitted the initial edition of the AI Report, shaping India’s AI ecosystem’s future trajectory. Additionally, India, as Chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), hosted a summit and crafted the New Delhi Declaration, reinforcing commitments to advancing safe and secure AI globally.

India’s endeavours in AI regulation reflect a nuanced approach, balancing the imperatives of progress with the imperatives of protection. Inspired by global regulatory frameworks and informed by domestic considerations, India’s evolving AI governance landscape underscores the country’s commitment to harnessing AI’s potential while safeguarding societal interests. As India continues to navigate the complexities of AI regulation, collaboration, innovation, and ethical stewardship will remain paramount in shaping the country’s AI future.

—The authors Shaguftha Hameed, Aditi Tripathi  and Abhay Kumar Yadav, are   Principal Associate and Associates respectively at law firm Gravitas Legal. The views expressed are their personal. 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

IT Q4FY24 earnings preview | What guidance to expect from Infosys and HCLTech

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The most important thing to track in the January-March 2024 results of the information technology (IT) sector will be the annual guidance from Infosys and HCLTech.

Demand recovery expectations have been pushed back. Now the Street expects demand recovery in the second half of the current financial year (FY25).

Accenture’s guidance last month further soured the sentiment towards the demand recovery.

So, the Street expects a conservative guidance from both Infosys and HCLTech.

For Infosys, CNBC-TV18 estimates around 3-5% revenue growth, and for HCLTech, it’s about 4-6%. But this is just a broad range, and the pace of recovery will be monitored.

One question that analysts are asking is whether the risk of a disappointing guidance is partially priced in.

The Nifty IT index has shed 4.5% in the last one month, while the Nifty has gained over a percent.

So, IT stocks have underperformed. Infosys shed nearly 8% in the last month, while Wipro lost close to about 6% during the same period.

This indicates that some disappointment might have already been priced in.

A few brokerages have also upgraded some stocks.

For instance, CLSA recently upgraded TCS and HCLTech to ‘underperform’ from ‘sell’.

CLSA also upgraded Tech Mahindra to a ‘buy’ from an ‘outperform’.

JPMorgan too upgraded Persistent Systems to an ‘overweight’ and LTIMindtree and KPIT Technologies to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight/.

But it must be noted that despite these upgrades, many brokerages still have a ‘sell’ or ‘neutral’ call on some top IT companies.

In its report, JPMorgan notes that the Nifty IT’s negative price action over the last month appears to bake in some weakness keeping absolute downsides limited.

Also Read | Infosys, TCS are this analysts’ top picks based on three factors

Many analysts believe that the earnings have bottomed out in the third quarter but recovery will likely be gradual and back-ended, with companies likely to report low to mid-single-digit kind of revenue growth for FY25.

In the fourth quarter (Q4FY24), TCS is likely to lead the pack with about a 1.3% constant currency revenue growth. This growth will be led by the ramp-up of their BSNL deal and some quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) recovery in the banking vertical.

Many of the companies, Infosys, Wipro, and LTIMindtree are expected to see a revenue decline on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

HCLTech is the only company which could post a flat or marginally positive revenue growth, according to the CNBC-TV18 poll.

Also Read | The 40% Infosys underperformance to Nifty since 2022 may start reversing, as per this analyst

The fourth quarter numbers also assume importance in view of changes across companies in senior leadership and strategy.

Wipro, for instance, said its CEO Thierry Delaporte has stepped down ahead of the conclusion of his official term.

The company announced the appointment of Srinivas Pallia as the new CEO. This could mean a change in strategy for Wipro.

Tech Mahindra CEO, Mohit Joshi, has also talked about unveiling a turnaround strategy in April, or in the first quarter of current year (Q1FY25).

For Infosys, the Street will also track the possibility of a buyback, considering the last one ended in February 2023.

Also Read | Wipro’s new CEO will have an arduous task ahead, says analysts while staying cautious

In a nutshell, Q4FY24 numbers may be less important in terms of financial performance.

However, the Street will closely track the guidance by Infosys and HCLTech to gauge the pace of recovery on revenues and margin.

Citi also pointed out that from a valuations perspective, the NSE IT is trading at 25 times versus the pre-pandemic five-year average of 18 times.

Also Watch: Ankur Rudra from JPMorgan talked a lot about what we can expect from major tech companies in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, during a chat with CNBC-TV18.

For more details, watch the accompanying video

Catch all the latest updates from the stock market here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Cloud and DevOps jobs bucking 2024 appraisal trends — what’s in for non-coders 

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The business landscape is evolving at a break-neck pace and frequent innovations across the board have made tech adoption indispensable. Professionals across businesses and geographies are working on integrated cloud systems to design, build and execute product-led services. This transformation has sparked a global demand for Cloud and DevOps professionals, who possess the unique ability to tackle the challenges plaguing software development and IT operations. 

