Malware technologies that we think will rule the roost in 2015 are as below:
1. The merger of cyber-crime and APT (Advances Persistent Threats)
For many years, cybercriminal gangs focused exclusively on stealing money from end users. An explosion of credit card theft, hijacking of electronic payment accounts or online banking connections led to consumer losses in the worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe this market is no longer so lucrative, or maybe the cybercriminal market is simply overcrowded, but it now seems like there is a struggle being waged for ‘survival’. And, as usual, that struggle is leading to evolution. In one incident we recently investigated attackers compromised an accountant’s computer and used it to initiate a large transfer with their bank. Although it might seem that this is nothing very unusual, we see a more interesting trend: Targeted attacks directly against banks, not their users.
2. New methods of data exfiltration
The days when attackers would simply activate a backdoor in a corporate network and start siphoning terabytes of information to FTP servers around the world are long gone. Today, more sophisticated groups use SSL on a regular basis alongside custom
communication protocols.
Some of the more advanced groups rely on backdooring networking devices and intercepting traffic directly for commands. Other techniques we have seen include exfiltration of data to cloud services, for instance via the WebDAV protocol (facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on web servers). These in turn have resulted in many corporations banning public cloud services such as Dropbox from their networks. However, this remains an effective method of bypassing intrusion detection systems and DNS blacklists. We expect more groups to adopt use of cloud services in order to make exfiltration stealthier and harder to notice in this New Year 2015.
3. Targeting of hotel networks
The Darkhotel group is one of the APT actors known to have targeted specific visitors during their stay in hotels in some countries. Actually, hotels provide an excellent way of targeting particular categories of people, such as company executives. Targeting hotels is also highly lucrative because it provides intelligence about the movements of high profile individuals around the world. Compromising a hotel reservation system is an easy way to conduct reconnaissance on a particular target. It also allows the attackers to know the room where the victim is staying, opening up the possibility of physical attacks as well as cyber-attacks. But it isn’t always easy to target a hotel. This is why very few groups, the elite APT operators, have done it in the past and will use it as part of their toolset.
And we expect, a few other groups might also embrace these techniques this year, but it will remain beyond the reach of the vast majority of APT players.
As we know that with emerging technologies, the whole world is resulting in new applications that are driving efficiency and enabling people to do things that just weren’t possible in the past. With forthcoming year, everyone is going to witness the shift from traditional IT to new paradigm like SMAC, cloud computing, IoTs, big data, SDN etc.
SMAC and big data are emerging trends in technologies that are currently driving business innovation. We can ensure that in coming year, it will gain more popularity among all types of enterprises; let it be large, medium or small-sized.
Even for security reasons, IT organizations are gradually moving up and are shifting their data and physical equipments into cloud. Cloud computing is undoubtedly a growing revolution within IT and future of business.
“As we are entering into new digital age, IT business looks for applications which can connect the devices and networks. We see SMAC technology as near future of IT as it is driven by connectivity which connects the remote areas along with the networks and devices. In addition, new innovations can be driven by SMAC stack.” He explains.
We believe companies will largely focus on IoT, BYOD and SDN technologies to enhance their efficiency and competitiveness. Persistent security threats will continue to be an issue and to encounter these new security technologies – such as Next Generation Firewalls – which have the capability of overcoming these issues will gain greater attention.
Moreover, the increasing number of devices being connected – either as BYOD or IOT – will increase the susceptibility and vulnerability of organizations to data breach’s and other forms of attack. IT managers need to be aware of what technologies exist to counter these threats and the risk they pose to their organization.
In 2015, we will see increasing attention in SDN from the Enterprise market and expect to see a number of innovative applications for this technology which to date has been more of a solution looking for a problem.
“Emerging technologies are changing the way businesses operate. Enterprise networks and data are evolving rapidly from last few decades, and are continuing to develop at a steady pace. With the emerging technologies, enterprises can make sure that their applications are delivered securely and at lower expense. Technologies go in hand with large environments assuring the effective management of businesses. To meet the organization’s requirements, they continuously look for SDN solutions as the source of such innovation.” He adds on.
Desktop Virtualization is the most ideal solution that will rule the roost in 2015 in order to provide the most affordable computer education for rural students in India because of the following reasons:
* Power shortage is a perennial issue in most states in the country and desktop virtualisation solution addresses this challenge in the most effective way. For example, each NComputing desktop/workstationconsumes as little as 1 watt of electricity. This has helped reduce the overall power consumption, and also the cost of power back-up systems, such as generators and UPS, significantly.