According to industry reports, over 50% of enterprises are projected to adopt industry Cloud platforms by 2028 to expedite their business endeavours, highlighting Cloud’s evolution from technology disruption to business indispensability. However, over 19% of recruiters are struggling to find experienced DevOps professionals. It is also interesting to note, that organisations practising DevOps, as per reports, deploy code 46 times more frequently and have a 96% higher success rate when compared to traditional development methods.

The growing demand for skilled talent and the existing shortfall have started attracting even non-techies and non-coders with corporate experience of 5-7 years who are looking for a career switch. It also means that the talent must understand cloud platform knowledge to code and hone critical soft skills for navigating industrial challenges. 

Let’s look at some key power and technical skills that can help professionals with or without a prior coding background break into the world of technology.

Cloud Platform Proficiency

Mastering cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform is essential for Cloud DevOps Engineers. This expertise encompasses a thorough understanding of cloud architecture, services, and security features. Engineers must excel at deploying and managing cloud-based systems that are scalable, highly available, and fault-tolerant. Proficiency in this domain enables Cloud DevOps Engineers to leverage the full range of cloud resources, improving application performance and reliability.

Collaboration and Communication

Yes, that’s correct — to be able to collaborate and communicate is crucial for Tech professionals. Cloud DevOps Engineers must excel in these power skills to effectively engage with development, operations, and other stakeholders. They need to articulate technical issues clearly, share knowledge, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. Strong interpersonal skills are essential for facilitating smooth information flow and driving collaborative efforts essential for successful DevOps practices.

Culture of Continuous Learning and Innovation

In the contemporary professional landscape, employers are actively scouting for agile and adaptable talent. This necessitates Cloud and DevOps professionals to engage in a perpetual cycle of unlearning and relearning, enabling them to proficiently navigate and leverage emerging tools and technologies. Embracing a culture of continuous learning not only fuels personal growth but also fosters ongoing improvement and innovation within organisations.

DevOps Engineer for Catalysing Org Transformation

The role of a DevOps Engineer is pivotal in spearheading the shift towards a robust DevOps culture, assuming responsibility for driving transformative initiatives within the organisational framework. These professionals adeptly navigate the intricate intersections of software development, operations, and testing teams, seamlessly aligning with existing network infrastructures to orchestrate efficient design, planning, and testing processes. As versatile experts, DevOps Engineers seamlessly transition between multiple roles throughout the application lifecycle, ensuring streamlined operations and accelerated innovation.

Automation Architect for Orchestrating Efficiency 

The Automation Architect plays a critical role within a DevOps team by spearheading the automation of systems, a core principle of DevOps. Tasked with developing processes that streamline operations and diminish manual interventions, they focus on enhancing efficiency by identifying and integrating appropriate automation tools into the DevOps framework. Their primary responsibilities entail designing and executing strategies to automate manual tasks and discerning the most suitable DevOps tools tailored to various operational needs.

Cloud Engineers

A Cloud Engineer is accountable for designing, building, and maintaining cloud-based systems and services. They work in collaboration with other engineers and developers to ensure that these systems are reliable and scalable. Cloud engineers must have a thorough understanding of cloud computing concepts and technologies. They must be able to design and implement cloud-based solutions that are aligned with the needs of the organisation. They must also be able to diagnose and fix issues that arise with these systems.

Security & Compliance Engineer 

Modern-day applications are bound to have security vulnerabilities. Traditionally treated as an afterthought, security is now a primary concern for DevOps teams aiming to avert costly mishaps. The role of the Security & Compliance Engineer is pivotal. In smaller projects, this role may merge with that of a DevOps engineer, ensuring security practices are woven into the project’s fabric from inception. However, in larger teams, dedicated compliance engineers collaborate closely with developers throughout the product lifecycle. Their mission? To fortify code and infrastructure, ensuring robust security measures and regulatory compliance are upheld at every turn.

Additionally, the demand for Remote Engineers has also surged, reflecting the global shift towards remote work arrangements. For instance, a global survey highlighted that remote work has seen a 159% increase since 2005 in the United States alone. Even the Indian IT-BPM industry as per reports, witnessed a rapid transition to remote work during the pandemic, with nearly 90% of the workforce operating remotely.

This trend is echoed worldwide, with companies in Europe, Asia, and other regions embracing remote work to enhance flexibility and productivity. Major tech companies are switching to long-term remote work policies, highlighting the enduring importance of Remote Engineers in maintaining robust digital infrastructures. This shift towards remote work has also accelerated the need for such Engineers who specialise in cybersecurity, cloud integration, and virtual collaboration platforms, underscoring their pivotal role in ensuring operational continuity and security in today’s distributed work environments.

All these emerging roles are highly sought-after, well-paying positions. For those looking to take the next step in their career – either freshers or seasoned professionals coming out of Tech or Non-Tech domains, mastering key technical and soft skills is paramount for success in these transformative roles. It also provides a competitive edge to professionals and makes them specialists in the landscape of generalists.

—The author, Mayank Kumar, is Co-founder and MD, upGrad. The views expressed are personal.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Dextara acquisition aligns with focus on hyper-scalers: Datamatics’ Rahul Kanodia

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Datamatics Global Services, a leading provider of information technology services, recently acquired Dextara Digital for ₹143.4 crore. Rahul Kanodia, the VC and CEO of Datamatics Global Services, discussed the significance of the acquisition during an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“We acquired it because of our focus on hyper-scalers,” Kanodia stated, highlighting the alignment of the acquisition with the company’s overarching growth strategy.

The acquisition involves picking a 100% stake in Dextara Digital. The company has a healthy growth rate of 19% earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). This acquisition not only strengthens Datamatics’ portfolio but also opens avenues for cross-selling opportunities, as stated by Kanodia.

Datamatics will pay an additional maximum of ₹30.6 crore depending on the achievement of certain business targets and milestones. This acquisition will help Datamatic expand its capabilities in the salesforce ecosystem as Dextara Digital has worked on over 600 salesforce projects for more than 150 global customers.

Furthermore, Kanodia mentioned that the acquisition will be financed through internal accruals.

Also Read | BYJU’S layoffs: Edtech to let go 500 employees as part of biz restructuring, up to 1,500 more job cuts likely

While discussing future growth prospects, Kanodia mentioned that Datamatics will continue to explore selective inorganic growth opportunities.

“We are talking to a few other companies. But we have been very selective with the companies we acquire, so we will continue to be selective,” he stated.

Demand looks healthier this year compared to last year. Kanodia emphasised that the company is not dependent on the banking sector, which is facing headwinds. “Therefore, we don’t see that impacting our performance for the next year,” he stated.

Addressing concerns about margins, Kanodia projected an improvement in the fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. The company’s current market capitalisation stands at ₹3,474.75 crore.

For more, watch the accompanying video

Also Read | Blackstone eyes $300 million IPO of India diamond certification firm, sources say

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Baring’s Rahul Bhasin expects Indian IT services to retain global dominance despite AI disruption

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Rahul Bhasin, Managing Partner, Baring Private Equity Partners  believes Indian information technology (IT) services companies will continue to retain their global dominance despite the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI).

However,  he says, “They (the industry) will go through a transition time…there is an inflection point and a state of flux, which the industry will go through. And I think there will be revenue uncertainty and business model uncertainty for a while.”

Currently, a bulk of the work earlier being done by Indian IT companies is getting automated due to AI. This shift, Bhasin believes, will necessitate transitions in business models within the IT industry, especially for large IT service companies.

While technology and software will stay the world’s fastest growing industry, eating up all other industries, “what people may have missed is that it will also eat itself up .”

Read Here | WEF 2024: Gita Gopinath says AI could impact 30% of jobs in India

Bhasin says while Baring will still prefer the tech theme, it will pick business models depending on evolving market trends.

In addition to the technology sector, Bhasin discussed the outlook for consumer and industrial sectors. While he acknowledged the soundness of consumer businesses with promising growth trajectories, he cautioned against their current expensive valuations.

Regarding the industrial sector, Bhasin noted the absence of a significant capital expenditure (capex) cycle since approximately 2011. He suggested a potential turnaround, citing increasing activity in real estate, hotels, hospitals, and malls. With government support for infrastructure investments, Bhasin anticipated a positive impact across the value chain.

Talking about PE firms exiting via block deals, IPOs, Bhasin said, “Private equity industry is time bound. So any investment made, you will see divestments. Now, that mode of divestment keeps evolving and keeps changing, depending on market conditions. Sometimes it’s strategic, sometimes it’s M&A, sometimes it’s via buyback and sometimes it’s through the listed markets in the public markets.”

Also Read | 2023 witnesses record-breaking block deals, private equity & venture capital stole the spotlight

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Legal Digest | Why the court refused to stay govt’s Fact Check Unit for social media posts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Case 1 : No stay on Fact Check Unit for posts in social media 

Kunal Kamra v. Union of India with connected cases, the Bombay High Court on March 13, vide a 2:1 majority verdict refused to stay the constitution of a Fact Check Unit (FCU) by the government of India to rein in misleading and fake social media posts on government businesses. Rule 3(1)(b)(v) of the IT Rules amendment 2023 empowers the government to establish a fact check unit and unilaterally declare online content related to the government’s business on social media platforms as fake, false or misleading.