* Virtual devices last for 3 to 4 refresh cycles (i.e., 11-12 years) and generate merely an ounce of e-waste. This also addresses the issue of hardware obsolescence for a long period of 11-12 years.
* This technology has been built to enable lasting IT infrastructure by enabling users to run 5 to 100 virtual desktops with a single PC. With this, they can avoid PC refresh, and repurpose old PCs, which also helps in reducing eWaste. For instance the Bihar government has established labs where the ratio of host PC to users is 1:5, i.e., 1 PC’s computing power is being shared by 6 users.
* It helps institutions save hardware acquisition costs by over 50 per cent, the management cost by up to 75 per cent and electricity cost by as much as 90 per cent.
In the nutshell, desktop virtualisation solutions enable institutions to set up labs and classrooms that are green, cost-efficient, environment friendly, easy to maintain, obsolescence-proof (since there are fewer PCs to maintain/replace), emit significantly
less CO2, and lead to 90 per cent less e-waste compared to an all-PC lab—factors that have made this technology the most preferred or rather a standardized choice for educational institutions.
Monali Handa, Director – Marketing, India & APAC, NComputing explains that the impact of virtualization on education technology is potentially substantial and is certainly becoming the most popular technology trend in the education industry day by day which has raised the standard of computer literacy by providing computer education/accessibility in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. “Virtualization is green and such technology can always be utilized as a way to increase the useful life of existing older PCs while at the same time reducing the cost-perseat of new student workstations.”
Mini-ITX form factor-based systems
In 2015, Mini ITX form factor devices are expected to get more popular in the mainstream market. The Mini ITX form factor technology is getting more acceptance in the Indian market, thanks to the increasing demand for HTPCs (Home Theatre Personal Computers) and SFF (Small Form Factor) PCs.
Talking about Mini-ITX form factor-based motherboards, the popularity of this motherboard type is expected to increase. Most users in India are costconscious, and use PCs for their basic requirements, and not for extreme or high graphics-based activities. For such users, Mini-ITX form factor based systems (motherboard included) will be the much desired products.
Motherboard features in demand
We also foresee an increasing preference for motherboards with HDMI and USB 3.0 ports, and SATA3; and those which support DDR3 and SSD drives. While HDMI ports are usually used for HTPCs to connect to TVs, USB 3.0 ports are becoming one of the fundamental features for even budget motherboards because even entry-level users nowadays look for faster transfer speeds.
Compact DIY PC kits
Another hot product category that should make a mark in 2015 is the ultra compact DIY (Do It Yourself) PC kits. To cater to this, GIGABYTE will soon launch BRIX, its versatile DIY PC kit, available with a broad choice of processors covering a range of performance points.
The BRIX sets a new standard for desktop miniaturization that makes it perfect for many requirements – be it discreet HTPC/multimedia hub, an ultra-low power PC for the family, an office PC or as a digital signage unit.
The BRIX comes with a Wi-Fi Mini PCIe module pre-installed and also, a power adapter and cable, conforming to local standards. It requires only system memory and mSATA SSD, giving users the flexibility to independently choose integrated storage and system memory size, without the dilemma of getting components that are not easily available at retail outlets.
BRIX does not limit the user in terms of display and peripheral connectivity, or performance. It includes VESA bracket for discreet display and wall mounting. It supports dual display video output via HDMI and mini DisplayPort.
With support for HDMI and DisplayPort, the BRIX can power two displays simultaneously, making a perfect choice as a high productivity PC in professional and home environments.
Sunil Grewal, Director – Sales & MarCom, GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd. Says that these technologies / product categories will be important because it caters perfectly to the requirements for the average Indian PC users – such as power efficiency, cost-efficiency or optimal usage of limited space – without compromising on performance.
Prateek Kapadia, CTO, Flytxt:
“The convergence of social, mobile, analytics and cloud is going increasingly mainstream with technologies getting better and more importantly business models getting established and proven. Another interesting trend was witnessed in the Indian market; the rapid boom of e-commerce companies in India spurred a heavy growth in their advertising screen presence last year. The frequency of e-commerce ads were much higher in proportion to any other industry; however, this presents a potential risk of turning into spam if they are not properly targeted to the end consumers. Hence microtargeting and personalized reach through mobile screens is required, which for countries as large and diverse as India, offers the biggest challenge for the coming year. This is where the enterprises including e-commerce companies will face a technology bottleneck. To ensure that the right offers are sent to the right segment at the right time and in the right context is a conundrum only big data analytics can solve. While other uses to big data, like supply chain, logistics and payments solutions appear to be in place, the company that manages to seize the personalization opportunities and optimally utilize them to engage with the consumers will eventually lead the pack. We believe 2015 will see increased adoption of technologies that solve this problem. Analytics driven personalization demands adoption of enabling technologies like cognitive computing and advance analytics. “
Kunal Nagarkatti, Sr. Vice President and Head- Sales, Clover Infotech Pvt. Ltd
According to me, the three hot technology areas that will rule the roost in 2015 are:
• Big Data and Analytics
• Cloud Computing
• Mobility for Transaction Services
“The last two decades have seen humungous growth in volumes of data. This is because transactions between product/service providers and consumers are not restricted to point of sale. The proliferation in transactional data owing to number of access points and mechanisms is remarkable. The variety of data generated and velocity of its generation has compelled organizations to gather insights by collation and careful observation of data. The natural corollary is the growing importance of Big Data and Analytics. I believe it will assume great significance and add immense value to business decisions, especially in key sectors such as BFSI, Retail and Pharma which are poised to grow with the Indian economy in the coming year.
With the economy booming, we also see a lot of new start-ups with great promise. Cloud computing comes as a great boon for such companiesand the ones which want to sustain a great growth trajectory by focusing on core competencies. Cloud computing enables these firms to use safe, secure and cost-effective IT Infrastructure, platforms and software as a service and enables them to better manage their budgets from an IT perspective. With more usage, customer’s will start trusting Cloud with their IT requirements, leading to exponential growth in Cloud computing.
Mobility for Transaction Services: The smart phone is an integral part of our lives. With the time and mindshare of the customer that it enjoys, businesses of today need to create technology solutions that can enable customers to make it a “one-stop device” for their professional and personal needs. Mobility in transaction services will facilitate the customer to manage his investments, payments, etc. on the go and will enable the same customer to view business data and insights, and make faster and more informed business decisions.” He adds on.
Wearable Technologies – 2015 will see the rise of wearable technologies, and not just watches, but our undergarments/apparels that would monitor our body vitals like blood pressure, sweat, heat and other parameters to assist us in better dietary habits.
Longer Battery Life! – With developments of efficient Li-ion batteries that gives 400% more power, users can go full throttle with their devices. Also, Intel’s 5th Gen Broadwell processors could further enhance this by 30%. Who wouldn’t love these numbers!
Internet of Gadgets – The pleasure of texting your air-conditioner to alter temperature and feeding your microwave with standard inputs to cook a meal will finally reach to consumer this year. An ultra-connectivity marvel! Sadly, one might still have to fetch the cooked meal! We are planning to strengthen our online platform, like Amazon, Groupon, etc. Target BT & Mobile items will be our primary focus for the year 2015.
Integrated Mobile Payment Gateways – e-Wallets are increasingly becoming the thing of importance when it comes to online snap ups. This year would witness the highly integrated approach of this technology as it would give loyalty benefits and also remove the unpleasant bank transactions.
Silent PCs – A more reliable and long-life PC is the one that makes NO noise. The annoying noise is a sign of moving elements colliding with each-other that poses threat to the functionality of a PC. Hence a Silent PC is better than our regular PCs in every way! Nitrogen-cooled PC Components – After the glorified success of the liquid cooled PC components,it is time for the nitrogen-cooled components to take the mantle. It would ensure gamers and overclockers to squeeze every bit of worth from their rigs, literally!
Some of the trends such as Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Invisibly Embedded Analytics, Wearable Technology and Social Media Apps will rule the roost in 2015.
With regards to Cloud, 2015 will witness rise in the amount of data hosted in the cloud. The confluence of mobile and cloud will continue to lead to the growth of applications that are managed from a centralized console and delivered to any device. While cost of network and bandwidth would continue to favor apps using intelligence and storage of the client device, their management will be completely cloud-based. Gradually, data and application will be merged across multiple devices, thus resulting to application portability across devices. Moreover, applications will evolve to support multiple devices in order to deliver an enhanced experience.
Internet of Things (IoT) – IoT would mean the next level of evolution for the Internet, wherein even daily household related objects such as cars, kitchen appliances, television sets, etc., all would be connected to the web. It will continue to grow along with user-oriented computing and is expect to be the focus of digital business products as well as processes in industries.
Invisibly Embedded Analytics – As the volume of data generated by embedded systems continues to increase, pools of data – structured as well as unstructured that is inside and outside the enterprise is analyzed. Managing this data coming from the various resources such as IoT, social media and others and then to ensure that the right information is delivered to the right person at the right time is a big challenge. Hence, apps will now be analytic and invisibly embedded to meet the purpose.
Wearable Technology – With the proliferation of smartphones and wireless access to the Internet, today wearable watches and google glasses have literally become a fashion statement. 2015 will see a bigger rise of such devices, being used for health monitoring, general fashion and also for spying purposes.
Social Media Apps – With the increasing audience who use only mobile to access social media, social media platforms are expected to enhance their services in terms of mobile-friendly. Social media marketing will go mobile and an array of new apps for the social media platforms are expected to emerge.
For eScan, the key focus will be in development of products, which will assist in the following:
•Security to be provided for IoT interfaces (how do you stop a hacker from remotely con trolling your household appliances).
• To increase user awareness for the necessity of security on Smartphones.
• Create simple to use apps on smartphones, which will create an unbreakable safety net and trust, for children and women alike.
• And for Medium and large enterprises, create centralized mobile policy based console, for a range of mobile Operating Systems, that can help ensure confidentiality of data.
We believe the below will be the top 3 technology trends for 2015:
1. Computing Everywhere- We have already started to see technology entering new contexts and environments, wearables being the most popular. 2015 will see more of these advancements.
2. The Internet of Things (IoT)- The Internet of Things is vast and is expected to grow in the domain of user oriented computing. Computing is going to be embedded everywhere; The Internet of Things will be the focus of digital business products and processes in industrial and operational contexts.
3. 3D printing- 3D printing is getting affordable day by day. We have already tasted the immense power of 3D printing. Going forward we’ll see the use of this technology in more varied contexts and environments.
The above discussed technologies are important because we have already tasted their immense power and witnessed the advancements in them. Further they have a huge potential to change the world and open new horizons.
S Sriram, CEO at iValue
Structured cabling has seen more implementations of Automated Infrastructure Management systems. This enables organizations to monitor their network and control it in case of any errors, hence reducing downtime drastically. We can see developments
in new Cat.7 and Cat.8 technologies being taken forward by companies to help better data transmission but that’s something for the future at the moment.
Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director Sales & Support at NetRack
Data center racks, power solutions, cables management and data security will top the priority list across every industry. Among various industries, data security and cable management will always be an important concern for data center and telecom industries. So, these technologies are going to be center stage in 2015. Energy and heat management are the critical challenges faced by data center. In order to meet these challenges we provide complete data center containment solutions. Furthermore, these conventional approaches to addressing the problem have focused at the facilities level to
develop new cooling technologies or optimize the delivery of cooling.
Cooling is the major cost factor in data centers. Data centers have electrical equipment which produces heat. To encounter this, managers look for solutions and products which can remove heat and prevent the temperature of the equipment from rising to an unacceptable level. Most information technology equipment and other equipment found in a data center or network room needs to be aircooled. Moreover, to lower the cost and improve efficiency, manufactures need new data center cooling strategies.
As per the views of Subhasish Gupta Country Manager – India & SAARC at Allied Telesis – Allied Telesis will concentrate on a number of key vertical markets and technologies during 2015. “We expect to see continued investments in a number of areas as organizations look to increase efficiency and competitiveness. Allied Telesis has recently launched Next Generation Firewall and will be essentially
concentrating on its solutions. We expect huge amount of growth to come from verticals such as Government, Education, Healthcare, Utility, Infrastructure and Surveillance. The successful deployment of Allied Telesis Management Framework (AMF) is being appreciated by many organizations and we hope to see more success for our AMF in coming years. We will be focusing majorly on management, mobility and security.” He explains.
According to Kunal Nagarkatti, Sr. Vice President and Head- Sales, Clover Infotech Pvt. Ltd, “We see ourselves playing a key role in Big Data and Analytics and also in Mobility for Transaction services.
We will focus on our BFSI clientele which comprises some of India’s leading banks and Insurance houses. With huge volumes of data generated from transactions across access points and also customer conversations across multiple channels including social media, we would like to empower our clients with efficient and cost-effective solutions for tickby- tick data analysis and provide business critical metrics for faster and accurate decision making.
With mobility for transaction services, we wish to empower our customers with solutions and niche services which will facilitate ubiquitous transactions and provide insights for enhancing efficiencies. This, coupled with Big Data and Analytics, will help us travel across the value chain with our customer i.e from the point of sale and data collection to analysis and insights for informed decision
making. Our focus, as always, will continue to be leveraging our IT expertise to add optimum value to the lives of our customers.”
Sunil Grewal, Director – Sales & MarCom, GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd. says that one of the key focus product ranges for us in 2015 will be BRIX, GIGABYTE’s ultra compact, versatile DIY PC kit. We feel it has to the potential to make a huge market impact. “Another key focus area for us in 2015, will be sprucing up our post-sales service setup. We are setting up advanced post-sales centers
in the vicinity of the IT markets in several major cities, namely New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi and Ahmedabad. A few months back, we opened the first of the series in Mumbai. These centres will be the service hubs for their respective regions. They will have sufficient supply of buffer stock to help in Across the Table Replacement (ATR) process in their respective region.
These centers will have the latest repair machines and software systems to facilitate detailed testing and troubleshooting. They will have experienced, skilled engineers including those from the GIGABYTE Headquarters in Taiwan. These engineers would not only be capable of managing motherboard repairs even up to Level 4, but also of offering proactive onsite support, including training to
customers on how to get the best out of your PC.
These planned service centers will go much beyond than providing only advanced after-sales services.
The internal ambience and liberal space at the centers have been planned with the purpose of setting up comprehensive customer experience zones that will display the latest technologies and exceptional, powerful features of GIGABYTE motherboards
– exploring the thrilling possibilities in desktop computing whether it’s in the area of rich multi-media or extreme performance.”
Monali Handa, Director – Marketing, India & APAC, NComputing says that currently, the company is working toward increasing its channel network to over 1000+ partners within the next 1-2 years.
“This would help us in targeting and penetrating more cities across the county. We consistently invest in initiatives to support and enable our channel base through various channel marketing programmes, such as road shows, advertising, technical training and extended marketing programmes. These on-going initiatives help our channel network to not only increase sales but also understand
and satisfy the customer requirements.
It is largely due to this innovative, channel-centric business model that NComputing has become the Leader in the Desktop Virtualisation market space in India and Asia-Pacific (according to IDC 2013 report), and has maintained this position for
5 consecutive years. At the global level, NComputing has been named a “major player” in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Client Virtualization 2013 Vendor Analysis. NComputing has also been mentioned in Gartner’s “Cool Vendors in Endpoint Computing
2014” Report. She adds on.
Shibu Paul, Regional Sales Director – India, ME and SEA at Array Networks says that Array would primarily focus on driving greater efficiency. “Our team will fully maximize the potential of cloud and virtualization allowing IT companies to efficiently use Application Delivery Controller. Array will concentrate in delivering the value-added services to enterprises by launching new solutions to match
the emerging technologies. Uplifting the strengths of our sales and extending support to team will help in providing customized solutions to our channel partners and customers. We will prioritize on securely delivering applications and performance, making quick, intelligent decisions to ensure consistent availability, secure access, and optimized application response time.”
Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director Sales & Support at NetRack, explains, “For forthcoming year, we will largely focus on thermal management, improvement of power usage effectiveness (PUE) or Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE) in data centers,
development of self-cooled smart rack, work on opportunity to supply and deployment of DCIM, providing power solutions; integrating end to end IT solutions which will yield optimum performance at the same time can reduce operational cost.”
Pankaj Jain, Director at ESET India, explains, “Our key focus will be to make sure our users be safe online and harness the maximum benefit of ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Computing Everywhere’. We have been doing the same since last 25 years and have been upgrading our security levels every time with the advancement of technology. We have always been a step ahead in adopting new technology.”
M A Mannan, Country Manager, Corsair Memory India, explains, “Corsair will be coming out with entry level cases with a focus on Asia market. The cases will have special features with silent performance at ideal price to cater to the price conscious market. With the launch of Corsair co-brand, Corsair Gaming we would be bringing in a line of keyboards, mice and headsets to cater to every user
which can fit his purse. PSU and case would be the key focus for 2015.” He adds on.