The social media intermediary then either has to remove the information or be ready to defend its actions in court if need arises. The dissenting judgement dubbed the move as censorship harking back to the post office bill of the nineties and thus trampling down the right of freedom of expression. The majority however didn’t think so in the face of the undertaking given by the government that the FCU will not strike against satire, parodies, political opinions and light-hearted humour.  

Though the FCU would censor only ‘Fake,’ ‘False,’ or ‘Misleading’ posts, these words could be the proverbial thin edge of the wedge to gag freedom of expression. Time alone will tell if the FCU would be fair and not become a spoil sport. 

Case 2: Workers performing perennial/permanent work cannot be called contractual workers 

The Supreme Court on March 12 observed that the workers employed to perform perennial/permanent nature of work couldn’t be treated as contract workers under the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 to deny them the benefit of regularisation of a job. 

This judgement has tremendous significance as it gives a shot in the arm for the so-called contract workers who work as hard and as regularly as regular employees. The Supreme Court rightly frowned on this discrimination and granted back wages too.  

Thumbs up on whatsapp isn’t always celebration but often it is the harmless equivalent of saying okay 

In a recent case — Narendra Chauhan v. Railway Protection Force — the Madras High Court absolved the guilt of indiscipline pronounced on the appellant against the disciplinary authorities of the organisation and affirmed by appellate authority. The murder of an assistant commandant by a constable was posted on the constables’ Whatsapp group to which the appellant constable Narendra Chauhan had posted the thumbs up emoji. 

The Madras High Court didn’t agree that thumbs up was celebratory or an act of exultation but is often a harmless okay. Arguably it is the most frequently used response to a message on the social media and is often a shorthand expression of “I got the message or simply okay”.  Netizens with hundreds of contacts in the Whatsapp are often inundated with messages and they often react with emojis.

Breath analyser test at polling booths not necessary

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking mandatory Breath analysers at polling booths was dismissed recently. The petitioner, a registered political party (Janavahini Party), argued that allowing intoxicated voters would violate the principles of free and fair elections. Breath analyser test is perfectly justified to discourage accidents on roads due to reckless driving due to intoxication and lack of control.  

Recently when a flyer peed on a fellow passenger in a long-distance Air India flight, the accused was found intoxicated. A clamour for breath analyser test by the airline staff at the ‘gate’ followed.  But then when the cabin crew itself serves liquor freely especially to the first-class passengers, such a demand becomes unsustainable. 

Levity aside, the staff on duty at the polling booths cannot simply be expected to subject all voters to such a test. If it is made mandatory by the Election Commission all hell would break lose as denial of voting right in a democracy could lead to a large-scale litigation besides giving a potent tool in the hands of political parties and their agents to frustrate the democratic process. In any case booze flows freely in the run up to the hustings. That needs to be stopped first!

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Sonata Software sees 10-12 week delay in pipeline to order conversion

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Sonata Software is seeing a delay of around 10-12 weeks in closure of deals in the pipeline, the company’s CFO, Jagannathan Chakravarthi, told CNBC-TV18 .

The company, which offers services such as cloud transformation, business intelligence, and application development management, is currently pursuing over 40 large deals accounting for around 48% of the total pipeline.

The deal pipeline in artificial intelligence (AI) is over $50 million across more than 90 clients and prospects, Chakravarthi said.

On March 18, the company signed a go-to-market partnership with Zones, a global provider of end-to-end IT solutions and cloud-managed services.

This five-year partnership between Zones and Sonata Software will support cost efficiency and data optimisation through joint offerings and delivery of industry-specific solutions, Sonata said in an exchange filing.

Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, Sonata has a strong global presence, including key regions US, UK, Europe, APAC, and ANZ.

Also Read | Sonata Software likely to close 8-12 large deals with multiyear contracts in FY24, says MD & CEO

Sonata Software aspires to achieve revenue of $1.5 billion by the end of FY26 at an international earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) level of low-20s. It also expects 20% of its revenue from AI services in the next 3 years.

In October-December 2023, Sonata Software’s revenue grew 30% to reach ₹2,493 crore. However, the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin slipped to 8.2% from 10.3% QoQ. The company reported a loss of ₹46 crore compared to the profit of ₹124.2 crore in the previous quarter.

The current market capitalisation of the company is ₹20,741.62 crore.

For more, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow