Initially, the idea of just plugging into a shared LLM offered a tempting shortcut — instant access to powerful AI without the headache of building and maintaining it all by yourself. It’s much like renting a hotel room or a serviced apartment versus renting an entire house. As these language powerhouses began to be used for increasingly critical tasks, they were exposed to growing volumes of business-specific contextual queries and data — unlike their original training on general internet content. This led to a rising need for customised or fine-tuned models to deliver higher performance and improved results. The cracks in the shared foundation thus began to show, making a strong case for bringing your AI in-house, albeit in the cloud.

The real-world headaches of shared LLMs: Shared pay-as-you-go models aren’t always cheap
The initial convenience of shared LLMs is undeniable. Someone else does the heavy lifting of the infrastructure — handling high-end GPUs and data centre complexities such as high-speed networks— while you just tap into the magic. But this shared nature comes with a set of limitations that can really sting as your needs grow:

• The latency lottery: Imagine trying to get through to customer service during peak hours, like a hotel’s restaurant at peak hours. The endless hold music at that time and the eventual, sometimes sluggish, response are very frustrating and disregard the value of your time. Shared LLMs face similar traffic jams. When everyone hits the same set of resources, response time becomes painfully slow. That once-lightning-fast chatbot suddenly leaves your customers hanging, leading to drop-offs and dissatisfaction.
• The meter’s always running: Just like that hotel agreement with limits on guests or on the expensive mini-bar, shared LLM vendors often impose rate limits or throttling or expensive add-on services. If your application suddenly experiences a surge in popularity or requires frequent interactions with the model, you quickly find yourself hitting those walls, forcing you to either scale back your ambitions or face hefty surge charges.
• The control conundrum: When you rely on a third party, you’re essentially playing by someone else’s rules. You have limited say in how the infrastructure is set up, making it tough to really optimise performance for your specific use case or to implement the exact data privacy and security measures you need. It’s like trying to customise that hotel room that you have rented – there’s only so much you can do.

Building your own AI powerhouse: Scalability and security in the cloud
The cloud has stood the test of time. Enterprises of all sizes and across industries leverage the cloud in some way or the other. When it can host entire virtual data centres, it can certainly host today’s LLMs. However, moving to your own LLM setup in the cloud sounds like a big leap and prevents you from leveraging it to your advantage. As a result, you’re losing out the control and scalability you need for business-critical AI applications. With LLMs on the cloud, you get:

• Performance on demand: When you have your own dedicated resources, you can optimise their performance as per your specific needs. This means faster response times, more reliable service, and a much better experience for your users.
• Data lockdown: Hosting your LLM in your own cloud environment gives you the peace of mind of knowing that your sensitive data and proprietary AI models are protected by your own stringent security protocols.
• Smart spending, long-term gains: Although there’s an upfront investment, setting up an optimised, private LLM is cost-effective in the long run, especially for high-volume applications. You’re not paying per query to a third party, you’re renting your own AI infrastructure.

The blueprint for AI ownership: Deploying private LLMs in the cloud
Owing a cloud-based LLM may seem like biting more than you can chew. However, with a thoughtfully crafted strategy, getting your private AI powerhouse in the cloud can be surprisingly less complicated than you imagined. Here are some key considerations towards that goal:

• Pick your cloud partner wisely: Choose a cloud provider that not only offers the raw computing power you need but also has a strong ecosystem of AI and machine learning services. Think of them as your partner in building your AI future.
• Think inside the box (Container): Technologies like Docker and Kubernetes make it much easier to manage and scale your LLM deployments, allowing you to adapt quickly to changing demands.
• Scale smart, not hard: Implement autoscaling so your resources automatically adjust based on traffic. This ensures you always have the power you need without overpaying for idle capacity.
• Save on initial investment: Pick a cloud provider that offers a competitive price in the region and can meet your specialised demands as a managed service provider.

Operating your private AI: A step-by-step guide
So, you’re convinced that taking control of your AI journey is the smart move. But what does that actually look like in practice? Getting your private LLM up and running in the cloud involves a few key steps, each designed to ensure your AI infrastructure is robust, efficient, and perfectly tailored to your business needs. Think of it as following a proven recipe to prepare your very own, customised dish. The steps for operating your private LLM in the cloud are:

• Equip your AI Infrastructure: Choose the right high-performance hardware, like powerful GPUs, to give your LLM the processing muscle it needs.
• Bring your model to life: Deploy your chosen LLM onto your cloud infrastructure, using containerisation to keep things organised and scalable.
• Open the lines of communication: Create a secure and reliable API that allows your applications to easily interact with your LLM.
• Keep a close eye and tune as needed: Continuously monitor your LLM’s performance and adjust your infrastructure and model configuration to ensure it’s running smoothly and efficiently.

Beyond automation: Private LLM-powered agentic AI

The future of AI isn’t just about automating simple tasks; it’s about creating intelligent agents that can think and act on their own based on varied use cases. And, this is where the real synergy between agentic AI and private LLMs emerges:

• Take on the tough stuff: Imagine agentic AI that can not only answer customer questions but also proactively resolve issues, manage your complex supply chain, or even analyse market trends and suggest strategic moves — all autonomously. Private LLMs have the potential to provide sophisticated language understanding that makes this level of agentic capability possible for your business use case.
• Turn data into wisdom: AI agents can sift mountains of data and extract valuable insights that can guide your business decisions, giving you a significant edge in the market. Otherwise, your AI agent is just like any other AI bot in a similar business environment with no competitive advantage.
• Make it personal, in a smart way: By understanding the nuances of language, agentic AI, powered by your LLM, can create personalised experiences for your users, offering tailored advice, anticipating their needs, and making interactions feel much more intuitive and human.

The real cost and return: Looking at the long-term value

When moving to private LLMs in the cloud, it’s important to look at the big picture, which is the TCO. This includes not just the initial infrastructure costs but also the ongoing maintenance, support, and remuneration of the personnel you’ll need to manage it. While it may seem like a big, upfront investment, the long-term benefits of improved performance, enhanced security, and greater control often make it a more sensible financial decision, especially for leveraging AI at scale.

The future is private: Taking control of your AI journey

While shared LLMs did offer a convenient starting point, their limitations have become increasingly restrictive as our growing reliance on sophisticated language AI. Dedicated or private LLM deployments in the cloud offer a smooth path forward. They provide the performance, security, and control necessary to harness the potential of agentic AI and build innovative, transformative applications. The time has come to move beyond simply renting AI solutions like a hotel room; instead, start building your own AI powerhouse in the cloud like owning a house.

To know more : Tata Communications Vayu AI Cloud platform powered by NVIDIA GPUs | Tata Communications

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Yet, the grim reality is that millions of workers worldwide continue to face life-threatening hazards every day. Human lives are lost every day in safety related incidents, and we see headlines like “Blast at pharma factory, claims 50 lives”, “Fire at manufacturing facility, leads to death of five workers”

Enter the Internet of Things (IoT) emerging as a transformative force, reshaping industries and redefining how enterprises operate. What makes this shift truly powerful is the ability to connect people, processes, and assets like never before.  Among its most impactful applications are connected worker solutions and video analytics, which together form the backbone of a safer, more secure, and sustainable future for businesses. These technologies are not just tools; they are enablers of a paradigm shift in how enterprises approach operational efficiency, risk management, and environmental stewardship.

At the heart of this transformation lies the convergence of IoT and artificial intelligence (AI), which empowers enterprises to harness real-time data, optimise processes, and make informed decisions. Connected worker solutions, equipped with AI, offers actionable insights from visual data, enabling enterprises to enhance security, streamline operations, and reduce their environmental footprint. Together, these technologies are driving a new wave of innovation that aligns with the global imperatives of safety, security, and sustainability.

As we reflect on the state of workplace safety worldwide, it is sobering to acknowledge that nearly 3 million workers lose their lives annually due to work-related accidents and diseases, while an additional 395 million suffer non-fatal injuries.

The economic toll is equally staggering, with workplace injuries and illnesses costing the global economy approximately $3 trillion (nearly the GDP of France!) each year. These statistics underscore the urgent need for organisations to prioritise workplace safety, security, and compliance.

Safety has always been a cornerstone of enterprise operations, across industries such as manufacturing, oil & gas, pharmaceutical, retail, construction, and energy. However, traditional safety measures often rely on reactive approaches, addressing incidents after they occur. Connected worker solutions like wearable devices and sensors, that provide unprecedented visibility into workforce safety and productivity, along with AI-powered video analytics flip this narrative by enabling proactive safety management.

IoT wearables track workers’ vitals, while biometric sensors and environmental monitors detect hazards in real time. Again, AI-powered video analytics ensures compliance by spotting safety violations and risky behaviour. Finally, geofencing and GPS enhance worker security, while predictive analytics prevent equipment failures. These innovations not only reduce workplace incidents but also boost efficiency, ensuring a safer, more sustainable, and compliant work environment.

As per data from the Ministry of Labour & Employment’s Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), between 2017 and 2020, on an average, three people died and 11 injured daily, due to accidents in India’s registered factories, as per data from IndiaSpend in November 2022. Consider the scenario of a global oil and gas company implementing connected worker technology across its offshore rigs. By equipping workers with IoT-enabled helmets and vests, the company can avoid workplace incidents by up to 80 percent. The system will alert supervisors to potential dangers, such as workers approaching hazardous zones or experiencing heat stress, allowing for immediate intervention. This not only will save lives but also minimise downtime and associated costs, demonstrating the tangible business benefits of prioritising safety.

Security threats are evolving in complexity and scale. Traditional surveillance systems, reliant on human monitoring, are often inadequate in detecting and responding to these threats. Video analytics, powered by AI, addresses this challenge by automating threat detection and enabling predictive security measures.

Imagine if a retail chain were to leverage video analytics to combat theft and enhance store security. By analysing customer behaviour patterns, the system can identify suspicious activities, such as theft and   vandalism incidents, even crowd and queue management this enables safety of both shoppers and store staff. This enables security personnel to intervene before thefts occurred, considerably reducing inventory shrinkage. Beyond theft prevention, video analytics also plays a critical role in ensuring workplace safety by monitoring compliance with safety protocols, such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in warehouses of large retail chains. Adherence to safety process and safety of people, proper management of the pallets and managing of heavy equipment within the warehouse.

While the technological capabilities such as unauthorised access control and on-demand alerts of connected worker solutions and video analytics are undeniably impressive, their success hinges on human-centred design. Technology must serve the needs of its users, enhancing their capabilities without overwhelming them. This requires a deep understanding of workforce dynamics, cultural nuances, and operational challenges.

For example, in deploying connected worker solutions, enterprises must ensure that wearable devices are comfortable, intuitive, and non-intrusive. Similarly, video analytics systems should be designed to augment human decision-making, not replace it. By prioritising user experience and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration, enterprises can maximise the adoption and effectiveness of these technologies.

Despite their immense potential, the adoption of connected worker solutions and video analytics is not without challenges. Data privacy and security concerns, integration with legacy systems, and the need for skilled personnel are significant. hurdles that enterprises must overcome. However, these challenges also present opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

Enterprises must adopt a strategic approach to implementation, starting with pilot projects to demonstrate value and build stakeholder buy-in. Partnerships with technology providers, can provide the expertise and infrastructure needed to scale solutions effectively. Moreover, industry-wide collaboration is essential to establish standards and best practices, ensuring interoperability and data security.

The integration of connected worker solutions and video analytics into IoT ecosystems represents a watershed moment for enterprises. To quote a few examples, smart helmets can integrate seamlessly with safety protocols and any fall can be instantly detected, enhancing workplace safety. Suite of safety solutions from Tata Communications enhance worker safety by enabling proactive monitoring, providing employee location, generating SoS alerts during emergency scenarios and thus far, 50+ lives have been saved. Corporates like Tata Steel have incorporated connected worker IoT solutions addressing the key aspect of worker safety, it ensures worker wellbeing and minimises workplace risks. The Indian Railways, the 4th largest network in the world has also incorporated advanced technologies and systems aimed at preventing accidents and ensuring passenger and freight safety. These systems enhance train control and prevent collisions by providing real-time information about train locations and speeds, all from a central dashboard.

By keeping safety, security, and sustainability at the forefront, such technologies are not only enhancing operational efficiency but also creating a better future for workers, communities, and the planet.

As, leaders, decision-makers, innovators, and solution designers, we have a responsibility to embrace this connected vision. The journey ahead will require innovation, collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to human-centred design. But the rewards — safer workplaces, smarter security, and a more sustainable world — are well worth the effort.

The future is connected. The question is, are we ready to seize it?

Learn more, how Tata Communications industry-first employee health and safety solutions leverage the power of cutting-edge technology to create safer environments for employees

The post Worker Lives Matter: The Tech Revolution Transforming Workplace Safety appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The way businesses communicate has undergone a drastic shift in recent years. With the rise of hybrid work models, the need for seamless and secure connectivity across distributed teams has never been greater. Organisations face multiple challenges, including fragmented communication tools that lead to inefficiencies and reduced productivity.

Maintaining traditional PBX systems comes with high operational costs, while security and compliance risks pose significant threats in managing remote workforce communications. Poor call quality and unreliable connectivity further impact both customer and employee interactions. Employees are also reluctant to use their personal numbers or unauthorised shadow apps for business communication, raising concerns about privacy and compliance.

Additionally, legacy systems lack the scalability needed for business growth, making it essential for organisations to adopt modern communication solutions that provide seamless, scalable, and cost-effective capabilities.

The Shift to Cloud Communication in the Hybrid Work Era

Cloud-based calling solutions like JAMVEE offer a transformative approach to business communication. By providing flexible, mobile-friendly, and cost-efficient connectivity, these platforms ensure that employees remain engaged, informed, and productive no matter where they work from.

Bridging the Gap Between Remote and On-Site Teams

Companies can create a connected workforce where remote and on-site employees collaborate seamlessly. Effective communication solutions enable businesses to enhance both internal collaboration and employee-customer conversations while ensuring security and compliance. Businesses can overcome communication challenges with solutions that provide:

• On-net calling for enhanced internal collaboration, reducing call costs and ensuring better control over corporate communications.
• Bundled Voice calling plans: Achieve significant cost savings on domestic and international communications with our JAMVEE Bundled Voice calling plans, designed to optimise calling efficiency and reduce overall telephony expenses.
• Low total cost of ownership (TCO) through flexible cloud-based plans, which eliminates upfront investment and maintenance expenses.
• Closed User Group (CUG) messaging for higher security, confidentiality, and data protection in internal discussions.
• Seamless roaming capabilities, allowing employees to stay connected regardless of location, ensuring smooth business operations at all times.
• Advanced security measures, including multi-factor authentication, encryption, and voice fraud prevention, ensuring regulatory compliance and data security.

Why Enterprises Choose JAMVEE for calling solutions

In order to gain these business benefits, modern organisations look at JAMVEE, the business calling solution from Tata Communications. Whether employees working remotely or in the office, ensuring seamless business continuity. The platform’s cost-effective cloud PBX solutions lower operational expenses by replacing expensive traditional phone systems with a scalable, cloud-based alternative.

JAMVEE is available on iOS, Android, desktop, WebRTC, and within Microsoft Teams, providing a device-neutral experience tailored to diverse business needs its integration with over 700 VOIP providers and 1600+ carrier interconnects provide unmatched call quality and reliability, ensuring clear and uninterrupted communication. Businesses operating globally benefit from support for mobile interconnects in over 785 locations worldwide, ensuring smooth cross-border communication. Security remains a priority with automated fraud detection and AI-powered security protocols, protecting businesses from unauthorised access and fraud attempts.

Conclusion

The digital workplace is evolving rapidly, and cloud-calling apps are becoming essential for businesses aiming to improve efficiency and connectivity. JAMVEE is at the forefront of this transformation, offering a robust and scalable calling solution on the cloud. With its seamless integration, cost-effective plans, and enterprise-grade security, JAMVEE empowers businesses to connect their teams effectively and operate more efficiently.

Whether your business operates in a hybrid model, relies on frontline employees, or needs seamless global connectivity, JAMVEE delivers unmatched communication capabilities. Its advanced cloud-based phone system is designed to help businesses overcome communication barriers, ensuring high-quality, secure, and reliable interactions across all teams.

Learn more about Tata Communications JAMVEE.

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The Rise of Internet Telephony in the Era of UCaaS

At its core, an Internet Telephony Number (ITN) allows users to make and receive calls over the internet, eliminating the need for conventional telephone infrastructure when associated with a UcaaS platform & solution. Whether leveraging Wi-Fi, a broadband connection, or a mobile hotspot, ITNs provide unparalleled flexibility in communication.

In an era where hybrid and remote work are the norm, ITNs are proving indispensable for businesses that demand agility, scalability, and seamless connectivity. Unlike traditional phone systems that tie users to a physical location, ITNs empower Enterprise professionals to stay connected anytime, anywhere ushering in a new age of borderless communication.

How Does Internet Telephony Number Differ from Fixed Landline & Mobile Number

• Fixed landlines offer excellent call quality and reliability due to point-to-point MPLS connectivity, making them ideal for enterprise use with full emergency services and flexible OSP (Other Service Provider) / Non-OSP classifications. However, they lack mobility, cannot be ported to other providers, are location-specific, and require significant physical infrastructure and customer premises equipment (CPE). Additionally, the number ownership belongs to the enterprise, not the individual.
• Internet Telephony Numbers (ITNs) offer great flexibility and quicker deployment as they work over any internet connection and do not require dedicated customer premises equipment (CPE). They support national roaming when associated with a Ucaas platform, optimised bandwidth usage as some UcaaS platform have their own proprietary Codec, and simplified administration with e-KYC. However, ITNs depend on internet stability for call quality, have limitations on emergency services. The number ownership belongs to the enterprise and are not portable
• Mobile numbers offer high mobility with international roaming, portability to other providers, wide coverage using existing cellular infrastructure, and quick deployment with SIM card activation. They provide emergency services based on geolocation and do not require CPE. However, call quality and reliability depend on network coverage and congestion, signal strength vary by location, and cellular networks are susceptible to security risks. The number belongs to the end user and is lost when the employee leaves, and the quality of customer experience can vary based on network conditions.

Breaking Free from Limitations: The ITN Advantage

• Unmatched Flexibility & Mobility: With ITN you are no more tethered to a specific location. ITNs with UcaaS offer national roaming, allowing you to stay connected wherever you go within the country. This is especially crucial for businesses with remote teams or employees who are constantly on the move. When outside the country only CUG (Closed User Group) calls will work.
• Cost Savings Without Compromise: Leveraging your existing internet connection eliminates the need for expensive dedicated phone lines. This translates to substantial savings for businesses.
• Instant Deployment & Scalability: Setting up an ITN is a breeze. No need for lengthy installations or complex infrastructure. With quick activation and no need for physical hardware, you can get your communication system up and running in no time.
• Superior Call Quality: With advancements in technology, ITNs now offer crystal-clear call quality. Adaptive codecs and high-bandwidth capabilities ensure a smooth and uninterrupted communication experience.
• Simplified Management & Administration: ITNs are managed through online portals, making it easy to configure settings, manage users, and track call logs. The lack of OSP/NOSP classifications also makes it much simpler to administer.
• A Future-Proof Communication Model: As the world becomes increasingly digital, ITNs are poised to become the standard for communication. Embracing this technology ensures your business stays ahead of the curve and adapts to the evolving communication landscape.
• E-KYC ease: The ease of electronic Know your customer verification, makes implementation faster and easier.

Internet Telephony Numbers are not just a trend; they are the future of communication. With their flexibility, affordability, and enhanced features, ITNs are empowering businesses and individuals to communicate more effectively than ever before. It’s time to ditch the desk phone and embrace the internet. The revolution is here.

Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Webex provide both fixed and Internet Telephony Numbers (ITNs), enabling seamless global communication and collaboration. It offers a powerful suite of benefits including seamless migration to cloud platforms, global connectivity, enhanced collaboration, cost-effectiveness, and regulatory compliance. What truly differentiates Tata Communications is its unique position as one of the few global operators directly connected to Zoom, Cisco, and Microsoft UCaaS platforms. This allows enterprise customers to use the same ITN number across different UCaaS platforms or migrate between them—such as from Microsoft Teams or Zoom to Cisco Webex without changing their number. This flexibility empowers businesses with a robust, scalable, and future-ready communication solution, making it easier to stay connected and collaborate effectively in today’s digital-first world.

Click here for more information.

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A recent research report has highlighted that India faced an alarming 3000% rise in API-targeted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in just three months. The report documents over 1.2 billion attacks that include 271 million API attacks last quarter. Unlike traditional attacks that flood websites with traffic, these sophisticated breaches exploit the very mechanisms that make APIs efficient.

What’s Changing in DDoS Attack Patterns?

In the early days, DDoS attacks were relatively straightforward, relying on sheer volume to overpower systems by flooding a network/server with massive traffic until it buckled under the pressure. DDoS attacks have now transcended into highly sophisticated, AI powered threats, targeting critical digital infrastructure rather than just a single network.

Throughout the digital fabric ecosystem, DDoS and bot attacks have surged dramatically. In Q3 alone, more than 377 million DDoS incidents and 215 million bot attacks were intercepted. This marks a staggering 145% year-on-year increase in bot activity. Alarmingly, DDoS attacks now affect 60% of websites, while bot-driven threats impact 90%. The challenge is amplified even more by the growing threat landscape.

Three type of attacks are rising:

1. API-based DDoS Attacks: APIs act as the “banks” of the internet, centralising vast amounts of transactions and communications across multiple channels. This centralisation makes APIs attractive targets for cybercriminals. APIs’ critical role in the digital ecosystem makes them high-value targets for attackers.
2. Bot-driven DDoS: a group or network of computers or other devices that are internet-connected. Using malware, attackers infect these devices and turns them into an army. These bots can mimic legitimate traffic, overwhelming systems with stealth and precision.
3. Carpet Bombing: Unlike traditional DDoS attacks targeting a single system, carpet bombing spreads disruption across multiple IP addresses, maximising the damage. This method overwhelms entire networks, making recovery even more challenging. According to Vercara’s Bi-annual DNS and DDoS Traffic and Trends Analysis reports, the first half of 2024 recorded a staggering 186% increase in DDoS attacks. Specifically, 75% of these DDoS attacks were carpet bomb attacks, emphasising the rise of a new attack vector.

The age of static defence mechanisms is over. Modern threats demands a shift to dynamic, predictive, and autonomous security ecosystems, because a single day of downtime can cost businesses millions of dollars.

The Impact on Businesses

DDoS attacks today are no longer isolated events, they are systematic assaults on business continuity, reputation, and expose vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale. Here’s how they impact organisations:

1. Massive Financial Losses: Prolonged downtime costs businesses crores, with industries losing up to INR 10.3 million per hour with 69% of businesses facing such issues. Additionally, mitigating expenses and regulatory fines amplify financial strain.
2. Reputation & Customer Trust Erosion: frequent disruptions drive customers to competitors, tarnish brand credibility, and attract negative media attention, leading to long-term loss in market share. According to a report, 75% of the consumers stop interacting with an organisation if it has suffered from a cyber-incident.
3. Operational Chaos and Security Risks: Modern DDoS attacks disrupt workflows, supply chains, and service delivery while exposing sensitive APIs and creating gateways for follow-up breaches like ransomware.

With everything interconnected through APIs, the stakes have never been higher. What we’ve touched upon here is the surface of a much deeper issue. Further, these attacks are rapidly evolving, becoming more sophisticated by the day.

How Can Enterprises Stay Ahead of the Curve?

As enterprises increasingly stitch their digital fabric, in the pursuit of innovation, more vulnerabilities/loopholes open up for malicious actors to exploit. Here’s how organisations can enhance their defences:

1. Intelligent Threat Detection: Modern threats demand modern solutions. Intelligent threat detection systems powered by AI and ML analyse network traffic patterns, detect anomalies in real time, and distinguish between legitimate users and malicious traffic. Enterprises need to say one step ahead and neutralise threats before they escalate.
2. Cloud-Based DDoS Protection: Cloud-based DDoS protection solutions offer scalability, ensuring your defence mechanisms adapt to the size and scale of the attack. These solutions work by absorbing and mitigating malicious traffic at the network edge, protecting your core systems without affecting user experience.
3. Profile-based Testing: Not all APIs are alike. Profile-based testing rigorously examines potential vulnerabilities within an API ecosystem, creating detailed behavioural profiles and reinforcing security where it’s needed most.

Neglecting these measures leaves enterprises exposed, much like a bank without robust security, an open invitation to threats that could jeopardise their survival.

Conclusion

The rise of API-based DDoS attacks and the increasing use of powerful botnets, fuelled by geopolitical tensions and global events, has expanded the range of organisations at risk. Threat actor sophistication is increasing, and organisations are struggling to defend against these threats on their own. But they don’t need to. Businesses can rely on Comm-tech solution providers that can help invest significant resources. A well-prepared, comprehensive security strategy is far more resilient against these cyber-threats. Protecting APIs isn’t just a technical necessity, it’s a cornerstone of maintaining trust and continuity in this interconnected world.

Tata Communications offers DDoS protection service, enabling enterprises across the globe to avoid business downtime due to a DDoS attack, which might result in monetary loss and reputation damage. Click here to know more.

The post The Evolution of DDoS Attacks: Why APIs are in the Crosshairs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

At the office, she collaborates with team members across the globe, their conversations seamlessly translated in real-time by AI running on their devices and generating an actionable meeting summary. While coming back home, she drops by at a nearby retail for groceries, where the virtual assistant provides personalized information and real time data driven insights with a perfect shopping recommendation.

This is Generative AI (Gen AI) in action – transforming our daily routines, enhancing productivity, and solving complex problems. Its impact is not just theoretical; it’s tangible and growing rapidly. But how do we get from here to there? The answer lies in the powerful combination of cloud computing and edge technology, making AI more impactful.

Generative AI is revolutionizing industries across the board, from healthcare to finance, retail to manufacturing. Its ability to produce human-like text, images, and code is opening new possibilities which we’re only beginning to explore. However, as GenAI applications become more diverse and complex, we’re facing new challenges in deployment and management that require innovative solutions.

The AI Computational Conundrum

AI, particularly GenAI, requires extreme amounts of computational power. Traditionally, cloud platforms have been the go-to solution, offering vast computational power without the need for significant hardware investments. But as AI applications become more diverse and integrated into our daily lives, we’re finding that cloud alone isn’t always enough.

1. Real-time applications requiring no latency down to the milliseconds
2. Scenarios with limited network connectivity
3. Use cases involving sensitive data that must remain local

These challenges are pushing us to rethink how we deploy AI, driving a shift towards more flexible and distributed computational models that can address the diverse needs of modern AI applications.

Edge Computing: Complementing the Cloud

This is where edge computing enters the picture – a paradigm that brings computation closer to data sources, thereby offering benefits like reduced latency, greater privacy, and improved bandwidth efficiency.

Rather than choosing between edge and cloud, forward-thinking organizations are embracing both. This integrated approach brings computation closer to data sources when needed, while still leveraging the cloud’s massive processing power for complex tasks.

A study by MarketsandMarkets projects that the edge AI software market will grow from $590 million in 2020 to $1.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 20.8% [2]. This rapid growth highlights the increasing adoption of edge computing in AI applications.

Here’s how this integration is accelerating AI and GenAI adoption:

1. Enhance Performance: Combining edge’s speed with cloud’s power enables more responsive AI applications and complex GenAI models, encouraging wider implementation across industries.
2. Optimize Data Management: Efficient data handling between edge and cloud allows organizations to deploy more sophisticated AI solutions without overwhelming their infrastructure.
3. Strengthen Security: Local processing of sensitive data alongside cloud-based insights addresses privacy concerns, promoting AI adoption in regulated industries like healthcare and finance.
4. Enable Scalability: The flexibility to grow from small edge deployments to extensive cloud-based systems makes AI more accessible to businesses of all sizes, fostering increased adoption.

This integrated approach is making AI and GenAI more versatile, efficient, and accessible, driving adoption across various industries and use cases.

Real-world Impact: AI and GenAI Across Industries

The integration of cloud and edge for Gen AI is already driving innovation across industries:

1. In manufacturing, edge devices are enabling real-time quality control using GenAI, while cloud resources handle more complex simulations and design optimizations.
2. Healthcare providers leverage on-premises AI for rapid diagnostics and patient monitoring, while using cloud resources for complex image analysis and research.
3. Retail businesses enhance in-store experiences with local AI-powered recommendations, while cloud-based systems manage inventory and analyze market trends.

These examples showcase how edge-to-cloud integration enables AI applications that combine the immediacy of local processing with the depth of cloud-based analytics.

To fully harness the power of edge-to-cloud integration, centralized orchestration becomes crucial. This intelligent layer manages the distribution of AI workloads, deciding where each task should be performed based on factors like processing requirements, data sensitivity, and response time needs. It dynamically adjusts resource allocation, provides a single point of control for deploying and updating all AI models and ensures optimal performance and cost-effectiveness across the entire AI infrastructure.

The Road Ahead: AI Everywhere

As edge-to-cloud integration matures, we’re moving towards a future where AI is seamlessly woven into the fabric of business and daily life.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, 75% of enterprise-generated data will be processed outside traditional centralized data centers or clouds, highlighting the shift towards distributed AI.

Looking forward, we can expect:

1. Adaptive AI Ecosystems: AI systems will learn continuously, using edge data for quick adaptations and cloud resources for deep learning, creating more context-aware and responsive solutions.
2. Sustainable AI Practices: Optimized resource usage through intelligent orchestration will support the development of more energy-efficient AI systems, addressing growing concerns about AI’s environmental impact.
3. Democratized AI Innovation: As advanced AI capabilities become more accessible through edge-to-cloud integration, we’ll see a surge in innovation across industries, with new applications and business models emerging.

Conclusion: Embracing the Orchestrated Future

The future of AI and GenAI isn’t about choosing between edge or cloud — it’s about harnessing the strengths of both. This integrated approach is making AI more powerful, efficient, and accessible, democratizing advanced capabilities for organizations of all sizes across industries.

As we move forward, businesses that embrace this edge-to-cloud synergy for their AI initiatives will be well-positioned to innovate, compete, and thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world. We’re just at the beginning of a journey towards smarter, more connected systems, and this orchestrated approach to computing is what will get us there.

The post The Future of GenAI: The Power of Cloud and Edge for Smarter Solutions appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

With the rise of hybrid work culture and the introduction of new technologies, organisations strived to ensure seamless connectivity across their operations and workforce. However, striking a balance between security and efficiency in today’s interconnected environment is a challenging act, especially when AI is increasingly becoming part of every boardroom disucssion. To stay ahead in 2025, organisations must monitor the following trends – and asses their implications on their business.

The rapid rise of AI agents

Agent-based artificial intelligence (AI) is on the verge of revolutionising the way organisations work. According to Gartner, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agent-based AI by 2028. This means that 15% of daily work decisions can be made autonomously.

Such AI agents can independently process tasks, plan and make decisions, to achieve pre-defined goals set by users. Acting as a digital extension of the workforce, they complement and support human employees.

With this, AI agents have a huge potential in improving customer interactions for brands. For instance, many organisations already employ chatbots to address common customer queries and support requests. This trend is set to further pick up pace in the coming years. Businesses can leverage agent-based AI or ‘interaction assistants’ to automatically generate natural language, real-time, dialogue-driven messages tailored to the required communication channel, target audience and brand voice.

They also provide customised, AI-supported data insights within seconds, providing businesses with key insights from customer interactions like buying preferences, customer pain points & sentiment analysis, churn prediction, etc. These insights empower businesses make to data-driven decision and refine their strategies for long-term success.

With the AI agents addressing routine queries and providing actionable insights, business can leverage the emotional intelligence and capabilities of human workforce to further augment the experience of their customers.

The shift towards Hybrid and Multi-cloud Strategies

Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies have already gained significant traction amongst organisations in recent years. In 2025, their relevance will continue to grow as more businesses transition to cloud-based architectures to meet evolving business needs.

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud are two different computing strategies that can each be tailored to the specific business needs. Hybrid cloud combines both private and public clouds, allowing organisations to leverage the data security of private cloud as well as scalability and flexibility of public cloud environments.

A multi-cloud approach, on the other hand, enables the use of different types of cloud providers. With this, it helps companies avoid single-provider reliance, manage the risks of individual solutions, optimise costs and increase the operational reliability.

For global organisations, using multiple providers enables the distribution of data across different locations, improving redundancy and ensuring better resilience. It will also strengthen disaster recovery processes by providing more cloud options for data backup and quick recovery, ensuring business continuity even during disruptive times.

Multi-cloud strategies will bring agility to organisations – from identifying business needs to implementing secure solutions. Another key benefit for enterprises will be cost optimisation, as the ability to choose from multiple cloud providers can lead to significant cost savings.

Mitigating AI-driven cybersecurity challenges

As AI usage rises and its capabilities expand, companies will encounter new security challenges in the coming years. Cybercriminals are also capitalising on these new technologies and are increasingly using AI tools to enhance their attacks while compromising connected architectures with sophisticated methods.

To counter these threats, cyber security experts, network administrators and data centre operators need to develop advanced AI security technologies. This includes advanced encryption algorithms and automated threat detection systems. Especially, German companies must urgently update their cyber security measures to comply with the NIS 2 directive. They need to deploy various strategic and operational measures including implementation of strong governance frameworks and risk management processes, ensuring timely reporting of cybersecurity incidents and proofing supply chains, and most importantly training the workforce to protect them from becoming the victims of potetnial cyberattacks.

The future of businesses will be reimagined by the possibilities and impact of AI. To navigate the challenges of this digital age while ensuring success, companies should closely align their IT and cloud strategies with their business objectives. It is helpful to bring a managed services provider on board who can support companies with many years of expertise and foresight. This enables companies to recognise trends at an early stage, react to them and integrate them into their business models. This gives them the best chance of being successful in the digital economy.

Find out more about how you can transform your business with hyperconnected ecosystems here.

The post The future of business connectivity: Digital transformation in 2025 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In February of this year, Tata Communications and Microsoft announced the launch of a new Teams Phone offer in India using the Operator Connect platform in partnership with Tata Communications GlobalRapide with fixed lines. Operator Connect is an operator managed service that brings PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) calling to Microsoft Teams, giving your enterprise multiple benefits.

Most global companies today have to contend with a hybrid workplace spanning multiple geographies, managing multiple vendors which can lead to differing quality of services, inconsistent user experiences and cost inefficiencies. Interoperability between legacy systems can be a problem, as is managing complex bandwidth provisioning, different technologies and multiple phone number requirements. Crucial challenges include varying regulatory and compliance issues and – a primary consideration today – security. Managing all these together smoothly is truly as complicated as it sounds!

There are several benefits to working with a single partner who handles all of this for you, leaving you to get on with growing your business. Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Microsoft Teams is your one-stop shop for all this and more.

Benefits of Operator Connect India through Tata Communications

Operator Connect as a service offers you efficient integration for Microsoft Teams with calling functionality. Tata Communications’ extensive global PSTN coverage, along with complete coverage locally within India allows multinational customers to work in multiple geographies seamlessly. You can quickly deploy calling as part of your Microsoft Teams telephony solution.

“With Tata Communications GlobalRapide, you can even continue with existing operator contracts, while enjoying reduced costs for hardware and management, as PSTN Calling Services and Session Border Controllers (SBCs) are managed by Tata Communications”

Businesses benefit from enhanced support from a reliable and trusted partner who gives them:

• Simplified operations
  • End-to-end lifecycle and service management
  • Easy process for adding trunks, selecting phone numbers, and provisioning users
  • Faster, on-demand automated service provisioning and change management

• Lower total cost of ownership
  • Reduced CapEx and ability to move to a predictable OpEx model

Why choose Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Operator Connect India

GlobalRapide Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams is a quick and easy way to integrate with calling, ensuring customisation and flexibility. This is why you should consider Tata Communications as your Operator Connect partner in India:

• The only operator that is operating both in India as well as on a global level, Tata Communications is the leading global partner for Microsoft with 300k + installations globally and is one of the first carriers to work with Microsoft on the Operator Connect launch, globally
• Large global country coverage for voice services – 58 countries for PSTN replacement and Cloud number offerings
• The only global provider offering voice access services with the Microsoft Teams platform in countries like India, Korea Thailand and Taiwan, which have stringent telecom regulations
• Third-party carrier management, wherever required

In India, Tata Communications’ access license for Operator Connect India enables a seamless cloud collaboration journey for enterprises, through the integration of cloud-based PSTN network and Microsoft telephony solutions, by providing fixed line services as well as Internet telephony services:

• Offers Microsoft’s team SKU (Stock Keeping unit) specifically designed for India telephony platform
• Owns a specialised SKU or telephony license, which is only offered by select few operators in India, that allows hassle-free migration of India PSTN into the cloud.
• Is the undisputed expert on India telecom regulations and security compliance
• Provides a unique hybrid Microsoft Teams solution with Internet telephony – with no need for on-premise connectivity or infrastructure – which provides full mobility within India using internet as the medium for domestic calls.

How it works

Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Microsoft Teams Operator Connect offers you the ease of connecting without any complex requirements. IT admins can easily connect to the Tata Communications voice network and assign phone numbers to users, all from within the tab labelled ‘Operators’ directly within the Teams admin dashboard. Operator Connect users with Microsoft also get direct peering between the SIP Trunking infrastructure and the Teams platform. All you need to do is visit the Microsoft Teams admin center, open the Operators’ section and select Tata Communications in your country of interest. We’ll take care of the rest.

Simplify your journey with Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Microsoft Teams – Operator Connect India – try it today!

The post Seamless Collaboration with GlobalRapide for Microsoft Teams in India appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Here’s how UC calling works:

• Integration with existing phone systems: Many UC platforms integrate with your existing business phone lines, allowing you to use the UC interface for calls.
• Cloud-based calling (VoIP): Some UC systems offer cloud-based calling functionality, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This eliminates the need for traditional phone lines and allows calls to be made over the internet.

Even with the rise of video conferencing and chat, voice calls are still a preferred method for quick discussions, decision-making, and building rapport. According to tech analyst Omdia’s Unified Communications and Collaboration Market Dashboard, the global cloud UC calling market size was valued at $18.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $19.8 billion by 2027, growing at a slow CAGR of 2.37%. India’s UC Calling market, however, is growing much faster than the global rate, with a CAGR of 23% for the same time period. This is because less than 5 percent of Indian businesses on the cloud have calling enabled, leaving a massive 95% ready for calling adoption.

However, it is not easy to implement cloud calling. Organisations who are headquartered in India, as well as those who have branch offices in India face challenges when trying to implement calling for their employees, as part of their hybrid workplace strategy.

1. Compliance: India has strict regulations regarding domestic and international calling. These regulations can be complex and can change frequently. Partnering with a provider who has expertise in Indian telecommunications law ensures that your organisation stays compliant and avoids any potential fines or penalties. Here are some specific compliance challenges in India:

• Toll Bypass Restrictions: Organisations cannot use private networks to bypass toll charges for long-distance calls within India.
• Local PSTN Gateways: Companies need separate voice gateways for domestic calling compared to their internet connection.

2. Global Coverage: UC calling often requires seamless integration across different countries, so that business can be conducted cross-border in a seamless manner. Partnering with a provider with a strong global presence simplifies this process. They can ensure reliable call quality, manage local regulations in different regions, and offer features like local phone numbers for international offices.

Here’s how partnering with a provider helps with global coverage:

• Network infrastructure: The provider has a robust network infrastructure that can support international calls with good quality.
• Local Partnerships: They may have local licenses for operation in India as well as partnerships with local carriers in other countries, ensuring smooth call routing and local compliance.
• Expertise in Global UC: The provider has the experience and knowledge to manage UC deployments across diverse geographical locations.

3. Transitioning from On-prem to Cloud UC: According to a report by Oliver Wyman and NASSCOM, the Indian cloud market has surpassed the global market in terms of growth rate, but cloud spend (as a % of GDP) of mature markets like US and Singapore are 4-5x compared to India, which highlights the low cloud adoption in the country. More organisations are expected to move to the cloud in the near future, as is evident when you visit an office space in India – the deskphone has all but disappeared in most offices and is replaced by the softphone on UC applications. In the Calling space, the migration and management challenges while moving from PSTN to Cloud Voice can impact employee experience, thus leading to debilitating performance and productivity issues.

Overall, partnering with a UC calling provider in India offers peace of mind. The partner can handle the complexities of compliance, global coverage and cloud migration, allowing your organization to focus on core business activities while enjoying the benefits of UC calling.

Tata Communications is a strong choice for UC Calling in India, because of its strengths:

1. Deep Compliance Expertise: Tata Communications has an excellent track record in navigating India’s complex telecom regulations, including toll bypass restrictions and local PSTN gateway requirements. This ensures your organisation stays compliant and avoids any issues.

2. Robust Global Network Infrastructure: Tata Communications boasts a well-established cloud voice network that can support reliable international calls with good quality. This is crucial for businesses with offices in India and abroad.

3. Established Presence in the Indian Market: With a strong presence in India, Tata Communications understands the local business landscape and can provide solutions tailored to your specific needs.

4. Strong Partnerships:

• With Microsoft: As the only global partner to offer this, Tata Communications’ UC solution, GlobalRapide, pairs Microsoft Teams calling with Operator Connect, letting Indian companies make compliant international calls directly through Teams. Our expertise handles complex regulations, while our global network ensures call quality. You can manage everything from a single platform, boosting teamwork through seamless calling within the familiar Microsoft Teams interface.
• With Cisco: As the first and only partner in India, Tata Communications GlobalRapide for Cisco Webex Calling India combines the familiar collaboration features of Webex with reliable cloud calling powered by GlobalRapide’s network. It simplifies UC calling, ensuring compliance with Indian regulations and offering seamless international call quality. By managing everything through one platform, you can streamline communication and empower teamwork within your Webex environment.

5. Security Posture: Tata Communications’ voice infrastructure has inbuilt fraud detection and prevention, thus ensuring that client networks are secure. Tata Communications blocks more than 6 million fraudulent calls a month for our global clients., thus saving millions of dollars in international telecom fraud.

6. Seamless Cloud Migration: Deep expertise and experience in assessing, designing and implementing cloud adoption in complex, global environments yielding efficiency and productivity gains in the order of magnitude of 20-45%.

Tata Communications’ GlobalRapide platform takes the complexity out of your cloud-based unified communications with Cisco Webex or Microsoft Teams. We handle everything from managing call routing and user provisioning to ensuring compliance with India’s telecom regulations. Partnering with you on every step right from assessment to migration, as well as from adoption to management, GlobalRapide allows you to focus on your core business while enjoying a reliable, global calling experience directly within your chosen UC platform. You can choose to work with Tata Communications in a modular fashion – either on one need such as an initial PBX Assessment only, or get more of an end to end solution which incorporates other modules in the GlobalRapide platform like Cloud SBC management, full design and solution development, seamless implementation, intelligent call monitoring, etc., based on your organization’s needs.

Learn more about Tata Communications’ GlobalRapide and unlock the full potential of cloud calling in India, and globally.

The post Unlock the Potential of Calling in India appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The quest for speed and real-time connectivity has become a driving force across various industries. Imagine a world where your refrigerator orders groceries for you, your car schedules its own maintenance, and your city’s traffic lights adjust in real-time based on traffic conditions.

Traditional data processing models often involve sending data to a centralised cloud server for analysis and decision-making. While this approach has served us well, it comes with inherent latency issues, especially in applications requiring immediate responses.  This is where Edge computing steps in as it processes data close to the source, eliminating the need to send it back to centralised data centers.

The Edge of Real-World Innovation

Edge computing extends its influence beyond manufacturing and smart factories, shaping the future of retail shop floor experiences and contributing to the ongoing evolution of smart cities. It’s a powerhouse driving innovation across diverse realms from monitoring mental well-being to preserving the environment, revolutionising healthcare, shaping the metaverse, and fine-tuning precision agriculture etc.

Let’s have a closer look at how edge computing is the driving force, reshaping the landscape of boundless possibilities in today’s world.

Nurturing minds: Monitoring your mental wellbeing.

“In an era where life unfolds at a rapid pace, edge computing serves as a silent guardian of mental well-being.”

Through the analysis of behavioural patterns, heart rate variability, and other physiological markers at the local level, edge devices can detect early signs of stress, anxiety, or other mental health concerns. The focus on local processing ensures data privacy, enabling timely interventions or alerts. This vision presents a future where technology not only assists individuals but also actively contributes to the real-time care of mental health.

Preserving Nature: Keeping a watchful eye on environmental conservation

“It’s a harmonious blend of technology and nature, where edge computing provides timely insights, optimises resource use, and promotes sustainability in data processing”.

Step into the realm of environmental conservation powered by edge computing. Deploying sensors and cameras in the field, edge devices facilitate real-time data processing, revolutionising wildlife tracking, climate monitoring, and ecological analysis. By minimising reliance on centralised servers, edge computing reduces energy consumption and latency, fostering swift responses to environmental challenges.

Healing Hands: a trusted ally in healthcare

“In the fast-paced world of medical practice, edge computing stands as a trusted ally, ensuring that every decision is informed by real-time, localised data.”

Within the walls of hospitals, edge computing emerges as an invaluable asset for efficiency and privacy. Processing data locally ensures the security of patient information, while delivering right-time notifications to practitioners offers insights into unusual patient trends or behaviours. The creation of 360-degree view patient dashboards provides practitioners with comprehensive visibility, elevating the quality of healthcare.

Building Realities: From a conceptual idea to a tangible reality in the Metaverse

“As the metaverse takes center stage, edge plays a pivotal role in crafting immersive virtual experiences.”

Edge devices meet the computational demands of tracking objects, characters, and environmental effects, ensuring seamless transitions in virtual spaces. Serving as the backbone, edge computing prevents degradation in image resolution and details, even in crowded virtual environments.

Cultivating the Earth: Elevating Precision Agriculture Practices

“Amidst the vast farmlands, precision agriculture thrives with the integration of edge computing, contributing to optimised crop yields and sustainable farming practices.”

By bringing computational capabilities closer to the data sources, edge devices analyse real-time data on soil conditions, crop health, and weather. This localised processing minimises latency, enabling immediate decision-making for tasks like adjusting irrigation and controlling machinery. The scalability of edge computing ensures that each section of a farm operates efficiently.

In the symphony of technological progress, edge computing harmonises diverse domains, ushering in a future where innovation serves as a catalyst for positive change. From nurturing our minds to preserving the environment, shaping virtual realities, and cultivating the land, edge computing emerges as a transformative force, redefining the way we live, work, and connect.

Welcome to the edge of boundless possibilities, where innovation meets impact – Unlock opportunities at scale with Tata Communications CloudLyte

At Tata Communications, we specialise in helping our customers accelerate their digital transformation by leveraging cutting-edge cloud-native technologies. Our focus is on helping our customers build, secure, and manage enterprise-grade edge applications. We prioritise consistency, performance, reliability, and security.

In response to the evolving needs of enterprises, we have developed Tata Communications CloudLyte- an infra and cloud agnostic, multi access edge platform tailored for driving industry leading business use cases.

It’s an expertly managed platform that gives you the flexibility of securely deploying and managing any application anywhere at scale.

With its substantial promise, Tata Communications CloudLyte emerges as a catalyst for enterprises embarking on their edge computing journey. Enterprises can leverage the power of Tata Communications CloudLyte, accessing a diverse array of industry-leading edge use cases.

Tata Communications CloudLyte not only gives businesses a competitive edge but also enables them to contribute and positively impact the society and communities we live in.

Read more about how edge computing is revolutionising the manufacturing and retail spaces in our comprehensive point-of-view papers.

The post Edge Revolution: Transforming experiences in a Hyperconnected World appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In 2022, international air traffic increased by 152.7% compared to 2021 and is expected to jump even further. Considering the anticipated rise in demand, this makes it more important than ever for airlines to ensure their ICT infrastructure remains as resilient as possible. This is particularly true given how costly IT outages can be for organisations such as airlines, with estimates of potential costs ranging from $5,600 to $9,000 per minute.

In recent months, Tata Communications enabled several airline customers implement an overhaul of their backend ICT infrastructure. With all airlines having their own unique objectives and requirements, successful implementation of tech upgrades requires a deep understanding of each airline’s business objectives, pain points and challenges. By understanding their needs, we  tailored solutions to meet each airline’s specific requirements – not only current ones, but also those that may arise in future.

Here are some customer stories of how Tata Communications helped leading airlines strengthen their ICT backbone and enabled streamlined, efficient operations and in turn built a more agile and resilient enterprise.

High Performance Hybrid WAN to Enhance Operational Efficiencies

The first is a leading airline who approached us with the task of significantly expanding its bandwidth while maintaining the same cost levels and preserving security and integrity. The airline, which relies on global applications to run its essential day-to-day operations at its office locations and for customer facing interactions, needed a reliable network backbone to support the performance requirements of these applications. They needed a flexible wide area network (WAN) solution to guarantee high network performance, quality, and availability.

The airline deployed a hybrid WAN using MPLS and Internet Services from Tata Communications to connect their Airports and Cargo locations, which provided the airline with flexibility and the opportunity to cut costs and save time by routing non-critical traffic directly to the internet.

For the rollout, Tata Communications worked closely with the airline to ensure a smooth delivery process and continuously optimise lead times.

With the hybrid WAN solution, the airline is now experiencing 99.994% network availability for dual connected locations, with a reliable and high-quality network performance globally. The hybrid WAN provides network capabilities to support mission critical traffic and seamless performance of corporate applications, along with supporting voice and video traffic, leading to enhanced collaboration and thus increased productivity. No downtime means no missed revenue opportunities.

MOVE (SIM and IoT Connect) Solution for Seamless-Ubiquitous Connectivity Globally

When airline pilots and crew are flying between their home base and foreign airports, they often rely on unstable airport Wi-Fi networks or incur expensive mobile roaming charges to access updated flight information, electronic flight bag applications or passenger lists. Additionally, there are sections inside an Airport where there is no WiFi coverage while it is an area which needs reliable connection (more than one operator). On-board inflight entertainment (IFE) systems also require connectivity to get content updates. Moreover, cargo and ramp systems require mobile data to better communicate and improve operational efficiency.

Tata Communications deployed its MOVE (SIM and IoT Connect) solution for a large Middle Eastern airline to connect their crew, pilots, aircraft, ramp, baggage and cargo operations globally in a seamless, secure manner.

In addition to connectivity, the MOVE platform also helped deliver additional security, integration into the Airline’s proprietary device management system and control the data consumption by allowing access to only specific applications/websites.

Crew members are issued connected tablets that allow them to upload and download flight, passenger, and duty-free information before and after every flight. Inflight entertainment (IFE), ramp and electronic flight bags (EFBs) for pilots are also installed with MOVE SIM cards that allow them to be connected globally for seamless, secure data access.

This deployment enabled secure and guaranteed mobile connectivity across all flight destinations globally for the airline. This resulted in reduced aircraft turnaround time, thereby improving overall operational efficiency. A shared data bundle and controlled access across the airline also ensured cost optimisation and reduced data wastage. Lastly, a centralised MOVE Management Portal allows the airline’s system administrators a unified view to manage usage and to secure devices on a granular level globally.

Additionally, we envisage that in the near future, we will enable aviation companies a monetisation aspect by offering Global eSIMs to their passengers either in the form of Loyalty (Part of Loyalty Programs) or as a direct sale (tied into their Passenger onboarding/ticket sale/web-check in process).

Managed SD-WAN solution for Smarter Global Customer Contact Centre Operations

Another leading airline approached us with the task of channelising their omni-channel customer traffic on our network and to distribute it to the most suitable Customer Contact Center Location. They also needed to improve operational efficiency while ensuring top quality customer experience for their globally distributed customer base.

Tata Communications helped create and deploy a managed SD-WAN solution ensuring customers are connected to contact center agents within the shortest possible time, enabling the airline to provide a consistent experience to its customers.

Earlier, some of the contact centres in specific countries did not have a 24×7 customer supports. Tata Communications solutions ensured customers in all the countries can be supported 24×7 and also customer communications channels can be routed not only basis language of agent, but also on skill set basis. Networked call recording was also intelligently routed to make use of low-traffic windows, thereby improving network efficiency.

Our 99.95% service level agreement (SLA) availability ensures customers get a reliable collaboration experience wherever they are. The fully managed service also allows organisations like airlines to have simplified solutions to all their communications and technology concerns.

Looking Beyond the Horizon

As we progress, business resiliency and agility will be top-of-mind for most airlines. As such, cloud-based services will be the preferred choice as airlines avoid Capex-intensive models that require expensive hardware upgrades.

With the continued rollout of 5G networks across the world, digital enablers like us are also looking at how we can leverage the low-latency, high speed network to further streamline airline operations and offer value-added services to flight crew and passengers.

Further afield, emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and the metaverse come into play where airlines may deploy these technologies for crew training, aircraft maintenance, customer experiences and even inflight entertainment. These will also open new revenue streams and opportunities for airlines.

Of course, having stable, reliable connectivity across their global network will be key to enabling these high-bandwidth services and Tata Communications is here to help airlines realise their visions.

Learn more about Tata Communications MOVE and Contact Centre as a Service.

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Today, 5G is approximately 100 times faster than its predecessor, 4G, and has the capacity to halve latency compared to Wi-FI6, according to PWC’s 5G in Healthcare report. Furthermore, of all existing wireless technologies, 5G enables the most amount of data to be transferred at once.

With this kind of power, 5G networks hold the potential to transform healthcare by providing faster, more reliable connectivity. The technology can help professionals and patients alike by fuelling the development and capabilities of innovative applications and services.

But what does this really mean in practice? And what private 5G use cases exist today that demonstrate how this technology is driving innovation for the healthcare sector? Let’s find out.

What Are Private 5G Networks?

Private 5G networks are essentially a dedicated cellular network that’s built and managed by a specific organisation, such as a hospital or healthcare provider. These networks use the same technology as public 5G networks, but they operate independently of public infrastructure.

“As such, private 5G networks can be customised to meet the specific needs of an organisation, and provide better coverage and performance in areas where public networks may not be available.”

So, what does this mean for the healthcare sector specifically?

How is Private 5G Being Used in Healthcare?

One of the key benefits of private 5G networks is that they offer low-latency and high-bandwidth connectivity, so can support a range of innovative applications.

For healthcare today, such applications include the transmitting high-resolution medical images in real-time, enabling remote consultations between doctors and patients, and supporting telemedicine.

Let’s take a closer look at some private 5G use cases and how the technology is supporting innovative healthcare solutions:

Secure and fortified comms within hospital

Some 39 million individuals were affected by healthcare data breaches in the US so far this year, according to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) data breach portal. It is a sector increasingly under threat from cyber criminals, with a reported 44% increase in attacks last year. Known critical vulnerabilities were found in 53% of digital medical devices and other internet-connected products in hospitals, according to FBI research.

The rising cyber threat to hospitals has meant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will now require medical devices to meet specific cybersecurity guidelines.

Private 5G has a clear role to play by increasing the security of a hospital’s network and thus better protecting patient data and devices.

Telemedicine

Telemedicine has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it allows patients to receive care from anywhere, at any time. Private 5G networks can support telemedicine applications by providing the high-speed connectivity necessary for video consultations, remote monitoring of patient data, and other telemedicine services.

But to realise the full potential of private 5G networks when it comes to telemedicine also means ensuring network security and data privacy is a top priority. Medical records are considered to be some of the most sensitive data existing today. So, in order for 5G to facilitate telemedicine and improve healthcare capabilities, data must be protected from cyberattacks at all times.

Here, machine learning (ML) and AI can play a big role in identifying and mitigating cyber-incidents. With high levels of automated intelligence and threat management capacities, private 5G use cases in healthcare can be secured – from traffic analysis to threat identification and isolation.

Medical Data Transfer: Imaging, Wearables and IoT Devices

Private 5G networks can provide the low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity required to transmit high-resolution images or large quantities of data in real-time. In practice, this means healthcare professionals can make accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions based on fast, state-of-the-art medical imaging.

Likewise, wearable devices and IoT sensors are becoming increasingly popular in healthcare as they can provide valuable data on patients’ health and wellbeing. Healthcare professionals can use private 5G networks to support these devices with the low-latency connectivity required to continuously transmit data in real-time – enabling doctors and caregivers to make more informed decisions about patient care.

Remote-assisted surgery

Specialist surgeries will not necessarily have to be carried out in one hospital, widening access to healthcare for the public.

The connectivity and reliability of private 5G enables expert surgeons to remotely assist procedures, without the need to be physically present in the same location.

“Looking more to the future, PWC’s 5G in Healthcare report illustrates the opportunity for private 5G networks to aid complex operations when using next-generation technology in the future – from artificial intelligence (AI) to augmented reality, virtual reality and robotic equipment.”

What Are the Benefits of Private 5G For Healthcare?

Private 5G networks offer a range of benefits for the healthcare industry, including faster, more reliable connectivity with high-bandwidth and low-latency to support a range of innovative healthcare applications and services.

One particular area that serves to benefit from private 5G networks is patient outcomes. With healthcare professionals empowered to make more informed decisions about patient care, they can foster more improved outcomes and better overall health. Similarly, private 5G networks can help streamline workflows and reduce administrative overhead, increasing efficiencies across the healthcare sector.

But with advanced technology comes the need for enhanced security. 5G, alongside other technologies such as AI or ML, can enable cutting-edge protection with encryption and access controls – helping to protect patient data and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

The Future of Healthcare with Private 5G Networks

Today’s healthcare environment is grappling with reduced funding and increased pressure to deliver at pace. But no person is the same, so alongside enhanced data analytics to support diagnostics and procedures, the sector is trying to deliver more personalised, customisable healthcare and treatments.

Private 5G networks can be customised to meet the specific needs of a healthcare organisation based on a combination of factors, including applications, network architecture, speed, scale and budget.

When it comes to the healthcare sector and private 5G networks, finding the right partner to support deployment – as well as continued management post-rollout – is fundamental to ensuring the longevity of 5G-enabled solutions.

Innovation in healthcare won’t stand still. Healthcare providers need to know they have the flexibility to evolve and adapt without being tied to a particular solution or vendor. For instance, choosing a technology partner that’s agnostic to hardware or network equipment so any combination of equipment can be implemented. That way, the latest solutions will always be available for healthcare professionals and patients today, and tomorrow.

To learn more about Tata Communications Private 5G Network, click here.

The post Private 5G Use Cases & Benefits for Healthcare Sector appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The mining industry is one of the most important industries in modern civilisation. Employing hundreds of thousands of workers and providing mined materials required for constructing roads and hospitals, building automobiles and houses, making computers and satellites, and even generating electricity.

However, due to the tough working conditions in mines, the industry isn’t without its challenges. For instance, miners make up 1% of the global workforce, yet they account for 8% of fatal accidents, according to the International Labour Organisation. This is why implementing the right technology like Private 5G to ensure the safety of miners and the efficiency of the mining process is crucial.

What is a private 5G network?

Private 5G networks are essentially local area networks (LANs) that use 5G technology to provide high-speed wireless connectivity within a specific area.

The key advantage of private 5G networks over traditional Wi-Fi or cellular networks is that they offer greater reliability, speed, and security.

Private 5G networks use a dedicated spectrum and can be customised to the specific needs of the mining operation, providing a level of flexibility and control that isn’t possible with public cellular networks.

Benefits of using private 5G networks in the mining industry

1. One of the key advantages of private 5G networks in the mining industry is the ability to connect a wide range of devices and sensors. In a mining operation, there are numerous devices and sensors that need to be connected to ensure safety and efficiency. These include everything from underground sensors to autonomous vehicles and drones. With a private 5G network, all these devices can be connected seamlessly, providing real-time data and insights that improve the efficiency and safety of the mining operation.

“With real-time data and insights, mining companies can optimise their operations, reducing waste and increasing productivity.”

For example, sensors can be used to monitor the quality of ore as it’s extracted, allowing miners to adjust their processes in real-time to ensure the highest quality output. Also, when coupled with machine learning (ML) autonomous vehicles will be even more responsive to their surroundings and can be used to transport materials, reducing the need for human intervention. And as a result, improving the efficiency of mining operations.

On top of this, having real-time data and insights means mining companies can identify potential safety hazards before they become a problem. For instance, sensors can be used to monitor the air quality in a mine, alerting workers to any potential danger. And autonomous vehicles can also be used to transport materials, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries.

2. Another advantage of private 5G networks is the ability to provide high-quality video streaming. In a mining operation, there are often areas that are difficult to access or dangerous for workers.

“With high-quality video streaming, workers can remotely monitor these areas, improving safety and reducing the risk of accidents.”

For example, miners can use drones to inspect the roof of a mine, providing a detailed view of any potential hazards without putting anyone in danger.

Also, having tech such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) embedded into the private 5G network will optimise the network performance and enhance its capabilities. Ensuring that the huge amounts of data generated by the network provides insights into network usage patterns, traffic congestion, and performance issues – all of which means resources can be allocated efficiently, resulting in faster speeds and a better user experience.

3. Another benefit of using private 5G networks in mining is the ability to provide workers with better communication tools. In a mining operation, workers are often spread out across a large area, making communication difficult. With private 5G networks, workers can use high-quality voice and video communication devices, improving collaboration between colleagues and reducing the risk of misunderstandings. This is especially important in emergency situations, where fast and effective communication can be the difference between life and death.

“While there remain other challenges that leaders in the industry must tackle to make mining safer for workers and their partners, implementing next generation technology such as private 5G networks will optimise mining operations, enhance safety, reduce waste and increasing productivity.”

Not to mention the possibility of providing faster, more reliable, and safer connectivity to remote mine sites.

But mining companies are ill-equipped to facilitate this transformation on their own. They need to partner with managed service providers – such as Tata Communications – who are able to deploy private 5G networks, along with other connectivity options including managed WiFi, cellular IoT and LP-WAN services. Having the flexibility of a multi-technology approach accompanied by an agnostic outlook to hardware and network equipment, means any combination of equipment can be implemented, without a mining company being tied to a particular vendor.

Tata Communications also provides access to command-and-control functions via a cloud-based portal, ensuring that one, or multiple private networks can be implemented, all providing a unified view and control system.

To learn more about how Tata Communications helps enterprises in sectors such as mining, click here.

The post Mining: Private 5G key to improving safety, efficiency & productivity appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Over a decade ago, a McKinsey report showed that the productivity of a team increases by 20-25% through improved communication and collaboration. In a more recent study published in early 2023, leaders reported increased productivity (72%), increased customer satisfaction (63%), and increased employee confidence (60%) as the top benefits of effective business communication – a multi-fold increase over ten years!

Yet, the lack of good business communication and collaboration tools continues to pose a problem for businesses, more so due to the hybrid nature of work that is here to stay. This is where a comprehensive collaboration platform can make all the difference.

Today, the use of unified communications (UC), which is essentially the integration of all business communications channels into one platform or solution, is helping organisations streamline all their communications, whether internal or external. In addition to being cost effective and facilitating better collaboration across the hybrid workforce, this can help companies achieve increased employee and business productivity.

Enhanced Collaboration and Team Productivity

Let’s start with employees. With most companies having adopted a hybrid working model, unless employees have the ability to communicate and collaborate efficiently, their productivity – and by extension, that of the business – will suffer.

Working collaboratively on documents and projects, holding brainstorming sessions, hosting and attending virtual meetings from anywhere and using a variety of devices, are all benefits that they get from a good UC solution. In addition, the flexibility, productivity and responsiveness they gain due to the ability to stay connected on the go are invaluable.

In a recent survey conducted by Microsoft, 85% of employees surveyed named business collaboration tools as one of the most essential parts of their company’s digital transformation efforts, with 86% saying that a single, centralised platform or application where teams can collaborate in multiple ways would be ideal.

Benefits to the Organisation

From the organisation’s viewpoint, team productivity and engagement improves as employees are empowered with easy access to the tools they need to perform well at their work. Streamlined communication across integrated systems and features of a good UC solution such as project management, task assignment, and tracking and analytical functionalities further improve business efficiency.

Cost savings are achieved in multiple ways: business continuity is ensured, efficient collaboration methods reduce the need for business travel, and the UC solution also removes the need for multiple communications tools and their associated costs. Real-time data sharing enables quick decision-making and responsiveness to market changes and client needs.

“UC tools can scale as the company grows, adapting to changing business needs and accommodating a larger workforce or an expanding customer base.”

They optimally integrate with emerging technologies, ensuring the company stays up-to-date with the latest advancements and trends in communication and collaboration.

Essential requirements for optimal collaboration

The collaboration needs of companies are both numerous and complex, often entailing working across multiple geographies which can bring in compliance and regulatory issues to handle; a hybrid model of work that involves diverse locations and devices; interoperability between multiple vendors, systems and technologies which ensures consistent user experiences; management of multiple access numbers and complex bandwidth provisioning and so on. Ensuring security across all of these is an added issue.

A superior unified collaboration solution like Tata Communications GlobalRapide can handle all of these requirements, acting as a single, end-to-end go-to partner for companies that need to ensure zero-risk cloud UC/collaboration, network, voice, migration and managed services and tools at a global scale.

Business Communication through Tata Communications JAMVEE

Effective business communication should involve all employees in an organisation – including the frontline and field force.

“Traditional full-suite collaboration suites, allowing offnet calling capability, may be too expensive to be rolled out to all employees, and that is when a business phone application is highly relevant.”

If employees are provided an app that allows them to keep their personal and business profiles separate, and contact co-workers through on-net or off-net dialling, or through a closed user group (CUG) call, the organisation can ensure that they have the required business control while providing optimal employee experience.

Tata Communications JAMVEE is a cloud-based business phone application that can be deployed easily on iOS, Android, Desktop and WebRTC. It provides lower total cost of ownership when compared to its full-suite counterparts, and can be used even by organisations who are slowly moving to the cloud.

By adding JAMVEE to its portfolio, Tata Communications addresses the pressing market need for unified communications across different types of organisations and employee types.

Business productivity comprises the efficient use of resources and optimal output through effective processes, technology, and workforce management, which maximises profits and helps achieve organisational goals. Unified Collaboration tools fundamentally transform how businesses operate, promoting efficient communication, fostering collaboration, and ultimately driving increased productivity and success in today’s competitive business landscape.

To learn more about how Tata Communications GlobalRapide can improve business productivity for your organisation, click here.

The post Maximising Business Productivity with Unified Communications appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

It is a raging debate. The business world is divided on this. Cloud computing has, no doubt, created powerful value propositions for global enterprises. Cloud-hosted digital environments offer unmatched scalability, flexibility, and cost efficiencies to future-facing organisations. However, despite its numerous benefits, certain difficult-to-ignore challenges have also emerged along the way. This has prompted many companies to explore cloud repatriation strategies to optimise their business operations. But what is cloud repatriation? And, what makes it worth our while?

Simply put, repatriation is the process of moving data and applications from a public cloud back to an organisation’s on-premises data centre, private cloud, or to its hosting service provider. But it is not a simple process. Given that the ultimate objective is to identify and implement the most optimised architecture that effectively supports our business needs and objectives, it just may work better for some businesses, in some instances.

Why we need to reclaim cloud mastery: Repatriation as an optimisation strategy

For many enterprises, the bevy of challenges associated with leveraging public cloud may outpace its perceived benefits. Enterprises are clearly concerned about multiple factors associated with cloud usage including their:

• Budgetary outlays: Cloud services can be expensive if not managed efficiently. As per the Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report, a staggering 82% of enterprises identify the management of cloud expenses as their primary challenge. Managing cloud costs effectively becomes complicated due to factors such as storage costs, underutilised resource cost due to infrastructure sprawls, regulatory compliance, and data transfer expenses etc.
• Cloud security vulnerabilities: 79% of businesses harbour apprehensions about cloud security. Moving data or applications back to on-premises infrastructure, on the other hand, empowers businesses with increased control over their security infrastructure. This control extends to areas such as network configurations, access controls, encryption methods, and physical security measures.
• Limited know-how: Navigating the cloud on your own can be quite a challenge for enterprises, akin to finding your way in a new city without a map or local guide. No wonder, 78% of companies admit to grappling with the issue of insufficient resources and expertise in the cloud.
• Vendor lock-in periods: This has added another layer of complexity by making businesses overly dependent on a single cloud provider for their infrastructure, services, or applications. They find it difficult to move their data and applications to a cloud of their choice. In such cases, they may decide to move back their data and applications to avoid vendor lock-in.
• Poor data sovereignty: In the modern corporate landscape, safeguarding data, adhering to the regulations of the country in which the data is located, and mitigating leakage risks are critical. A remote cloud environment may undermine data sovereignty and may not comply with local data protection regulations. Enterprises also may lack control over data storage and processing across different jurisdictions.
• Latency and performance: Near-edge or on-premises edge locations are emerging as ideal destinations for repatriated workloads. These locations provide benefits such as minimised latency, on-site data processing capabilities for real-time applications, and support for Internet of Things (IoT) use cases.

In this scenario, cloud repatriation is quickly emerging as a viable business growth strategy. It involves transferring data and applications from a public cloud to an organization’s on-premises data centre, private cloud, or hosting service provider.

Optimising your cloud presence with repatriation

Cloud optimisation aims to maximise efficiency and cost-effectiveness in using cloud computing resources. Therefore, repatriation can manifest in different forms like multi-tenanted private cloud, hosted private cloud, and alternative deployment models.

According to a recent IDC study, customers are finding it extremely compelling to run existing as well as modern born-in-the-cloud workloads in a private cloud environment versus running them on public cloud. Responding to this, system vendors are now providing unified management platforms that offer observability, management, and provisioning capabilities. These solutions allow businesses to access the same user experience as public clouds within their dedicated infrastructure. According to the study, by 2024, the proportion of mission-critical applications running on dedicated traditional data centres will see a decline from 30% currently to 28% while modernised versions of these applications running on private cloud will see an increase to 26%.

Modern enterprises may want to keep certain workloads on-premises while migrating others to the cloud without compromising their data. This allows them to harness the advantages of both environments. So, they need to assess their requirements to determine the best approach to cloud optimisation. But repatriation is a complex process. While organisations traverse this journey to optimise their cloud presence, it inevitably leads into rearchitecting of the network infrastructure and revisiting the existing security solution architecture. Hence, importance of a competent partner who can help an organisation navigate the maze at this stage cannot be overstated.

To learn how Tata Communications helps you in your repatriation journey, click here.

The post Embracing repatriation for cloud optimisation: Reclaiming control appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

All of these entities have operations spread over different countries, and were struggling with siloed communication set-ups, a need for streamlined communication across all locations, and need for (preferably) a single solution or platform that would enable hybrid work, ensure business continuity, increase efficiency, and decrease costs.

The airline, for instance, was using multiple PBXs (Private Branch Exchanges) each serving its own region (country). It neither had the ability to provide an effective unified collaboration medium, nor to support work from home—an essential in these times of hybrid work. Furthermore, the separate communications systems being used not only led to wasted resources and duplication of work, but also meant work was being done in silos with no standardised communications across locations.

“The management realised the need for a single service provider that offered a unified and centralised cloud calling solution to streamline their communications across geographies.”

This solution needed to include voice calling, text messaging, virtual meetings, and voice mail.

The financial company was using multiple fragmented collaborative solutions and wanted to unify them into a single standard platform for a consistent user experience.

Here, the issues they faced included the difficulties of managing several carriers across geographies, requirement for stringent SLAs and governance support, and having to manage customised telephony-related processes. They had a pressing need for a unified communications architecture with built-in automation.

The IT services company was looking for solutions in four main areas:

• Consolidating telecom services being provided by multiple vendors by moving to a single provider that could cover all these services
• Support with migrating from legacy TDM (Time division multiplexing) infrastructure to SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and number portability
• Support with acquiring a geo-redundant architecture with assured high voice quality
• End-to-end, best-in-class services

These enterprises all chose a comprehensive suite of solutions from a top service provider, with the ability to address each of their requirements and more.  The airline, for example, chose an end-to-end solution that provided a Cloud Calling platform powered by Cisco Webex technology, managed services, access network and domestic/international PSTN globally. In addition to the IP Phones, the users were offered unified soft-clients for laptops and smartphones, which enabled them to avail messaging, space/room, calling, meeting, desktop and file sharing, and voice mail functionalities. The business impact was impressive:

• Effective, borderless communication and collaboration and ability to work from home ensured business continuity, boosted employee productivity and enhanced the airline’s operational efficiency.
• The centralised management and simplified platform reduced wastage of resources and effort duplication, allowing employees to focus on core business activities.
• The single provider set-up significantly reduced costs.
• The uptime of 99.99% ensured non-disruptive user experience
• And the global coverage meant that the airline’s upcoming plans to move its employees in US, Europe and APAC to cloud were also covered.

Using the same suite of solutions, the financial company received bundled service capabilities and integrated managed services for migration with complete transition support that included user training, end-to-end management and automation through a single partner. The single-pane-of-glass intelligent monitoring, analytics, advanced reporting and automation ensured reduced Mean Time to Restore due to auto diagnosis of incidents, dedicated governance and better visibility and control, continual improvement through daily/weekly tracker and raid log reviews. The client’s telephony costs reduced by 22% since it was paying for only what it used. Employees were able to work from anywhere without any issues.

Now let’s take a look at the IT company that was looking for solutions to a set of different issues being faced. It gained a single service provider that enabled it to port all phone numbers to cloud infrastructure and consolidate all PRIs (Primary Rate Interfaces) to SIP breakout on-cloud, a customer portal that enabled reporting, ordering, billing, ticketing and user management, and a centralised architecture, to 24x7x365 service support desk and 99.99% SLA to support business continuity.

“In today’s world of hybrid work, changing customer expectations and the need to be “always on”, the key to success is seamless communication and collaboration.”

As part of their digitalisation journey, enterprises are moving towards unified communications solutions on the cloud. This is a complex migration process while establishing the overall infrastructure and regulatory understanding to offer their services in highly regulated countries. Most companies do not have the in-house expertise to handle this complexity.

My clients have told me that the sheer geographical size and number of telecom circles, coupled with stringent telecom regulations, make India a complex market when it comes to Unified Communications (UC) deployments. And they look for a trusted advisor with experience and expertise as their UC partner. Tata Communications has worked with multiple Indian and global clients and helped improve their employee experience by streamlining their voice infrastructure or migrating seamlessly to a cloud collaboration suite.

Tata Communications GlobalRapide is a comprehensive platform that helps enterprises migrate efficiently from legacy systems to a single cloud-based platform, weaving in the cloud voice layer and managed services in a seamless manner. It standardises the user experience and manages multiple UCaaS products, consolidating carriers and vendors and having a geo-redundant architecture while ensuring high voice quality. Regional complexities are simplified with adherence to compliance and security requirements and hundreds of certified and experienced professionals who provide managed services for our clients as the first point of contact, thus fulfilling the integrated SLA that customers look for. All of this is underpinned by the Tier-1 voice infrastructure that Tata Communications provides in the cloud voice layer of Tata Communications GlobalRapide.

To learn more about how to elevate your employee experience in India through collaboration technology, click here.

The post Connecting your workforce through Unified Collaboration technology appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Various frauds can be perpetuated on the voice network, threatening organisations with severe financial and reputation damage in addition to tremendously wasted resources. According to CFCA (Communications Fraud Control Association) & numerous fraud prevention associations, globally, voice fraud amounts to billions in losses yearly.

In the first of a series of blog posts, let me delve into an interesting scenario.

“Voice fraud can be divided into two distinct parts: intrusion and traffic generation.”

An intrusion occurs when there is a breach of an organisation’s telecom system due to a lack of configuration/security. Once a customer has fallen victim to an intrusion, hackers will attempt to monetise the breach. Hackers know they have a limited time frame to exploit the compromised system before being detected. They are in a race against time and are unaware about what destinations the customer’s carrier(s) have opened on their behalf.

What occurs next is a flurry of activity – namely, the hacker generating massive call attempts to identify what destinations/ number ranges are ‘opened’ upstream. This frantic action is performed by dialer software to an extensively wide array of disparate destinations & numbers, in an intense manner. This is where knowing what to look for and speed of alerting is paramount.

“The Tata Communications Cloud Voice layer of GlobalRapide has an AI-driven, multi-layered fraud detection and prevention approach.”

Dialer Detector, our patent-pending solution, is focused solely on detecting and analysing machine or dialer generated traffic – also called robocalling. This is done even before minutes materialise and prior to initiating the invoicing process. It deploys layered algorithmic rules to trigger in real-time accurate detailed alerts for our customers, letting them know that fraudulent actions are in progress.

Dialer Detector, when used in conjunction with other fraud prevention techniques becomes Tata Communications customisable, multi-layered offering to predict, prevent and contain fraud. The entire process stems from having gained a deep understanding over many years about the operating processes followed by hackers. We block 6 million fraud call attempts a month and conduct more than 4 million tests a year for quality and fraud prevention. All of these efforts have resulted in preventing more than $800 million fraud for our customers in a 12-month period.

Visit our webpage to learn how your business can be protected against voice fraud.

The post How to prevent voice fraud before it occurs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Reliable and high-speed internet connectivity fuels productivity, collaboration, and innovation, making it crucial for businesses to choose an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that can meet their specific needs. We list down five critical factors one must keep in mind when choosing Internet broadband for enterprises in India.

Catering to Business Requirements

Each enterprise has their own distinct internet requirements, depending on the size, industry, and operational needs. They may have their branch location all over India, often extending to Tier 3 and 4 cities depending on the need. It becomes difficult in such a situation to reach out to each of the local providers in that region and manage the disparate network.

“The provider should recognise this diversity and offer a solution that will cater to the unique demands of each business.”

Whether it’s a multinational corporation with complex networking requirements or a rapidly growing startup seeking scalable bandwidth, the chosen provider should have the expertise and flexibility to design custom internet solutions that align with specific business objectives.

Unmatched Support

More offices mean more reliance on different providers. Imagine a situation with one or more branches without internet, where the time taken to reach out to the specific provider support helpline means loss in business hours. It also results in delayed tasks, resource underutilization ultimately reducing the profit margin irrespective of the technology investment. One aspect that can set a provider apart from other internet service providers is comprehensive support. Understanding the urgency and critical nature of uninterrupted internet services for enterprises, the provider should have an advanced support process that ensures swift response times and streamlined issue resolution.

Security and Compliance

In today’s cyber threat landscape, data security and regulatory compliance are paramount concerns for enterprises. The provider should understand these challenges and implement robust security measures to protect businesses against cyber threats. One office down in a particular location can have a cascading effect on all the other offices. From advanced firewalls to encrypted connections, the provider should ensure that data transmission remains secure, safeguarding sensitive business information. Additionally, they should adhere to industry-specific compliance regulations, providing peace of mind to enterprises operating in regulated sectors.

The Experience Factor

When it comes to selecting an ISP for enterprise internet broadband, experience matters. Enterprises require a single window for easier and swift ordering, deployment, and support of services to ensure that mission-critical applications are not compromised. An enterprise with its extensive presence in India cannot have a situation of managing each offices’ configuration individually. This not only results in increased costs but also reduces the efficiency of the enterprises. Managing multiple partners region-wise simply adds to the overheads of enterprises.

“The selected provider should preferably have a rich history of providing internet services to named enterprises across India and a legacy of state-of -art enterprise grade support in the field of internet services.”

It should have a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by enterprises and the importance of reliable, scalable, and secure internet connectivity.

Partnership with Local Providers

While local internet providers may appear convenient, they often struggle to meet the demands of enterprises due to their limited infrastructure and capabilities. Consider the scenario where an enterprise is reaching out to individual local providers who have their different pricing, performance, and support commitments.

Some of these providers may also lack the necessary bandwidth, scalability, and reliability required to support mission-critical operations. One needs a provider which has strong partnership with the local providers to provide a one-stop-shop answer and help elevate the experience irrespective of how remote the location might be.

Tata Communications, with pan-India broadband internet coverage of more than 2,100 cities, through a strong partner ecosystem (80+ partner ISPs) can seamlessly handle the bandwidth requirements of enterprises, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity and superior performance.

When it comes to internet broadband services for enterprises in India, choosing the right ISP can make all the difference. The provider’s experience, a dedicated support desk, tailored solutions, and unwavering commitment to security and compliance should be the key factors while choosing the service. While these points cover the essentials, providers who can provide a digital fabric can unlock a whole new level for enterprises. Don’t settle for anyone when your enterprise deserves the best.

To learn more on how we help organisations make the right decision when it comes to internet, click here.

The post 5 factors to consider when choosing broadband in India for enterprises appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

As organisations look at increasing productivity, profitability, and growth, the need for a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective integrated collaboration & communications solution has become clear.

BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) is one such solution, with several benefits:

• Flexibility: With BYOC, businesses can choose their own carriers and collaboration providers, allowing them to customize solutions based on the set-up.
• Scalability: BYOC is a cloud-based platform that can easily scale up or down to meet changing business needs, without requiring significant investment in infrastructure or resources.
• Enhanced experience: BYOC offers a range of features and integrations that can help businesses create engaging and personalized workforce experiences across multiple channels, including voice, video, messaging, and more.

Tata Communications and Zoom have partnered for BYOC, where customers who use Zoom for collaboration are offered Tata Communications cloud voice infrastructure as a carrier. This partnership helps organisations by offering them the following benefits:

• Global reach: Tata Communications global network infrastructure provides businesses with a reliable and secure way to connect with customers and partners across multiple locations and time zones, without having to manage multiple carriers or networks.
• Cost-effective: BYOC helps organisations reduce their communications costs by leveraging Tata Communications economies of scale and advanced technology solutions.
• Improved efficiency: The BYOC solution capitalises on the existing voice network efficiency and utilisation, thus helping to reduce costs, and increase operational efficiency for the business.
• Customisable solutions: The Tata Communications BYOC platform is highly customisable, which allows businesses to integrate its existing Zoom relationships and communications solutions into the Tata Communications ecosystem. This helps businesses create solutions that meet their unique needs and preferences, thus providing them with a competitive advantage.
• Enhanced customer experience: Tata Communications BYOC offers seamless integration, where organisations can quickly deploy and scale their communications solutions while maintaining control and flexibility. Tata Communications global network infrastructure offers high-speed and low-latency connectivity, which can help ensure smooth and reliable conferencing experiences.
• Fraud prevention: The Tata Communications voice network offers advanced fraud management to protect against voice fraud. This capability, enabled for all cloud voice customers, is designed to detect malicious diallers and prevent potential losses before voice minutes are lost.
• Increased scalability: Tata Communications BYOC can easily scale up or down to meet changing business needs, allowing businesses to seamlessly add new users and locations without compromising on performance.
• PSTN Reach: Tata Communications offers PSTN replacement services across 32 countries. Tata Communications Global Voice network reaches 200+ countries, providing businesses with a reliable and secure way to connect with customers and partners around the world. Tata Communications provides a dedicated Service Delivery team for the smooth migration of services, including DID porting for each location.
• Proactive monitoring and support: Tata Communications provides proactive monitoring and support for its BYOC solutions, ensuring that any issues or disruptions are quickly identified and resolved.

To learn more about Tata Communications BYOC (Bring Your own carrier), click here.

The post Bring Your Own Carrier to Zoom: A Guide to Tata Communications BYOC appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

As the source code is publicly available, developers can modify, customise, and improve the software to meet their specific needs. This results in increased flexibility and control over the software, making it easier to integrate with other tools and systems. However, managing open-source software can be challenging for many organisations, especially when it comes to security, compatibility, and scalability. To address these challenges, many businesses are turning to managed open-source platform services, which provide seamless technical support, maintenance, and management of open-source software.

Choosing a managed open-source platform service can be a smart move for businesses seeking to streamline the operations of managing the platform service and focus on their core operations. By outsourcing the management of their open-source software to a third-party provider, businesses can save time, reduce costs, and benefit from the provider’s expertise and support.

With a managed service, businesses can avoid the burden of managing and maintaining complex infrastructure, updates and upgrades, security, and troubleshooting, allowing them to focus on their core products and achieve their business objectives.

What is Open Source?

Open-source software is often developed collaboratively by a community of developers and is typically licensed under an Open Source license, which allows users to freely modify and distribute the software as long as they adhere to certain conditions. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the source code is not shared and controlled by the software vendor.

Here are some examples of open-source services based on various use cases:

Web Development: Open-source services like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla allow users to create websites without any coding knowledge. These services offer customisable templates, plugins, and themes that can be used to create a unique website.

Cloud Computing: Open-source software like OpenStack and Kubernetes are widely adopted for managing cloud and workloads.

Data Analytics: Open-source services like Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark are used for big data analytics. These services allow users to process large amounts of data and derive insights that can be used for business intelligence and decision-making.

Increased Usage of Free and Open-Source Platform Services

The adoption of open-source technology has grown significantly over the past few years, and this demand is expected to grow in the future.

The adoption of open-source software has become a popular choice among organisations for various reasons. The primary advantage of using open-source services, as cited by 68% of organisations in a recent survey by Opensource.com, is cost and time savings. By leveraging existing open-source code, developers can significantly reduce the time spent writing new code from scratch, resulting in significant cost reduction.

In addition, 48% of the organisations reported that using open-source services increased their app development and maintenance efficiency.

“With open-source software, developers can access a vast library of pre-existing code and tools, which can help streamline the development process and reduce the overall workload.”

These benefits, coupled with the flexibility and security that open-source software provides, have led to its increasing adoption in various industries.

While open-source software offers many benefits, managing it can be challenging for many businesses. The responsibility of maintaining, securing, and updating the software can be a daunting task, especially for organisations with limited resources and expertise. This is where managed open-source platform services come into play.

Managed open-source platform services provide businesses with a fully managed solution that allows them to focus on their core product development while leaving the management and operations to the experts. This has led to a surge in the adoption of open-source platform services, from start-ups to large enterprises.

Introducing Managed Open-Source Platform Services

As more businesses turn to open-source technology to power their products and solutions, managed open-source platform services are emerging as a powerful solution that offers the best of both worlds: the flexibility of open-source software, along with the comprehensive support and security of a managed service provider.

With managed open-source platform services, businesses can leverage open-source software’s full potential without worrying about installation, configuration, updates, security, and ongoing maintenance.

“By partnering with a managed service provider, businesses can benefit from various managed open-source platform services offered, like database management, containerisation, DevOps, and much more.”

Open-Source vs Managed Open-Source Platform Services

Here are some of the salient points when comparing open-source software with managed open-source platform services for businesses.:

Open-Source Software:

• Available for free or low cost, as the software is freely available for download and use
• Highly customisable but requires significant technical expertise for developing products and solutions using native source code.
• Community-driven support may be available through forums, online documentation, and user groups
• Requires businesses to invest in additional security measures for making code free of vulnerabilities and compliant with security standards
• Requires businesses to handle installation, configuration, and maintenance, which can be time-consuming and costly

Managed Open-Source Platform Services:

• Offered as a subscription-based service, with varying costs depending on usage and support levels
• Managed by a third-party provider, which handles all aspects of installation, configuration, maintenance, updates, and product continuity support
• Highly scalable and standardised that can be consumed as a service, which reduces the total cost of development for businesses, enabling them to bring their products or services to market faster.
• Provides dedicated technical support, with access to experts who can help resolve issues and provide guidance on best practices
• Includes additional managed services around security, such as data encryption to protect against cyber threats, regular backups, and proactive monitoring.
• Offers SLAs (Service Level Agreements) to ensure uptime, performance, and availability, reducing the risk of downtime and business impact.
• Avoid vendor Lock-in since the source code is freely available and accessible, making it easy for businesses to switch providers.

By working with a managed service provider like Tata Communications, businesses can build on open-source software while still benefiting from the managed platform services that are offered. Tata Communications IZO Cloud Platform & Services, provides managed platform services that enable businesses to build solutions leveraging it.

Partnering with a managed open-source services provider can help businesses unlock the full potential of open-source platform services, enabling modernisation and accelerating their digital transformation journey. With enhanced performance, greater security, and lower costs, businesses can achieve their digital transformation goals with ease and confidence.

In conclusion, businesses that want to harness the benefits of open-source software while minimizing the challenges of managing it in-house should consider partnering with a managed open-source platform service provider. While open-source software offers many advantages, managing it can be complex and resource-intensive, which can detract from a business’s core operations.

“By opting for a managed open-source platform service, businesses can leverage the power of open-source software while enjoying a hassle-free experience.”

With Tata Communications as their partner, businesses can rest assured that they have a trusted partner who will enable them to achieve their digital transformation goals with ease and efficiency.

To learn more on how Tata Communications can help, click here.

The post Why should you choose a managed open-source platform service? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Mobile data, content and applications, as well as hand-held smart devices, cloud computing and big data have opened new dimensions of social communication, new economic opportunities and new business models. This confluence in technologies has also led to a convergence in telecom licensing in some countries, so that various services can be delivered under single license.

India is a highly regulated country from a telecom perspective. For example, domestic PSTN calls cannot be switched using corporate private networks. India as a telecom market is made up of 23 telecom regions and until 2013, each service required service-area-wise dedicated licenses.

In August 2013 the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued guidelines on a new Unified License (UL) approach which looked at providing a single license for all types of telecom services. The DoT then further recommended that Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) should be permitted to provide all services notified in the UL. A VNO can have one Network Service Operator (NSO) per service per circle or can have one NSO pan-India, based on business drivers.

India-based or global enterprises typically want to couple a PSTN calling solution to their cloud communication suite. However, they often do not have the required license to enable telecom services in India, and as this is not their core business, it’s an issue they are not keen to deal with.

“Similarly, there is a significant cost – both in time and investment – in gaining the required regulatory understanding and building the overall infrastructure to enable their services in India.”

Therefore, enterprises usually look for a trusted advisor with experience deploying solutions in the highly regulated Indian market, with the necessary license. The right partner can take care of the complex PSTN piece, leaving the enterprise free to focus on building their application service offering.

Choosing the Right Voice Partner

Cloud-based telephony has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its flexibility, cost-effectiveness and scalability. Organisations can benefit significantly from cloud voice to meet their communications needs, with its advanced features, mobility and improved collaboration enabling enterprises to streamline their communication processes, resulting in increased productivity and better business outcomes.

As organisations explore cloud voice infrastructure to support their communication and collaboration needs, here is a ready reckoner.

“Address technology, business process and security concerns before considering a migration to cloud communications.”

Then, choose the right service and deployment method that best suits the business. Finally, it’s imperative to select a provider with the experience, reliability, and expertise to make the move to cloud communications in India a smooth and productive experience. This partner should be a one-stop shop for:

• Supporting multiplatform collaboration and CX platforms and devices
• Ensuring regulatory compliance
• Enabling easier implementation, fewer integration issues, simpler management, and greater visibility
• Providing managed services through certified support teams
• Managing services all the way from high-speed, highly reliable MPLS connections to the data centre cloud to a full array of business applications
• Ensuring superior connectivity of a global Tier-1 IP backbone linking its data centres

Tata Communications UL-VNO

Tata Communications is now a pan-India UL-VNO license holder with access service authorisation. This enables Tata Communications to offer, in India:

• Location based SIP Trunks
• Domestic tollfree services
• Single number service
• Cloud based SIP trunks with unified communication platforms
• Cloud based SIP trunks with contact centre solutions

Tata Communications has created its VNO voice infrastructure on its own next-gen IP infrastructure, Global SIP Connect. This robust offering streamlines voice and video connectivity with unmatched reliability, scalability, and cost-efficiency. It has an inbuilt intelligent fraud-prevention-as-a-service, which protects enterprises from malicious voice traffic. Tata Communications’ toll-free and audio-conferencing solutions offer enterprises the much-needed flexibility for today’s new ways of working.

Whether enterprises are looking to enable PSTN calling from their Cisco Webex or Microsoft Teams Direct Routing collaboration applications or want the voice foundation for their customer experience solutions, Global SIP Connect enables seamless collaboration and communication through its full suite of cloud communications services. Tata Communications is a leading access operator who can offer centralised SIP trunks connected to the cloud platforms, thus minimising or eliminating the need for equipment at the organisation’s premises.

“As the businesses grow and expand, it becomes crucial to work with a technology partner who is an expert and compliant with the telecom regulations of India and has global connectivity and experience.”

With rich experience, expertise and proven partnerships with more than five global UCC platforms, Tata Communications understands the business needs as employees work in the hybrid mode, and as cloud communication takes centre stage in the employee, customer, supplier and business partner collaboration and communication.

To learn more about voice infrastructure, click here.

The post Enterprise Voice Infrastructure in India appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In the past, connecting people was a quite straightforward process that involved inserting a SIM card in a handset or a smartphone to enable connectivity. No surprise to expect, the SIM was pre-provisioned with a subscription in a secure factory, ready to be activated.

In the early 2010s, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) brought new challenges to this model. The challenges were many. For one thing, plastic SIMs were not compliant with the technical specification and requirements of industrial or automotive applications, where a combination of vibration and high temperature is incompatible with plastic SIM.

Another issue was that pre-provisioned SIMs posed logistical difficulties for many IOT companies as they needed to anticipate the correct operator SIM to insert at manufacturing stage based on the final destination of the connected device. Connectivity was managed globally while connected devices were deployed locally.

Another challenge was that some regulations were mandating local connectivity, forbidding permanent roaming, and requiring OEMs to modify products locally.

Tackling the challenges of the traditional SIM card approach

The 30-year-old traditional SIM card approach suddenly appeared inadequate to deal with these challenges.

The response was of course a mobile communications industry uniting to specify the eSIM. Beyond its initial target of providing a solution for M2M/IoT market segment, the subject rapidly extended to consumer devices. The overall objective was to avoid market fragmentation by delivering a single solution to answer market expectations.

However, eSIM has been specified with the noble intention of replicating the success of the physical SIM model in the digital world.

“In other words, eSIM architecture is vertical, meaning one connected object has one embedded SIM activated with one profile and subscription associated with it.”

In this architecture, the stakeholders in the ecosystem were aiming for a highly flexible, scalable, and somewhat horizontal solution.

Since the eSIM remains a SIM, the verticality of connectivity remains. The traditional SIM and eSIM’s vertical architectures, used to connect devices to cellular networks, only partially fulfil the flexibility required by IoT.

Of course, advanced features like multiple enabled profiles, which allow for multiple subscriptions on a single embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC), technically and commercially, partially resolve the need for universal connectivity, but this is accomplished at the cost of multiple permanent subscriptions.

In a similar manner, the Remote SIM provisioning function allowing post-issuance management of the connectivity embedded into the SIM offers an additional layer of flexibility but many Communications Service Providers remain only partially satisfied. It has become increasingly apparent that a broader, more comprehensive approach was needed to resolve the puzzle.

Addressing the need for on-demand, purpose-built connectivity

Different approaches have been tried to address the need for on-demand, purpose-built connectivity in a secure and scalable way.

With the objective to provide an industrial-grade answer to this question, Tata Communications and its subsidiary Oasis Smart SIM have taken an approach that moves the SIM function into a secure cloud environment, to enable devices to connect to cellular network on demand. This approach relies on the same SIM standards as already used in devices, incorporating the same interfaces such as ISO7816. The architecture is secured using Micron Authenta technology.

This approach, is referred to as CloudSIMTM. It has been designed to bridge the gap between the permanent SIM and eSIM connectivity options available today and the future, flexible approach required by the market. It enables standard modems to provide an on-demand, cellular connection without the need of an (e)SIM physically inserted in the device, opening the door to a large variety of use cases and new business models.

“Successful IoT deployments are often associated with three key words: simplicity, scalability, and security.”

This new approach looks like a promising technology to accelerate connected IoT, keeping the security of the SIM while eliminating the complexity and interoperability challenges posed by the integration of the functionality in the device.

Imagine the possibility of empowering industrial customers to activate connectivity only when needed, providing connectivity exclusively to the devices in use. Envision the incredible simplification and resource savings that would result from optimising connections between assets. That’s what the next generation of connectivity will offer.

A new era is coming, merging the traditional permanent SIM/eSIM connections with a new found remote enabler for on-demand connectivity, provided on a temporary, as-needed basis.

To learn more about how connectivity is driving business transformation, click here.

The post Revolutionising IoT networking for connected devices appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In the manufacturing sector, digitalisation is usually limited to individual production sites or sometimes just a few machines. To leverage the full potential of digital technologies, a business needs to have globally interconnected production that encompasses all its plants and branches distributed around the world. While having connected operations is critical to remain competitive and increase agility to address persistent disruptions, it’s not all easy as it sounds.

Fragmented interconnectedness also increases the risk for manufacturers and their production sites to become more vulnerable to disruption, which can lead to global product delays or bottlenecks. Hence, in today’s borderless era, it’s a prerequisite for every business in the manufacturing industry to become a digital-first company. And this transformation requires not only the instrumentation of all physical assets, in as real time as possible, but also the reliable and secure collection of data in a unified way for processing and gathering insights.

We recently conducted a study focused on the digitalisation of the Manufacturing sector which shows that while these changes are well underway, only a few businesses have gone through the complete digital transformation process.

“So, what steps do manufacturing companies need to take to reach their digital-first ambitions?”

Efficient and integrated communications strategy

Any manufacturing process must deal with the constant challenges of wear and tear of the machinery, variation in raw materials due to external factors, and actions taken on the shop floor. Given all of these variables, an efficient manufacturing process is important: the goal is to produce the highest quality product in the shortest possible time with the least number of resources. This pursuit of efficiency is driving the investment in IT infrastructure of the manufacturing sector.

Additionally, while remote or hybrid operations gained prominence with the pandemic, manufacturing companies do require at least few workers on the shop floor to physically interact with machines. However, our survey of 186 organisations in the discrete, process and hybrid manufacturing sectors with headquarters and operations, found that many jobs allow some location flexibility, with 80 percent of respondents to our indicating that probably about half of the total workforce will be fully remote over the next three years. Those who work partially on-site will need access to enterprise systems even when they are on the road, which is one of many factors driving the growth of private mobile networks.

“In our survey, more than half of manufacturing companies plan to spend the most on digital collaboration platforms and private mobile networks (4G/5G) for connectivity within offices or work premises.”

They also see unified communications platforms and cloud contact centers for routing customer interactions, call recording and workforce management as important investments.

Accelerate strategic digital transformation

Many manufacturing companies are already on the path to digital transformation, with the first step being the development of a strategy. According to our survey, 8 out of 10 businesses now have a strategy for digital transformation using 5G and automation. The IIoT (Industrial IoT) technology wave has evolved over the past decade and pandemic-driven remote operations further accelerated the need for strategic digital transformation for enterprises. IoT instrumentation of machines and connecting the entire plant with edge and cloud processing is key to keeping operations running smoothly, reducing downtime, increasing throughput, and ensuring efficient use of resources. Control and instrumentation flexibility helps make a manufacturing process more resilient to future challenges.

End-to-end security

While connected operations bring many advantages in terms of agility, efficiency and productivity, they also give rise to plant and data security concerns. As disconnected factory islands become integrated with the rest of the enterprise, the security strategy isn’t just limited to emails, chats and other collaboration tools. Businesses need an integrated security approach that safeguards the data of their employees as well as machines.

Another area of concern is the security of the partner ecosystem.

“In our research, only 17% of respondents chose security of the partner ecosystem (i.e., the supply chain) as a challenge to secure.”

The control of remote users accessing cloud services, on-premises applications and resources as well as data storage and use in cloud services emerged as pressing priorities. This certainly reflects the rapid shift to new, pandemic-induced working strategies that were reactive rather than planned. As digitalisation becomes a necessity, enterprises will also need to increase focus on supply chain security in the near future.

Becoming a digital-first enterprise is a clear mandate for manufacturing companies, but the starting points for digital transformation among different manufacturers may vary. Digital-first business transformation is about making an impact on the bottom line by digitising processes, reinventing workflows and automating to achieve strategic business ambitions including profitability.

To read more from Kim, please read this blog on reimagining hybrid networks. 

The post How to drive a digital-first operating model in manufacturing appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In today’s highly competitive industry landscape, investment in AI is not just hype or a buzzword, but it is a tool which is here to stay and continue transforming businesses to innovate. B2C organisations have pre-dominantly been the early adopters of AI and Machine Learning (ML). Global tech majors are using AI/ML to redefine the ways businesses can extend better customer experience and services to its end customers while delivering multi-bagger returns to its investors. Gradually, industry is finding ways to leverage advantages of AI/ML in B2B as well. The type of business cases is predominantly similar in both B2B and B2C, but may require different data spreads, data labels, features and volume.

Spread of Use Cases

Data

Industry 4.0 has opened plethora of avenues to capture and gather customer centric data, with software, mobile applications, IOT devices, social media and networks generating zeta bytes of data every hour. This customer data, if processed to generate accurate insights, is a potential gold mine. But if decisions are rooted on inaccurate insights, businesses may quickly bleed millions – in revenues as well as in stock evaluations.

“To overcome this conundrum, it is important that organisations gather quality data and build accurate AI/ML algorithm that accurately interpret data contextually, while at the same time, provide meaningful insights that can be harnessed by the organisation.”

Accuracy Targets

While one may argue that projects should strive to achieve highest level of accuracy for the AI/ML algorithms to generate the most accurate insight and flawless decision making.  But that is not the case always. As the accuracy of model depends on quality of data which in turn depends on several dimensions like

• Consistency and completeness of data
• Coverage of data
• Volume of data
• Relevance of data

AI/ML Low Accuracy – risk.

Though the goal is always to design a highly accurate AI/ML algorithm but as mentioned earlier accuracy of model depends on the several factors. There is an inherent risk associated with the models with low accuracy level. Impact of the risk depends on the use case and domain.

• AI model used for designing a health care solution can have no margin of error as it might be matter of life and death.
• A low accuracy recommendation engine on e-commerce site can self-learn based on changing customer behaviour and patterns.
• Shipping and logistics management companies need to model logistics and route plan for perishable and non-perishable consignments differently.
• In telecom sector, there are tough regulatory requirements (like TRAI in India) to provide seamless connectivity to subscribers. This calls for highly accurate network capacity planning AI/ML models.

“At Tata Communications, we use AI/ML is several ways to deliver excellent customer experience and to achieve financial prudence and operational efficiency goals.”

One such area where Tata Communciations is targeting to leverage AI-ML is in meeting the service delivery commitment to customers by ensuring sufficient stock of CPEs inventory is maintained and network capacity augmentation planned in a way that it doesn’t lead to any delivery delays.

An accurate AI-ML model that facilities efficient inventory management and enables time bound network augmentation will deliver multi-fold benefits as listed below –

• Deliver the services to customer on or before time, which will help retain good customer service perception and help in delivering delightful customer experience.
• Develop good understanding of the industry trends of service/product variability requirements and be ready in time for future bandwidth and device requirements.
• Ensure company can direct the operational and capital expense in a way it delivers maximum returns both in terms of customer satisfaction and return on investment.

At Tata Communications, we are committed to deliver enhanced value to our customers.

“AI/ML plays a pivotal role in the way we define and design the cutting edge and futuristic products in the field of IOT, Cloud, connectivity solutions etc. We envisage to keep leveraging AI-ML in way that it helps us deliver the best solutions and services to our existing and future customers.”

For more information on how Tata Communications uses AI and ML, read this blog here. 

The post AI-ML relevance and importance of model accuracy appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

When the pandemic began, many enterprises quickly moved their business operations to the cloud to better manage remote working.

As a result, enterprises had to scale up their remote user connectivity infrastructure so all employees could connect to their business applications while working from home.

However, the updated infrastructure was often layered on top of legacy network architecture, resulting often in inconsistent connectivity performance and thereby impacting employees’ user experience. In fact, end-user complaints about application performance due to excessive slowdowns, network congestion, and performance degradations increased by 60%, Forbes reports, during the lockdowns.

But today, we know the new landscape of hybrid and remote work is here to stay. With the majority (63%) of high-growth companies already adopting a “productivity anywhere” workforce model, according to Accenture, it’s clear this presents a challenge for organisations that haven’t prioritised user experience in the past. So, businesses need to update their network and invest in infrastructural changes that prioritises user experience without compromising on security – regardless of where employees are based. And overcoming this challenge is especially important given that slow or disrupted IT also has a massive impact on a company’s bottom line – with the average UK business experiencing up to 3.5 critical IT incidents a month, which amounts to a loss of £200,000.

Implement the best managed service

Digital transformation is not a one-stop solution as we have all witnessed from the evolving work environment. It is therefore imperative that enterprises struggling with resources – such as time or expertise internally – continuously modernise their infrastructure work with support from experienced providers.

Service providers, such as Tata Communications, are constantly evaluating and adopting new age technologies.

“Whether it’s deploying Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) or Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), they can help organisations effectively manage their network security – keeping employees safe while also ensuring a great user experience.”

In addition, insights from service providers can help support the automatic diagnosis of faults in any network service, flag risks, block suspicious access patterns and rank issues according to severity to ensure organisations have the right technology, such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, in place to enable rapid resolutions that don’t impede on an employee’s user experience.

Continually modernising your network

New ways of working means legacy architecture now face many challenges. And enforcing rigid access rules bound by the physical or virtual walls of an organisation is no longer efficient for distributed users and data. To ensure that a network is secure – and employees can be productive while enjoying a seamless experience – IT leaders must consider investing in technological innovations that will keep their business competitive, while also enabling them to evolve to meet any future developments or demands.

“Tech such as the ZTNA, and SASE offers the direction and guidance for organisations to enhance their end user experience.”

By combining robust security functions with a truly modern network, employees can stay connected and receive rapid access to applications. SASE also continuously monitors activities and devices to secure data wherever it’s accessed, all without compromising user experience.

According to Gartner, at least 60% of enterprises will have explicit strategies and timelines for SASE adoption by 2025. So, there’s no better time than now for enterprises to launch their secure network transformation.

Understanding that distance matters

In our work-from-anywhere era, IT leaders need to wake up to the reality of the internet that distance does matter and think beyond virtual desktops and VPNs, which often provide long-winded, circuitous routes to the company’s business applications, leading to poor or delayed connectivity.

“Instead, progressive IT leaders must choose approaches and solutions that allow an employee working from anywhere in the world to have the same clear, rich, secure and strong connection to their employer’s network that an employee in the HQ city enjoys.”

Doing this ensures an uninterrupted and reliable connectivity and a great user experience. It’s this focus on UX-friendly connectivity that will fuel the next few years of productivity across the globe in a changing work landscape.

A deterministic routing on the internet is the solution to this challenge. IZO Internet WAN with IZO Network Edge provides better user experience to employees in distributed organisations.  Tata Communications solution with NetFoundry as a secure private access device can be offered to IT leaders, to provide a stellar employee remote access experience.

For organisations considering partnership with an expert to manage their distributed and scaled up infrastructure, choosing a service provider that will enable the best user experience for a global internet connectivity is paramount.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our solutions that enable you to provide the best user experience and seamlessly expand your business across the globe.

The post Why prioritising user experience is vital in network connectivity appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Last year I met someone who worked for a large retail bank in South Africa. When she introduced herself, instead of describing her job as a contact centre manager, she spoke from the heart about her purpose – to ensure that no customer who falls into financial difficulty will ever lose their home under her watch.

Now compare this with the worst customer experience we have come across. The clear demarcation between both the scenarios is empathy and emotional intelligence.

“Each customer is highly important to a company and customer loyalty can only be earned by delivering highly personalised experiences every time a customer contacts a business.”

The mindset to increase long-term value for the customers is often missing in business today, but research published by Rob Markey in Harvard Business Review has shown that customer loyalty leader organisations grew their revenue 2.5 times as fast as their industry peers. So how can businesses gain customer loyalty?

Embedding empathy and emotional intelligence into every step of the customer journey  

Customer journeys can be broken into three simple stages:

1 – Research leg: websites visited and online touchpoints

2 – Inbound leg: IVR / Chat Bot / App

3 – Agent leg: routing to an expert to help

A cloud contact centre will address channel choice and route to an expert, but the hard part is to embed emotional intelligence into the process. The key to this is the following:

• Obtaining insights through a pre-integrated contact centre as a service (CCaaS) platform (includes voice and text analytics), that can capture data from customer’s every touchpoint in the research leg
• Avoid silos of technology: if the bot is unable to resolve the customer’s issue, offer contextual routing to a suitably skilled agent
• Retain and provide key customer journey insights to the agent, via a journey management gadget on the agent desktop, together with insights from the customer’s research
• Additionally, customer sentiment and emotion are captured so the agent is fully prepared
• CRM integration to reference the customer’s account history and reason for calling
• The Identification and Verification Process is sped-up when one knows the customer and the context of their inquiry. Multi-factor authentication and biometrics technologies further reduce friction and potentially cost
• Through AI, predictive behavioural routing allows matching of the customer and agent-based on demographics and even personality types
• Knowledge management and FAQs can be embedded into the agent desktop to help resolve a complex query or close a sale in the right call
• Transcription embeds the text of the customer conversation into the CRM record, saving agent effort and wrap time

“Empathy is simply good business. When the employees and contact centre agents are empowered with data and analytics to understand the customer, they do what they do best – build relationships.”

This requires a design thinking approach to the cloud contact centre.

At Tata Communications, we have been designing, delivering, and managing global cloud contact centres for 12 years through our InstaCC^TM CCaaS portfolio. We understand that migrating to the cloud is only the start of your journey and that ultimately, it’s about the empathetic conversations you have and the loyalty you build with your clients and the results this achieves for your business.

Learn more at https://www.tatacommunications.com/solutions/unified-communications/contact-centre-as-a-service/

The post Driving loyalty and engagement with empathetic customer experience appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

With business strategies pivoted on customer-centricity, organisations are harnessing the power of technology to deliver authentic and tailored experiences for their customers. This is the world of hyper-personalisation where targeted experiences and meaningful interactions with the customers are created with the help of advanced technologies that are elevating the end-user experience.

The earliest adopters of technology such as banking and finance industries are accelerating the holistic adoption of next generation technologies to offer the most personalised financial experience to the new-age customers.

“By capitalising the intelligence on the generated customer data and a scalable, secure and compliant digital venue for execution, financial institutions are addressing these needs and becoming the trusted advisors.”

Some of the key considerations to make the financial services ecosystem more robust, and to leverage the data effectively for hyper-personalisation include:

Cohesive IT systems: Financial services IT hosts valuable customer data which when seamlessly integrated can extract data values that can help build an in-depth consumer profile for a hyper-connected experience.

Compliant and secure platform: Data privacy and hyper-personalisation sit at opposite ends of the spectrum. While there is an expectation of delivering a highly personalised customer experience, it is also accompanied by a strong ask for data privacy. Thus, organisations need to adopt the right digital platforms which enable them to innovate while meeting the regulatory compliance guidelines.

Customisation on cohesive and complaint cloud

Banks are exploring new business frontiers by striking the right blend of cloud solutions and enhanced security. A cloud transformation can alter challenges into opportunities aiding a seamless and personalised customer experience through following features:

Unified Cloud Platform – This can dissolve the technological barriers of collaboration by providing a single platform for gathering, segmenting and integrating data from all first party, second party and third-party domains. It helps in homogenising the consolidated data pool, making it easier for computing and analysing as it now provides a 360-degree view of the organisation. This data integration ensures harnessing the utmost potential of data resulting in better product adoption and customer retention rate.

“The critical data analytics facilitated through a comprehensive cloud platform can drive business innovation along with agility and scalability.”

Privacy and security – Establishing digital trust is a key imperative for all banks. Building a highly resilient, agile and compliant platform from the ground can come attached with exorbitant prices. By investing in a security-rich financial cloud, organisations can take off the burden of hosting these services by themselves. This will allow them to pivot their focus on bettering their customer experience while remaining untroubled by additional responsibilities such as upgrading its security services regularly to meet with the constantly updating regulatory standards.

Also, as data travels across the world, abiding by the privacy laws become all the more important. Considering, most governments have been monitoring compliance closely, financial institutions in India are mandated to incorporate the guidelines issued by regulatory bodies. Therefore, banks are increasingly partnering with the right cloud service provider that can take care of both security and compliance guidelines.

An API Driven approach– Using APIs allows financial institutions to make its data available to partners while removing the technical complexities associated with it. This facilitates banks to augment the data and other complimentary specialties of the third party within its ecosystem to offer enhanced personalisation for more targeted customer experiences. Open banking also creates large volumes of data, insights from which help offer bespoke propositions to the customers and drive innovation for the industry.

Integrating latest technologies– With the consumer needs constantly evolving, banks are gearing to be future-ready to cater to the new-age requirements. This calls for a high-quality predictive analysis model that can be facilitated by advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to sustain customer satisfaction. ML algorithms help in detecting the behavioural pattern of consumers and provide actionable insights which would be otherwise difficult to detect via manual intervention.

“With the confluence of ML, AI and cloud, BFSI companies will be able to offer real time, contextual recommendations to its consumers, resulting in higher engagement.”

Thus, to augment the hyper-connected customer experiences, the ‘behind the scenes’ digital architecture needs to be evolved. Data, analytics and advanced technologies need to be embedded through the customer journey to generate personalised customer insights for driving innovative experiences for them. A comprehensive and compliant cloud framework will be the key to reimagine the future of banking.

Click here to learn more about how to empower the next generation of financial services.

The post Augmenting the financial experience with hyper-personalisation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

While some OEM’s look to develop these capabilities inhouse, the others are acquiring cloud security capabilities like Secure Web gateway, cloud access security broker (CASB) and Zero Trust.  The native security OEM’s are also developing/acquiring SDWAN capabilities to compete with the traditional OEM vendors.

Gartner estimates that in 2022, end-user spending on SASE will total $6.8 billion, up from $4.8 billion in 2021. In addition, by 2025, more than 50% of organisations will have explicit strategies to adopt SASE, up from less than 5% in 2020. There is significant momentum in investments/developments to create this leading-edge technology that promises to deliver the missing value for the business.

Unlocking the value of SASE:

Some of the key advantages of harnessing this technology to drive real business value are:

Simplify Cybersecurity: With ransomware attacks rapidly increasing, enterprises are doubling down on investments into multi-layered security solutions. While these offer excellent protection against threats, they need a more common view/ integrated approach to detect and report threats. Network managers are required to oversee many of these tools and subscribe to solutions such as Security information and event management (SIEM) to make integrated sense of all the alerts. This is costly and also greatly increases complexity when support for new age business routes such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD), remote workers, insider threats etc. come in. SASE compliant architecture simplifies this approach by combining network and security controls and centralises reporting. This allows business managers to centrally coordinate cyber security controls and reduce exposure to threats – internal or external.

Deliver Business Resiliency: Much has been said about the importance of business resiliency during the pandemic, supply chain issues and political crisis. A significant part of building this business resiliency comes from foundational element of digital resiliency (other parts of business resiliency include people, financial, and agile operations). This enables enterprises to recover faster from crisis and also spring forward into a new reality thereby creating a sustainable advantage. SASE compliant architecture delivers this digital resiliency to enterprises, allowing for quick setup/teardown of sites and offices, create rapid supplier/ partner connections and allow users to work from anywhere. All this is delivered without friction and complies with the organisation’s cybersecurity policies.

Unlock new top line possibilities: Enterprises are always aiming to deliver shareholder value by improving their topline. Boosting digital channels to replace or augment traditional sales channels, entering newer markets or embracing newer technological shifts such as Metaverse, are some of the ways to do this. Metaverse experiences are poised to impact us significantly in the coming years. From areas such as product interaction, client acquisition, client support and retention, the possibilities are limitless. But they also come with extreme demands from the digital infrastructure of the company. Delivering, securing, and maximising these experiences requires an underlying fabric that can scale up easily and extend seamlessly to public/private cloud as needed – all with security at its core. A properly designed and implemented SASE architecture can deliver this platform to unlock new top line possibilities.

Approach to effective adoption of SASE:

Some aspects of embarking on this transformation journey are as follows:

Define your objectives – This is an extremely critical step in bringing technology purposes and business goals together. An example of a business goal could be resiliency in supply chain and therefore to do those enterprises should look at what is needed on the technology side to deliver this resiliency.

“The business objectives set a clear lens through which technology can be evaluated and success can be quantified.”

Focus on the outcomes – It can be challenging to navigate through jargons while evaluating technology which might take away part of the focus from business objectives. Sometimes customers might find themselves being limited in their options to a particular brand due to the marketing around it. To avoid this pitfall, the business objectives become the guiding beacon.

Choose the right partner – A digital strategy requires multi-pronged approach to technology often extending beyond the immediate scope into things such as Thin Branch, Customer Experience, Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) etc. For example, the business goal might be to increase customer satisfaction scores by means of innovation in products or through possibilities of new technology.

“This business goal when broken down into technology goals would conceivably span technology such as Contact Center, network, omni-channel communications with security (SASE) at its core.”

And therefore, it is important to look for partners that have the depth and the footprint to supply and support the multi-pronged solution in all the geographic locations relevant for the customers. Some partners offer an integrated services view (through a common visibility portal) that can enable your teams with a single pane of glass visibility of their digital domain. Partners can also be shortlisted based on external validations such as presence in the Gartner Magic Quadrant (GMQ) and others. It is also helpful to work with partners that have previous experience of handling such deployments at a similar scale.

SASE architectures are expected to drive new frameworks for businesses to become more resilient, simplify cyber security and unlock new top line possibilities. Enterprises need a thoughtful and a meaningful strategy to unlock the value of SASE.

“A right partner who understands the business goals, has multi-tech expertise, the right footprint and the depth of adjacent services can enable enterprises to adopt and unlock the value of SASE.”

To learn more, please read this blog on the evolution of networks. 

The post Unlocking the business value of SASE appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The advent of cloud contact centres has revolutionised customer service and interactions. With enhanced experience for customers and employees, easy scalability and flexible billing options, cloud contact centres improve the lifetime value of customers. It also enables revenue growth, as well as lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) while minimising the cost of customer acquisition and retention. According to IDC research ^[1], 42% of today’s global enterprises expect to dedicate their worldwide contact centre technology spending on cloud-based contact centres.

“But how do enterprises select the right cloud contact centre solution that aligns with their business goals and ambitions?”

With the plethora of options available in the market today, how easy is it to choose the right contact centre solution for a business, industry and geography… and more importantly, for the customers? How do enterprises identify the right partner that can manage across the stages of assessment, migration and solution adoption with their proven capabilities and managed services?

Choosing the right Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) solution: The 7Cs

As the requirements from customers, employees and technology continue to evolve, here is a set of 7 attributes and questions that enterprises should consider and ask themselves while choosing the right cloud-based contact centre solution for their business:

1. Consolidation: Does the solution help you with self-service or intelligent call routing to route interactions across distributed ACDs (Automatic Call Distributors), SIPs (Session Initiation Protocols) and networks?
2. Control: Can you easily control global routing and does your contact centre management have control over the call flow, matching agents based on skills, geographical location and caller profile?
3. Conversational Experience: Does the contact centre solution infuse intelligence into CX and employee operations through bots, voice biometrics, virtual agents, sentiment analysis, etc.?
4. Consistent Experience: Can the platform offer consistent experiences to every end-customer, irrespective of multiple ACDs, hybrid workplace realities or customer interaction channel?
5. Cost: Can the solution provider offer a commercial model with the benefits of consumption-based pay-as-you-use flexibility and scalability, with little to no upfront capital expenditure, thus reducing the Total Cost of Ownership?
6. Contract Simplification: Can vendor management be simplified by working with one partner, thus avoiding multiple maintenance contracts and relationship hassles with different vendors?
7. Complete: Is the technology partner offering a complete solution, including voice, network, various CCaaS options, professional and managed services?

“Tata Communications portfolio of Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) answers yes to all these 7 Cs.”

Offering you a choice of partner-hosted and Tata Communications-hosted contact centre solutions built on a strong voice services infrastructure, Tata Communications brings in experienced professional and managed services to support you through every step of your contact centre journey. Driving business growth and fuelling success in today’s competitive market, Tata Communications promises to help you drive exceptional and differentiated CX.

Learn more at https://www.tatacommunications.com/solutions/unified-communications/contact-centre-as-a-service/

[1] IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Tata Communications, Optimizing Customer Experience and Engagement with Cloud-Based Platforms, doc #US48786222, February 2022

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The concept of trust is one of humanity’s foundational cornerstones. Without the seemingly simple ability to determine who we should and shouldn’t place our belief in, we’d never have been able to construct the elaborate societies we live in today.

However, trust does not naturally grow – it needs to be fostered, cultivated and most importantly, retained in a manner it brings value to a person or a business. In a previous blog, we considered how trust used to rely on interpersonal relationships, and how technology has taken over as the main propeller of trust for enterprises.

We also looked at the hierarchy of trust in the digital world. Starting from the first step – awareness of the possibility of an outcome – all the way up to the many potential strategic choices each business makes that contributes towards whether or not they’ll ever actualise digital trust.

In this piece, we’ll carry on the discussion by looking at how cybersecurity is integral to this effort by examining a five-step approach to effectively securing a business and fostering digital trust.

Cybersecurity practices that build digital trust

The zero-trust model has emerged as one of the standout approaches to cybersecurity, especially since remote working became the norm for so many businesses on the back of the pandemic.

“That’s because the zero-trust model relies on a simple, yet highly effective principle: assume breach, always verify.”

The approach encourages businesses to bolster their identity and context-based segmentation to reduce their attack surface and place  emphasis on user and device’s compliance and validation before granting secure access.

By employing intelligent threat monitoring and response and combining it with a robust identity and privilege management layer, threats emerging from a remote workforce, across any operations, multicloud, or internet-first architectures can all be greatly mitigated.

Zero-trust approach is the gatekeeper checking everyone’s ID upon every entry – regardless of how many times they’ve been inside before. However, it’s not enough to simply monitor who’s entering; businesses need to assume that cybercriminals will, eventually, access the enterprise network.

Once this is done, businesses need to begin streamlining the organisation, including users, business processes and policies, and start to align them with a “least privilege model”. The least privilege model dictates that if a user doesn’t need access rights, they shouldn’t have it. This way, businesses can see with clarity what new issues are arising specifically from the digitalisation of their operations.

After a least privilege model has been adopted across the organisation, it’s time to ingrain a consistent layer of security across layers of the network, cloud, application and data, to provide a reliable picture of the landscape’s security and enforcement.

“That’s why the next security step for businesses looking to drive digital trust is to employ the use of analytics-driven processes.”

This continuously assesses anomalies to unveil risks and vulnerabilities within the organisation. This is akin to a CCTV system looking at any shift in position for any person from normal to abnormal within their work environment.

The final brick in the foundation of digital trust is to establish a 24×7 managed security services framework that spans users, the business, access, devices, and threats. With this penetrative view into the entire state, businesses will be able to consistently detect faults and be able to provide remediation measures needed to rectify them.

Digital trust – enabler of experiences

The work that goes into fostering digital trust really can’t be underestimated as there’s no single solution that will deliver it to a business. Thus, understanding how the guidance above will manifest into digital trust requires businesses to consider their enterprise’s unique features such as the volume and variety of data, users and compliances to guide their individual journey.

“Cybersecurity is foundational to all these experiences, so every digital transformational project needs digital trust enablement baked into it. And even then, it needs to be perpetually sustained through assessments and upliftment.”

But with a consistent approach building up these designs and frameworks in place, the benefits of digital trust can begin to manifest and unlock new business opportunities. It’s hard work, but much like with regular trust, the impact of digital trust is wide reaching.

And by enabling new and yet seamless experiences across a business’s workforce, customer base and larger ecosystem of partners and suppliers, they push themselves one step closer to becoming the future-ready organisations they desire to be.

To learn more about our recent findings into the shifting foundations of business in the post-COVID-19 world, read our report, Digital Trust, The New Business Foundation.

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In the first six months of the pandemic, enterprises were challenged with actively addressing their infrastructure and operational needs to enable a rapid shift to secure remote working. However, over the last few months, the focus has shifted to optimising and securing this new model. The challenge now if to ensure a better user experience, improve productivity and manage security. Enterprises now require a new approach to achieve desired success as processes go digital in a hybrid world. In this blog we will explore the technological and cultural roadmap to a hybrid workplace.

A recent global survey of CxO’s from 750 organisations conducted by Tata Communications reveals that 90% of the organisations are yet to achieve their digital first goals, while 41% believes a shift to digital-first operating models helped avoid loss in their market share.

The benefits of adopting a digital-first model are evident, but many organisations are still in the early stages of their journey and struggling with legacy processes, technologies and mindset. We believe that acceleration of this transformation will require focus on three areas- building agility, leveraging data and building digital trust.

Building Agility:

Digital transformation in a hybrid world requires agility from the organisation. Agile operating models and processes enable businesses to respond to unpredictable and sudden changes in the environment quickly and effectively. Building an agile operating model requires a reassessment of technology, people, and processes. It can also entail significant changes to business models driven by changes in both customer and employee expectations.

“An agile enterprise builds a culture of innovation resulting in shortened product cycles and continuous improvement.”

Process transformation underpinned by automation is another prerequisite for increasing agility. The starting point is looking at pre-existing workflows on the system and deciding which can be automated, and how far this can go, to make them more efficient, more intelligent and more resilient. Enterprises are investing in AI and machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) to enhance process efficiencies. As an example, we at Tata Communications are transforming new joiner experiences through a virtual induction program, while EVA – our new HR mobile app powered by AI provides seamless access to HR policies and processes to our employees on the go.

This process transformation needs to be accompanied by an organisation change management effort as gaining greater adoption of the new digitally transformed processes remains one of the biggest challenges. For instance, there may be a new AI-enabled process that employees are asked to use, but adoption will only improve if they feel confident about the algorithm and functionalities. So here, user education and information is the key to success of the workplace transformation project. For example, a French wines & spirits company managed this extraordinarily well as a strategic adoption roadmap of Microsoft Teams enabled its people to work just as effectively from home as they did from the office or from operational locations.

Democratising Data:

It is now cliché to say that ‘data is the new oil’, but the importance of data in fuelling this phase of transformation and growth cannot be overstated. The amount of data collected by enterprises is growing at a fast clip (some analysts estimate that it’s growing by over 50% YoY). Yet, most of this data remains unutilised.

“The ability to instantly access and understand data will translate into faster decision making and that will translate into a more agile organisation.”

Data management and analysis are now critical foundational abilities. Also, making sure the right people have access to the right data at the right time irrespective of where they are, will determine efficiency and efficacy of decision making in this hybrid world.

Enhancing Security:

The rising adoption of a hybrid workplace models has increased the security threats across the entire IT landscape, phishing attacks have increased, firmware attacks are on the rise, and ransomware has become incredibly problematic. Microsoft intercepted and thwarted a record-breaking 30 billion email threats in 2021.

Most companies have an increasingly complex IT estate with their infrastructure on cloud – public or private and also on premise. Previously, the trust boundary was the office, but of course that has now disappeared in favour of hybrid work environments. The challenge for CIOs/CISOs now involves enabling the same level of security and trust for teams irrespective of where they operate from. Weak links in the security chain of the company need to be addressed without impacting user experience as multiple software/security agents on desktops or laptops increase complexity and impact performance.

“Securing digital infrastructure, enabling zero-trust access, proactive threat management and addressing governance and compliance risks will necessary to minimise business risk and improve performance.”

The pandemic has offered many businesses the opportunity to accelerate their digital transformation. Some enterprises were already allowing employees to work from home, but it’s the scale and capacity requirements that have changed. For example, acceptance of virtual interactions has increased significantly and can potentially replace face-to-face interactions.

With people, resources and technology enablement all coming together, enterprises can completely transform their customer and employee engagement models. This journey is certainly not easy as the complexities of process, people and technology transformation will require specialised skills which are already in short supply. CIOs and IT leaders will need to build a partner ecosystem and work with a range of partners who bring together the right tools and skills.

Digital transformation in the hybrid world has never been more important. It’s not about showcasing technology; it’s about practical innovation – right now.

For more information on this, read our eBook Accelerate Your Workplace Evolution.

The post The roadmap for hybrid-workplace digital transformation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The department of IT is instrumental in ensuring that employee experience helps their organisations increase time to market as well as productivity of the workforce.

Many customers find that moving their collaboration and communication suites to the cloud addresses all these requirements in a streamlined manner. In its Global UCC forecast, IDC estimates that Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) is projected to grow at a 9.3% CAGR between 2020 and 2025, compared with on-premises IP telephony, which will decline 13.2% CAGR during the same period.  UCaaS solutions such as Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex deliver seamless connectivity across borders and help employees work from anywhere without disruptions.

“However, migrating to such cloud solutions is usually complex, has security and compliance implications and can affect user experience in a negative way if not done in a planned and phased manner.”

A well-planned multi-stage migration   

Your managed services provider should ideally partner with you through the stages of migration to UCaaS.

“Assessing the communications landscape in an organisation is crucial, before migrating to a chosen cloud solution. Remote SaaS automated PBX assessment and analysis can help IT teams understand PBX line statistics, feature parity and device inventory as well as call flows, vectors and extension level configuration.”

A migration plan should consist of the source PBX configuration, customer data and target PBX capabilities. Seamless migration typically accounts for co-existence of the legacy PBX and the new cloud solution, especially while validating and provisioning the new state. Number portability, tenant management and MACD services should be made available in a self-service automated portal, thus reducing the migration time and increasing time to market.

The deployment phase needs to cover several elements. One is cloud video interoperability, where organisations are looking to integrate legacy telephony, video conferencing and multiple service providers for these. Regulatory challenges in specific geographies is another challenge, which, coupled with security risks, can lead to penalties or compromises.

“Successful user adoption of a new UCaaS solution is dependent on the user persona and a customised training plan.”

Rather than just sending out a few training videos, if the adoption process covers coaching and training sessions which are tailored for the organisation and role profiles based on usage analysis, the rate of successful adoption can multiply manifold.

Management and measurement of Unified Communications can be rather complex because of the multi-platform and multiple endpoint landscape. A managed service provider should be able to give you performance and service availability measurements such as advanced signalling, packet capture & network telemetry analytics and insights, while supporting change, incident and problem management. Intelligently managing endpoints and collaboration management, when available through a single pane of glass, truly reduces complexity and improves end-user experience.

Tata Communications has enabled multiple global customers through various stages of migration, management and automation as they progressed in their UCaaS journey. If your collaboration journey is with Microsoft Teams, our Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams provides seamless, carrier-grade voice for Microsoft Teams at a global scale.  A digital ecosystem enabler, Tata Communications is an international voice carrier, serving global customers, with multiple industry recognitions and in-house expertise, and is here to empower you with visibility and control as you move to UCaaS.

To learn more, read about Tata Communications Unified Communications as a Service today.

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As you move forward, besides continuity and resilience, the ability to offer high-quality digital-first experiences for your employees, customers, and partners will become the cornerstone for digital investments. This is increasingly a critical need; as highlighted in a recent survey of over 750 executives commissioned by Tata Communications, only 46% of CEOs and COOs believed that their organisations were strong at offering a high-quality user experience across their value chain.

Taking this a step further, many global organisations now recognise the need to transform their conventional networks, which have been operating on a hub-and-spoke model, to now cater for emerging dynamic business requirements. Nearly half of surveyed respondents stated that their firms’ productivity decreased during the crisis due to connection problems. By contrast, Digital Trailblazers have achieved a productivity boost of 67% since the pandemic began.

In this blog, I explore some of the common areas that you could be wrestling with in the new hybrid world as well as the transition to deliver quality digital experiences for employees and customers.

1. Transitioning to Cloud First and Internet First

Traditional enterprise network architectures were neither architected for the cloud, nor were they intended to facilitate digital transformation (IDC, 2020) [1]

In a hybrid workplace, you want to drive seamless consistent collaboration both internally and with customers in a secure manner across the globe. A key enabler to achieving this is to embrace a cloud-first and internet-first strategy. By taking this step, you are moving away from a distributed architecture and hub-and-spoke enterprise-grade network. As a result, your reliance on traditional enterprise networks and fixed design is no longer an impediment to operations. However, migration to cloud and use of the internet creates two major challenges: 1) network architecture design to enable accessibility to data and apps on cloud; and 2) ensuring security. True, working from anywhere will include the use of the public internet to access corporate critical applications and systems. The internet is inherently vulnerable to cyberattack and is best effort in its performance.

“You need to ensure you can deliver secure and seamless remote access to core enterprise applications over untrusted networks and strike the right balance between ensuring security and not making access too difficult.”

There is also the added complexity of managing multi-internet service providers across the globe and navigating the varying geographic regulations, which can quickly become a major overhead with a global distributed workforce and set of offices.

2. Embedding more intelligence

By the end of 2024, 75% of enterprises will shift from piloting to operationalising AI, driving a 5x increase in streaming data and analytics infrastructures (Gartner, 2020)

The new architecture for this hybrid work environment needs not only to be agile, scalable, and flexible, but also to make use of AI and ML, for example, using AI to help with capacity planning and managing your network in a more dynamic and agile fashion.

“At Tata Communications, in our own use case, we are starting to provide this along with associated data analytics to help simplify service and network management.”

We also use ML to carry out a lot of predictive and proactive management of the network, looking at data and trends to take preventive measures quickly. These will be key industry trends and will continue to evolve as we move into 2022.

3. Optimising and building a new hybrid network for efficiency and productivity

The pandemic has resulted in a recalibration of cloud strategies, where collaboration, mobility, and virtual desktops are rapidly moving to the cloud to enable a distributed and secure workforce (Gartner, 2021)

This new network architecture, embracing internet, cloud, and intelligence, will need to support both the new digital business model and the new hybrid work environment. Solutions need to reduce cost but also provide consistent user performance, a uniform SLA, and complete visibility.

One example of a use case is that of a global bank looking to achieve superior site-to-site communications and accelerate cloud adoption, and to enable this we would see it adopt a strategy that provides internet connections to all its different branches across India from a public cloud provider. This would help it not only reduce cost but also optimise performance.

Similarly, with a pharmaceutical company that is perhaps migrating its global network from pure MPLS to a hybrid environment – combining both MPLS and internet would help achieve cost savings and provide a ‘single pane of glass’, giving greater visibility and control across all networks. In each of these scenarios, these businesses save money as well as gaining a flexible network, required for a productive hybrid workplace.

4. Building an agile network architecture

By 2022, SD-WAN will be adopted by 67% of organisations (IDC, 2020) [2]

In the hybrid world, the key is to find the right balance of connectivity between the office and your remote workers. To do this you need to examine:

• where the traffic comes from and how to redirect it such that the access gateways are not congested
• how much should be on the internet
• how much can be ‘burstable’ and how much can be stopped? For example, one country could be in the midst of a lockdown while another country could be seeing workers going back to the office
• ultimately, how you can dynamically sense and shift traffic around.

To address this, you need an agnostic network that deploys quickly to meet dynamic business needs. SD-WAN is part of the solution; for example, a new site can be provisioned remotely. In addition, there is also a need for on-demand solutions, especially with connectivity to a major data center and cloud provider. The panacea is to essentially be able to select the kind of connectivity capacity you need by time, by day, and for how long you need it – all under the customer’s control.

5. Protecting your business from the new risks that are exposed in this new model

Corporate, guest, trusted, and untrusted devices all pose a risk to the enterprise if I&O leaders do not properly coordinate when and how they will be connected. (Gartner, 2021)

Security is key in enabling your hybrid workplace, moving from a perimeter-based security model with IP addresses and locations to an adaptive access-policy approach using integrated identity endpoint management and security tools.

This approach allows you to evaluate the risk based on user identity and device trust. It’s about enabling a continuous complete risk assessment of the endpoints or unified endpoint management.

“True agility will be network on demand; dynamically moving connectivity up and down with an assured SLA.”

Using AI and ML, this provisioning could be automated – the activation and downgrading capacity all taken care of without human intervention. To conclude, no longer are the internal network and external network two separate worlds. You need an integrated policy across both, which means you can start to deploy new technology and reap the rewards. It’s time to create a truly dynamic network for an unpredictable hybrid world.

For more information on this, read our eBook Accelerate Your Workplace Evolution.

[1] SECURE NETWORK TRANSFORMATION TO TURBOCHARGE YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY. An IDC InfoBrief, September 2020

[2] SECURE NETWORK TRANSFORMATION TO TURBOCHARGE YOUR DIGITAL JOURNEY. An IDC InfoBrief, September 2020

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In 2017, a news story made headlines highlighting how banks are bringing retired IT professionals back to work to maintain their computer systems. The underlying programming language was simply so ancient that it was beyond the scope and understanding of the current employees. This example shows that the pressure on the financial sector to modernise its digital processes was already high before the pandemic. COVID-19 intensified it further. In this day and age when connectivity and technology play a major role in people’s daily lives, financial service providers need to provide advanced and seamless digital services that are accessible to the customers on the move.

Digital user experience determines competitive opportunities

The BFSI sector (Banking, financial services and insurance) was one of the most impacted industries during the pandemic. Employees working at banks and many contact centre employees working for other financial companies play a key role in ensuring secure and seamless customer experience. But COVID-19 changed this. According to a Mastercard study from November 2020, almost one in three Germans have increased their use of online banking or apps to make payments since the pandemic began. More than half are considering switching to a digital bank. Loyalty to trusted house banks is steadily declining.

“Demand for digital services and products has also been rising in the insurance sector for a long time.”

Customers demand comprehensible offers, simple processes, and fast service. Insurtech and fintech companies already offer this today and are giving tough competition to the traditional financial houses.

If they want to retain customers, BFSI sector companies need to modernise their digital services – and do so quickly. This includes, for example, smooth digital payment transactions or virtual customer service. To be able to offer such services, financial institutions need a high-performance network infrastructure. This also helps to secure processes more effectively and better protect sensitive customer data.

Hybrid network infrastructure driving the agility

Hybrid network can enable banks to leverage the combination of private WAN and VPN to connect their different branches. With many employees now working remotely, this also addresses their need to access the company’s network and applications from anywhere. Due to high compliance requirements, financial companies have so far been reluctant to use such network infrastructures. Yet network transformation can increase security by allowing a network to be managed centrally.

“Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) enables cloud-centric, agile control of data flows via the best possible connection for the situation.”

With the inclusion of public Internet connections, performance also increases. At the same time, centralised control allows applications to be prioritised according to their relevance to business processes. It thus makes network connections agile and more efficient. It also allows costs to be monitored more closely.

The ability to prioritise is useful particularly for large retail banks, some of which support hundreds of different applications. Their requirement profiles diverge greatly: high-priority, low-latency transactions coexist with high-priority, but latency-tolerant operations and best-effort connections.

Integrated functions increase security

Hybrid network infrastructures and cloud connect solutions also allow integration of additional security features such as Zero Trust. With Zero Trust, all devices are per se classified as untrusted, regardless of whether they are inside or outside the corporate network. SD-WAN, for example, also has built-in firewalls and network segmentation capabilities. A central controller standardises and automates the distribution of patches across the network, saving time and money.

Security is an essential part of digital transformation – especially for the BFSI sector that works with highly-sensitive data, and hence becomes a preferred target for cyber criminals.

The attack by the Brazilian Trojan “Bizarro” on European banks demonstrated this again just recently. In addition to financial losses and the expense of remedying the vulnerabilities, such security breaches result, in the worst case, in a lasting loss of trust of consumers.

Merging advanced network and improved security

With customer requirements at the heart of their digital transformation journey, the BFSI sector is set to securely pave its way towards adapting innovation. As customers demand more user-friendly ways of interactions, financial institutions will have to view network and security as a single entity in their journey of digital innovation. Managed network and security service providers can offer the agile, secure, and high-performance connectivity solutions, driving growth of the entire financial ecosystem.

To learn more, read this blog on the evolution of networks: VPN, SaaS and the rise of SD-WAN.

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Networks form the central nervous system of any modern enterprise, and as such, are assessed by how smoothly and seamlessly they can transfer data to the right people in the right places. In the first part of this blog series, we looked at how digitalisation of the business landscape forced businesses to expose that central nervous system to the world and in a way making it a lot more complicated to keep secure.

In this piece, we’ll look at the transformations that took place in order to give us the remote working networking model we use today, and consider how the intent-based systems of the future will work.

The (true) rise of remote workers

For the last few years, the state of things was that if you were in the office, with the help of internet connectivity to both data centres and SaaS apps, user experience had become pretty reliable. However, remote users were still having to backhaul through data centres to use the internet.

That was because remote workers domains were being regarded separately, and as such, their laptops were being governed by different policies and had to be configured twice. While this was an inefficiency and remote employees were mostly a minority across businesses, it was just seen as the status quo and not an issue of urgency.

“However, with business network transformations largely being driven by the increasing adoption of cloud hosted SaaS applications, the business mindset began to change.”

Engineers began wondering, since the means of configuring routers had been lifted to the cloud, why couldn’t more of the network management infrastructure be lifted to the cloud too?

So, instead of having fixed network gateways in certain places (such as the headquarter office), cloud-based network infrastructure virtualises those gateways, removing the barriers that previously hindered remote workers. The wide area network was no longer defined by the company’s physical premises, but by all its users that connected them.

So, whether you were a remote worker or working from your business’ headquarters, the configuration of your laptop would be determined by your user identity. These gateways also provided the sanitisation, filtering and best performance traffic routing for the virtualised WAN setup, along with other features for users – such as long-distance routing and cloud connectivity – that had previously only been available to branches.

However, while these technologies existed when the pandemic hit, in order to rapidly pivot to distributed working models, most businesses ended up stitching together a patchwork of traditional WAN and remote VPN solutions to survive.

But now, with hybrid working looking like the next normal for business, in order to maintain the office level user experience employees are used to, more and more of them are adopting Secure success service edge (SASE). 

Current limitations to modern networks

It’s important to remember that digital transformation is a never-ending process. And as businesses have become increasingly data driven, they need their networks to become predictable, programmable, and automated- in sum intelligent!

For instance, say a network administrator in IT wanted to set up a policy that prioritises traffic going to the accounting department at the end of every month. This is not as straight forward as it sounds, and the only way most network managers would be able to do this is to prioritise accounting traffic all month long and hope no other part of the business gets impacted.

Such configuration requests that are time, priority or event-based are a complex process for IT professionals to achieve today, let alone average employees. That’s why the next stage in the evolution of networks will be systems that can be interacted with in simplified and more user-friendly ways that anyone in the company can handle.

“Users should be able to easily drag-and-drop their network requirements or use voice-assisted devices with commands that can be given in plain language, of course this would still be monitored by the network administrator.”

Today, some of these optimisations can only be achieved through a series of buying conversations with network providers.

But while enterprises can pay more for higher quality internet links, it does not guarantee good user experience or performance.

The routing and congestion status of the data between the branch and the business application is subjected to the vagaries of the Internet, and it does not matter if the applications are in the data centre or cloud.

Imagine any journey where you need to get from A to B, the road authority which looks after the roads changes along the way – which can mean different rules and speed limits. The same is true on the internet, where two points maybe looked after by different network providers.

So, buying a premium link is a bit like paying to have an Autobahn-like driveway from your house to the main road (which is the internet). And that premium link won’t help much if you end up on a pothole stricken main road on the way to your grandparents.

So in the future, network providers would like to be able to say, “we know where you’re going and not only will we give you the best route, we’ll put you in an intelligent, self-driving car that will make sure you get to your location safely. And if you’re about to get into an accident, we’ll teleport you out of that car into a different one.”

This is what an intelligent, self-driven network would be able to do. And with the help of AI and machine learning (ML), big, complex systems will soon also be driven by what you want to achieve – your intent!

The future of intent-based networks

The meaning of intent-based networking has changed somewhat over the years. In the early days, it was used to express if a site was a critical data centre so applications from there could be prioritised. However, when SD-WAN templatised router configurations, the meaning changed again as those configuration templates could also be seen as a form of intent.

“The future of intent-based networks will be systems that can not only be talked about in plain languages but can also translate the intent of the command into policies.”

These will be networks capable of using your intent to configure new firewalls, routers, whether in SD-WAN or some future version of it, all in ways that are less technical, more business friendly and a lot more dynamic.

By translating user intent as opposed to just taking static commands, networks will be able to get around many of our present challenges. A business wouldn’t end up accidentally reserving bandwidth for users who didn’t need it just because someone forgot to reverse a priority command if the system understood why you wanted to prioritise that traffic in the first place. It would know to reconfigure it when appropriate.

Someday in the future, these networks may become self-learning and even more capable of understanding user intent to the point of being able to predict it.

But however it transpires, as long as enterprises continue to digitally transform, their reliance on networks will only grow. So, we can expect increasingly advanced networks as innovation continues to evolve.

To learn more about how networks began and the early shift from data centres to the cloud, read the first part of this series The evolution of networks part 1: VPN, SaaS and the rise of SD-WAN.

The post The evolution of networks part 2: Remote work and future networks appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The biggest lesson that the pandemic has taught us is that digital is the key to sustenance, survival and competency.

So, we know digitisation is the solution for the future of workplaces.

But the real question is which pieces of your value chain needs to be digitised? And where do you currently stand in your digital journey to understand the level of restructuring required?

Enterprises, big or small, were forced to jump on the digital transformation wagon to stay relevant in the industry and to their customer. In the rush to stay ahead and replicate competition, most enterprises ended up adopting digitisation in a haphazard manner.

The pandemic posed as a digital transformation surprise test

Although industries like manufacturing were at the cusp of digitisation in line with the fourth industrial revolution, the pandemic showed the sector the mirror, as it was one of the most badly impacted sectors due to gaps witnessed throughout the supply chain and logistics management.

We identified that the main focus of manufacturing companies was to automate their facilities and increase production, however not enough thought was given to digitise the supply chain while building the digital framework.

“This is a classic example of a digital journey undertaken in isolation without a holistic view to outline an agile foundation.”

On the other hand, with an aim to make the first move in the customer experience battle, large enterprises were on a rampage to add tools and software to their digital architecture. This led to further complicating their journey with the exponential amount of data generated from different services and vendors. The quintessential scenario of ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth’.

Enterprises were unable to unlock the right potential of the data insights, since there was a lack of an integrated platform across multiple functions and vendors. They got so busy in staying ahead, failing to map their investments with the advancement needed in the customer journey.

Medium and Small Enterprises (MSEs) were on the initial stages of digitisation with cost being the decisive factor. With most of them undertaking digitisation on priority amidst the pandemic, there was no clear vision in setting up digital pillars, resulting in weak outcomes. MSEs need to understand that digital collaboration platforms need to be comprehensive, seamless and secured to connect employees, partners across business operations facilitating efficiency and productivity across the value chain.

Shift in consumer behaviour and increasing adoption of next gen technologies

The dynamic shift in consumer behaviour, is no longer a trend but a digital tradition that will not only stay but augment in the future. Brands are putting their best foot forward to understand every miniscule detail and choice of their customers to offer an unimaginable customer experience. The day is not far, where you will walk into a café with a facial recognition program.

As you reach the counter, the customer executive will greet you with your name and know exactly your choice of coffee, preferences, payment option, your usual time of arrival and therefore which suggested add-ons will be of your interest. This is the level of detailing and care the new normal consumer expects from brands. Innovations in the customer journey will soon be the only competitive edge.

MSEs, as the backbone of our country, need to match this scale to be relevant in the game and cater to the new normal digital customer experience. However, they neither have the time nor the money for big consultancy projects.

Tata Communications discovered a huge gap in demand v/s supply in the digital ecosystem

With its end-to-end digital capabilities, Tata Communications is well positioned at the heart of this discussion to build a cohesive digital ecosystem. While we are closely working with organisations enabling them with a hybrid work module, we observed that mid-size companies were facing maximum hurdles to scale their business.

“We recognised that the bigger challenge for MSEs was finding the right partner, advising them every step of the way, identifying the critical business operations that need an immediate digital enhancement, and being affordable at the same time.”

There is a dire necessity for a digital ecosystem enabler especially for this segment, to empower them with a customised digital roadmap. That foremost ensures to digitise the critical aspects of the business, charging in direction to achieve the final goal.

MSEs need a catalyst to strengthen their digital architecture

Tata Communications bridges this gap and is able to play the role to support the mid-market companies to build a truly digital workplace. With its robust capabilities across multiple sectors and geographies, Tata Communications is uniquely positioned to guide MSEs to brick-by-brick, strengthen their digital foundation, ultimately digitising each part of their value chain in a unified manner. This approach allows MSEs to spread their investment throughout the digital journey, without encountering a major burden on their topline.

The first step – To know where you stand in the digital journey

The first step is to understand where we stand in the journey, to thereafter classify the focus areas for accelerating the transition to a truly digital workplace. 

“We realised even though most businesses have their goals in place, they were finding it difficult to connect it back to their business operations.”

To bridge this barrier, we have designed a quick assessment – Digital Workplace Readiness Indicator that will generate a live report highlighting an organisations readiness. To give a broad understanding to companies of its positioning, the report will categories each organisation in one of the four categories – Digital Workplace Explorer, Pacesetter, Transformer or Leader.

Digital Workplace Indicator has been created with inputs from subject matter experts to offer a detail report offering both an overall and portfolio specific recommendation. As a digital ecosystem enabler, we are happy to engage with enterprises to ensure they are able to align their priorities and achieve their goals. Over 1500 companies have already taken the survey and have got a deeper understanding and appreciation of their own digital journey. Clearly, what’s transforming is not the technology but the technology itself that is transforming enterprises.

You can take the survey here to position your own organisation on the Digital Workplace Indicator or get in touch with us to know more.

The post A truly digital workplace is needed for a successful ‘back to office’ appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

It’s often said that human beings are ‘social creatures’ – we’re wired to form connections with and learn to trust other people. Over the ages while our communities have grown and transformed, but the ways we develop trust as individuals has largely remained the same.

Trust is the anchor in all relationships.

Traditionally, when businesses started trying to garner the trust of customers, they too relied on the power of interpersonal relationships.

Whether it’s the sale assistant in a retail store, or a cash teller in a local bank, these businesses relied on their employees to give their brands a face and what their customers can relate to – and most importantly – place their trust in.

However, with enterprises adopting digital operating models, work-from-home and the growing cloud and mobiles driven engagements, the dynamics of trust has changed.

“With limited opportunity to physically interface with employees, partners, and prospective customers, many firms are impelled to foster trust digitally.”

So, as we stride towards a world where life is lived increasingly online, in this piece, we’ll look at what it means to build trust digitally, the benefits it can provide, the consequences of losing it. We’ll also explore what technologies are driving trust as it overtakes many aspects of corporate relationships.

The hierarchy of trust for a digital world

It’s important to remember that trust should be a foundational aspect of all our interactions in the digital world. Trust is intertwined with issues surrounding consumer data, intellectual property protection, and online transactions, regulatory compliance to name a few.

We’ve now emerged into a world where interpersonal interactions are no longer a fixture of the business-customer relationship. But this doesn’t mean the need for trust has lessened – in fact, it’s become even more critical than ever before as customers now interact with enterprises across multiple different digital channels and platforms, sharing critical personal information.

This explains why digital trust programs rank as the number three priority of global business leaders in 2021, according to the IDC’s 2020 COVID-19 Impact Survey, Wave 11.

“For a business to successfully nurture digital trust with the public, the efficacy of their online capabilities must be beyond reproach.”

For the embodiment of trust within digital transaction the security assurances they offer around customer personal data protection, and the integrity of their transactions, should be robust and proven.

They must be willing to be transparent as possible with their customers as much as the law and competition will permit. Further, critical elements of the approach needs to include more engaging customer communications and driving awareness on how to spot spurious digital interactions.

Taken together, achieving this requires businesses to redefine their entire approach to fostering trust for the digital age. In recent years, the IDC has proposed a framework for how a trust-enabled ecosystem can be achieved.

It starts from the foundational rung of risk, which is a function of visibility and the likelihood of a potential outcome, positive or negative, could impact confidentiality, integrity, availability, productivity, or revenue.

The next step up is the compulsory band, encapsulating all the aspects of security, and compliances mandated by the law, such as ongoing risk assessments and adherence with the various regulatory guidelines and policies.

The final step up before a business can actualise digital trust is the strategic element, which is where businesses get to differentiate themselves from the pack. This is because there are numerous factors outside of simply reducing risk and cost which leaders must consider, such as maximising ROI of capital and resources.

When a business also chooses to place real priority on a more strategic attributes such as privacy, ethics, and social responsibility, they start building a reservoir of future trust that can be tapped later to create positive outcomes.

So, digital trust needs to be the valuable resource it is and be a core priority for every business. And while there’s no single action a business can take that will grant them their customers’ and employees trust instantly, the ongoing process of fostering it in a digital world is driven by technology.

Cyber security – the digital trust enabler

While the last year may have highlighted the importance of trust in a stark and significant way, the costs of either failing to foster digital trust or worse, betraying that trust, comes with many direct and indirect costs. These include short term impacts, accounting costs and other economic losses.

However, of all the ways digital trust can be eroded, few things are as damaging as a data breach that leaves the personal data of customers exposed. Other than the devastating damage to brand reputation, they can also result in huge fines.

That’s why cybersecurity must be inextricably linked to any initiative that hopes to build digital trust.  One that is built on a strong foundation of risk management, security, and compliance, and on top of it sits the c-suite skills to ensure it has become corporate culture backed by integrity and ethics. Enterprises need to adopt a pragmatic approach on implementing cybersecurity practices to enable and sustain digital trust.  Like – Building a trust zone, – Intelligent analytics driven SecOps, and – Establishing a managed security framework for controls mapped across user, entity, access, device, and threat.

“Trust needs to be built and perpetually sustained. Hence, a ‘set it and forget it’ model does not apply. It requires continuous assessments and upliftment, and cybersecurity teams need to partner effectively with other functions to deliver on this core business value.”

And going forward, businesses will have to learn how to gain trust across the business value chain, sourcing greater visibility across their digital and security architectures, if they want to succeed in the future.

Not just because of the lingering effects of the pandemic, but because harnessing digital trust will be the only way to truly thrive in a digital world.

To learn more about our recent findings into the shifting foundations of business in the post-COVID-19 world, read our report, Digital Trust, The New Business Foundation.

The post How technology is driving trust appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Across all industries, banking is one of the most advanced sectors when it comes to technology adoption. In this blog, Sridhar, Head of managed services at Tata Communications, discusses the online banking services and cloud strategies businesses can adopt to enable cohesive digital estates that are secure, compliant and keep current IT investments safe.

Net banking started as early as year 2000, and by 2002 most major international banks had started offering online banking services in some form. It’s clear that their digital transformation has undergone two strong decades of technological advancements.

For the banking, financial services and insurance industries (BFSIs), the transformation meant enabling SAVE-BORROW-PAY digitally. BFSIs were amongst the early adopters to consider cloud and build their strategy around the technology. In recent years, we have seen many international banks and FSIs move their system of engagements to cloud. However, with the complexity of regulations and compliance, operating outside a controlled perimeter, especially public cloud, has been challenging.

No wonder – as per a survey, 91% of financial institutions are actively using cloud services today (or plan to in the next nine months), yet only 9% of mission-critical regulated banking workloads have shifted to a public cloud environment.

But, there has been consequences as well: outages due to overloads, vulnerable security postures in a hybrid environment that are open to threats and the complexity of managing compliance as the storage and protection of data and challenges on integrating data sources, both internally and externally, have led to serious regulatory penalties, resulting in loss of business and reputation. This is perhaps why BFSIs are looking to renew the system-of-records and system-of-engagements, hosting them on a more secure, reliable, and better performing environment that can be scaled to support the dynamic nature of digital banking. All of these factors need to be considered, while keeping the compliance and adherence to mandatory regulations in place.   ​

“While the move to cloud can now be much easier to contemplate for banks, it’s easier said than done – as two decades of IT, especially the system of records and traditional operating models at the back-end – are starved of modernisation band can not easily be lifted and shifted.”

The industry has evolved dramatically, as the open banking ecosystem is a now a key enabler for banks to streamline their digital business strategies. ​Banks are maturing their data monetisation and aggregation models, which allows the banking ecosystem players as FSI, suppliers and service aggregators to securely leverage banks data and services.​

However, while we are talking about the open banking ecosystem – on the other hand, there is still emphasis on how data and transactions need to be protected and stored locally, under multiple different government and industry regulations.

Banks also have monolithic, large applications. However, the only way for banks to create competitive operations and differentiated digital offerings is by employing new technologies like AI/ML and blockchain, that will likely be cloud native. BFSIs will therefore find it hard to get the traditional and new systems working together in tandem. The modernisation of applications may therefore be a balancing act, as they will need to migrate complex applications to cloud leveraging containers for DevOps and CI/CD practices.​

For a BFSI IT Delivery Manager, assurance on the back of application up time and performance is critical and key to delivering on IT promises. And traditional workloads do not always show the agility to respond to demands and peak loads. This is where a cloud-based, high availability zone can drive the IT assurance and agility promise. This is the story of digitally mature banks, whereas across the digital divide lie the smaller, co-operative banks.

“In India, millions of customers rely on UCBs (Urban Cooperative Banks) and these banks are yet to evolve in terms of digital modernisation.”

The key consideration for all BFSI institutions is to identify and operationalise the right cloud strategy that can deliver assurance, agility, and resiliency. This should be a cloud strategy that enables a cohesive digital estate that is secure and compliant, and keeps the current IT investments safe while ensuring the platform can continuously innovate to offer new digital offerings.

Discover more about today’s enterprise IT investment priorities.

The post The modernisation charter for future of banking appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Serving customers faster. Enhancing business growth. Enabling businesses to stay ahead of the competition. The countless ways AI is shaping CX cannot be underestimated. But AI is not just about clever systems that quickly process huge amounts of data. Today it can speak, see, and communicate like real people – reshaping and reimagining the customer service experience altogether.

AI has a big impact at every stage of the customer journey. AI driven systems allow for personalisation, meaning as soon as a customer visits a website or contact centre their experience is as interactive and targeted as possible. This has a direct effect on lead generations and sales, boosted by clever chatbots which can engage customers quicker and create an intuitive level of service.

Furthermore, by auto-handling standard questions and queries, AI systems free up time for humans to cater for more complex issues – such as increasing staff productivity and efficiency.

AI and chatbots: defining customer service together

Though chatbots are often seen as synonymous with AI, they are in fact two separate entities. When merged it becomes a powerful tool that vastly improves customer service. Central to the bot’s power is the insight provided by AI which can process and read data to help understand customer needs, behaviour patterns, conversations, and ratings. Armed with this information, an organisation can personalise and further improve customer experience.

In addition, today’s customers expect quick and clear answers. Chatbots not only provide customers with an instant response to questions and queries but enable organisations to be available to their customers round the clock. Making intelligent use of chatbots and virtual agents – especially when combined with AI – further allows a company to scale its customer service resources, depending on traffic volume and seasonality. And matching customer service to demand can help drive greater brand loyalty – especially amongst millennials – increasing the total lifetime value of the customer.

“70% of customer interactions will involve emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML) applications, chatbots and mobile messaging, up from 15% in 2018.”

Integrate social media into your CX strategy

Social media platforms are ideal for leveraging AI to deliver exemplary customer service, and should be central to any successful CX and marketing strategy. Social specific CX technology offers us the tools to directly engage with customers all over the world, from creating conversation queues to prioritising DMs, or dealing with queries before they get out of hand. And just like web and contact centre interactions, users expect instant responses which can be leveraged by AI driven CX systems to acknowledge customer feedback immediately. Not only does this help with brand awareness and goodwill, it provides full and consistent visibility of social media reputation – an invaluable resource in today’s hyper-connected world.

“42 percent of consumers expect companies to handle their complaints on social media within 60 minutes.”

But the power of AI isn’t all customer-facing. It also lies in the information gathered, from capturing meaningful insights from customer-centric data, including reviews and opinions shared on social platforms, to patterns of customer behaviour. Meanwhile, social analytics help us identify content an audience wants and enables personalisation – thereby enhancing experience and driving customers to remain loyal for years to come.

AI has altered the business landscape in unprecedented ways, from changing the way an organisation markets its products to streamlining the sales process – and it’s only poised to become more sophisticated and intuitive. Undoubtedly, AI has had one of the biggest impacts on customer service, as well as influencing every other point of the customer journey.

AI is not just a feature of customer experience, it is the future of customer experience.

Leverage its power and find out how it could transform the future of your business – discover more about Tata Communications Contact Centre As A Service.

The post How AI is re-defining customer experience in the digital age appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

With many employees now accustomed – indeed resigned – to working from home due to the ordeal that was 2020, it’s a good time to take stock of how business collaboration has risen to the challenge of widescale working from home.

Collaboration tools have garnered more usage and more attention than they ever have, and every organisation has seen the nature of work evolve as employees embraced unified communications and collaboration (UCC) functionality in various forms.

In years past, the industry struggled to overcome an overall inertia that impeded adoption of new tools and the shift to cloud.  Organisations were not convinced that their employees would adopt new tools and services, and tended to hang on to, and “sweat the assets.”  Vendors were required to make a case for replacing old equipment and services based on hard savings, with little weightage given to the promised benefits of improved productivity and user experience.

With a forced shift to work from home, that inertia has dissipated. Organisations have accelerated their collaboration strategies and are now asking for help to move the entire workforce to cloud collaboration and retire their old assets as quickly as possible.

There have been some surprises along the way, not least the exploding conferencing bills as users maintained old habits of dialling into meetings on toll free numbers, even as 100% of meetings moved to audio and video conferencing. And there may be more to come as organisations get their arms around expense claims for high mobile data usage and broadband upgrades for their home workers.

But by and large, the widespread adoption of UCC has been successful, with employees embracing their tools and just getting on with work, calls moving to the internet, and the organisation simply adapting.

It’s been so successful, in fact, that it appears we’ve entered a “new normal”. As we head into 2021, it looks likely that a substantial part of the workforce – perhaps as much as 50-60% − will continue to work from home permanently.

“Remote or mobile workers are now the rule, not the exception, driving massive change in requirements for office facilities, networks, security and processes.” 

And with dust from the initial mass exodus settling, organisations are taking a hard look at how remote collaboration capabilities can be improved. So, what are some immediate steps they can take, and what are the new collaboration technologies that will likely emerge in the next few years?

Rethinking employee experience

The IP-PBX in each office may be taking an early retirement, and users are now using UCC soft clients and the internet, or their mobile phones, to make calls, but a surprising number of workers still have under-utilised, old-school PSTN numbers.

As mentioned, after the initial move to work-from-home, organisations took active steps to ensure their users joined meetings over IP to minimise toll charges. The next step will be to recognise that users just need a soft client, a data connection and a mobile number, and to retire the old phone numbers.

For organisations that have not done so yet, as a first step there are well established services available for mobile expense management and mobile device management to that can be leveraged.

Beyond that, however, most need to give some real thought to re-defining user profiles, looking at secure connectivity for home workers, and fully leveraging UCC soft clients loaded on the mobile device.

“There are immediate steps that can be taken now to optimise a digital employee experience in the “new normal”, and there will be further opportunities with the rollout of 5G over the next few years.”

And we can probably expect many of the cloud providers now offering UCC services with traditional telephony to start offering mobile numbers and data subscriptions, creating new alternatives to traditional mobile plans.  While it does mean a re-think of existing processes, security, and management, there are significant cost, productivity, and user experience benefits to be captured.

Rethinking customer experience

Challenging as overhauling employee experience may seem, it may be the easy part of adapting to the new world order.  Even before the pandemic, customers had already begun migrating to services that offered them a compelling digital experience.

With offices, retail stores, and many public spaces closed or inaccessible, a digital customer experience delivered over a smart phone is no longer just an option, but often the only opportunity to engage.  More rapidly than most expected, the digital engagement model has become the brand.

This is forcing organisations in every industry to completely re-design the way they engage with customers.  We’re seeing contact centres fully embrace an omni-channel experience across chat, voice, video, co-browsing, shared content and other media, healthcare is moving to tele-medicine wherever possible, and retailers are rapidly trying to recreate in-store experiences in a virtual world.

The organisations that most effectively leverage collaboration technologies, automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver the most compelling – and most customised – user experience will be the ones to survive and thrive.

“With no roadmap, and little prior experience to guide them, it is critical that they adopt an agile approach, co-creating with customer input on a small scale to find out what works, and then constantly improving the model as it scales.” 

Fortunately, there are partners like Tata Communications who can provide assistance, and many of the necessary tools and services are available from the cloud, that can support that approach without requiring a large up-front investment.  It is early days for most industries, but with entire sectors being disrupted by the pandemic and societies being rapidly re-shaped, the stakes could not be higher.

The new normal

The author William Gibson has said, “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Many organisations are finding that the pandemic has delivered the future to the front door and it is banging to get in.  The technologies that can re-shape how we work, shop, and live are already here, but implementing them is no longer an option, or something we can phase in over time.

To enable employees to do their jobs, and to retain them, it is now imperative we reshape a Digital Employee Experience.

To keep our customers and stay in business, we must reshape Digital Customer Experiences.  Whether it is the future, or just our new normal, we need to adapt and transform by embracing the technologies at hand.

Discover more about how businesses can shape a new digital workplace strategy.

The post The future of collaboration is here appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

COVID-19 has dissolved the four walls of enterprises and radically changed how businesses operate across the globe, forcing their employees to adapt to new working models. This journey to a ‘new normal’ has certainly not been an easy one.

IT teams scrambled to make changes overnight and extend their organisation’s digital assets, including applications and networks, to cater for a remote workforce. This immediate and unplanned shift disproportionately increased organisations’ attack surface, as the endpoints and data traffic flows moved beyond the secured fencing of the physical facility and IT infrastructure. And according to the WHO, there has already been a five-fold increase in cyberattacks during the pandemic.

“As cybercriminals leverage the disruption brought about by the pandemic, various government agencies have reported a multi-fold increase in cyber-attacks.”

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) recently revealed that India faced almost seven lakh cyberattacks between January and August this year. This figure is double the number of incidents reported in the year 2019.

Keeping these growing risks in mind, the Government of India has envisioned the National Cyber Security Strategy 2020, which will focus on all areas of cybersecurity through its three key pillars – secure, strengthen and synergise.

Furthermore, the Government of India has initiated the set-up of the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate awareness on potential threats from the dark web and cyber security risks.

As such, it is imperative for enterprises to comprehend the need for enhanced security strategies. While the WFH model is here to stay, both involuntarily and as an accepted operational practice, CISOs are placing a robust cybersecurity model at the heart of all decision making, while redefining their security architecture to adjust with this new shift.

Adapting a risk-based framework

Though cybersecurity has been stirring conversations and several relevant advisories have been issued on how to adopt a secure WFH model, the need for global security is to support this large-scale, unplanned digitisation with more mature and sustainable operational models.

“To mitigate the risks from sophisticated cyberattacks, it is imperative that instead of an ad-hoc requirement driven approach, organisations adopt a comprehensive and practical risk-based framework, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework to define and execute their cybersecurity strategy.”

Such industry frameworks offer extensive guidance, based on existing standards, guidelines, and practices for organisations to better manage and reduce cybersecurity risk. They also foster the awareness on risk and cybersecurity management processes among both internal and external stakeholders. In the process, areas of improvement are identified for strengthening the existing processes and controls and implementing new ones.

The convergence of personal and official workspaces clearly illustrates the challenges faced by most CIOs and CISOs. While an industry framework can set the roadmap for reducing risk and reaching the desired security state, organisations need to adopt an agile security model that can help them implement the framework.

This model will also simplify workflow and support the business at every stage of security planning for their distributed workforce, while presenting a layered security model across the domains of cybersecurity. For instance, a Zero Trust Architecture based access offers employees precision access to the enterprise assets across the public cloud and hybrid data centres.

MSSPs are central to securely connecting the distributed workforce

“As work from home becomes business as usual and technology facilitates every single interaction in the business sphere, globally and locally, a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) will be critical for organisations to spin up their security strategy for the new normal.”

Integrated MSSPs, who draw on best practices from industry-leading frameworks, such as NIST Cybersecurity Framework and Zero-Trust Architecture, can help align an organisation’s security requirements to the framework’s core.

With businesses looking to future-proof themselves to effectively function in the post-COVID environment, MSSPs will become indispensable, especially when it comes to managing enterprise risk and implementing agile cybersecurity models.

Read our whitepaper to discover more about how businesses can better manage cyber risk in this ‘new normal’.

The post Security implications for a distributed workforce appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

As enterprises seek agility and modernise their IT infrastructure platform, many have chosen to migrate their applications and business workloads from corporate data centres to the cloud. 

In their cloud migration journey, a significant number of enterprises chose to distribute their workload across more than one public cloud provider. It is also true that many enterprises have retained some data stores or applications in their in-house data centres for privacy, compliance or other reasons. This has resulted in a hybrid IT environment that spans across private, public and hybrid clouds.

The emergence of this complex architecture has created a need for enterprises to ensure their users can connect to business applications, regardless of where they are hosted, as if they were all sitting under one roof. This need has created a special demand on the “edge” of the network.

Enterprises can connect users on their WAN to individual public cloud providers using established methodologies such as Direct Connect or ExpressRoute. However, as more and more enterprises deploy applications in more than one cloud, this traditional approach runs into resilience and cost challenges. In addition, running applications across multiple clouds may pose security and compliance risks.  Insight and visibility of applications traffic on hybrid clouds is very important to deliver application reliably and securely.

“There is a need for a flexible network connectivity platform to connect distributed apps, which may be distributed across geographies or across multiple clouds.”

We at Tata Communications are building a multi-cloud network platform – IZO Cloud Edge, that provides both advanced networking and security services as Virtual Network Functions (VNFs).  These services will be situated at the edge of our network, and operate on traffic to multiple clouds. IZO Cloud Edge is a unified, abstracted multi-cloud networking platform that will delivers many operational benefits to enterprises including visibility, security, redundancy and application reliability.

“One of the many challenges enterprises face today is integrating cloud resources to their legacy networks, which are neither scalable nor flexible. With IZO Cloud Edge, enterprises can now deploy cloud gateways with advanced networking and security resources on-demand. “

Such a service enables them to connect their users to applications across multiple clouds using an agile network architecture. This will enable them to optimise multi-cloud application performance, policy management and ensure security.

Other use-cases supported include cloud-to-cloud routing both within a region or across regions, end-user to cloud connectivity and on-premise corporate data centre to cloud connectivity for data migration.

Tata Communications is launching its IZO Cloud Edge platform in Singapore and Amsterdam, with further expansions imminently to London, Paris, San Jose, Dallas, Chicago, Ashburn, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

“Our goal is to make it easy for enterprises to extend and deploy their networking resources to improve application performance, expand into new markets and avoid the delay of procuring and building expensive network nodes.”

With Tata Communications, all of this is available as a managed service through a catalogue of VNFs including SD-WAN, routing and security, delivering policy management, visibility and insights from the user to the cloud.

With our global reach and a unified multi-cloud networking platform, it is now very simple to turn on resources whenever and wherever needed, at the edge.

Discover more about how businesses can implement a fully secure multi-cloud strategy.

The post Offering your cloud the edge it needs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Cloud offers a host of benefits over traditional IT, whether by lower costs, option of scalability, better resiliency, reduced downtime, self-service or simply shifting budgets from capital expenditures to operational expenditures. Besides, the value of Cloud is not restricted to impacting IT alone, but also results in significant business benefits as faster time-to-market, better staff productivity, and the ability to grow revenue by better addressing opportunities. Whatever the reason to move to the cloud be, there is no doubt that cloud computing is fundamental to enterprise IT, and most enterprises have moved at least part of their workload to the cloud.

“But for many, the move to the cloud presents several unique security and management challenges because of which they are only marginally realising the value of cloud.”

Hence, enterprise CxOs are now looking to quickly establish the most appropriate cloud foundation and capabilities for their business, with consistent & complete control over their cloud architecture and security – all this with the right skills and talent. As enterprises use cloud services from multiple cloud providers, the complexity of managing and securing such an environment increases exponentially.

The importance of a cloud-centric security model

Putting a cloud-centric security model which follows a three-pronged approach in place can help enterprises enjoy a secured managed cloud environment. The three pillars of such an approach include:

• Ensure understanding of shared responsibilities

While private clouds o­ffer greater control, the scale of public clouds is arguably more important for today’s enterprises. However, public cloud providers require customers to take responsibility for certain functions and layers in the cloud model, making it essential for businesses to understand where the cloud provider’s responsibility ends, and where theirs begins.

“A good practice here would be for organisations to partner with a managed detection and response (MDR) service provider who can help proactively identify, investigate, and eliminate cyber threats and vulnerabilities across an organisation’s entire digital estate.”

MDR service providers, by the very nature of their work, can help organisations better manage the risk on the cloud by allowing analysts to focus on strategic incident response rather than administration overheads and significantly improve the organisation’s threat detection and response efforts.

• Design cloud model with security controls from scratch

The cloud has its own rules, and as such requires its own security controls – set policies, procedures and technologies all need to work together to protect cloud-based systems, meet compliance requirements and protect user data. Determining what these controls are, and who is responsible for them, is an essential part of any cloud venture.

• Align applications to their risk tolerance

Rearchitecting applications for the cloud is not only an opportunity to modernise and improve efficiency, but it also allows companies to adjust the risk levels these applications open up to match their risk strategy.

The building blocks of a secure multi-cloud environment

For any enterprise, at any stage of their cloud journey, successful multi-cloud operation will rely on putting in place the right strategy that moves enterprises effectively from assessment, through migration, to day-to-day management;  all the while, keeping security requirements front of mind. This will require:

• IT infrastructure and security posture assessment, plus design and security consultation – By using best practices, enterprises need to assess their existing IT infrastructure and conduct a thorough security gap analysis. These assessments will help uncover the technology constraints and dependencies of the enterprise data, infrastructure, and services. Enterprises can then use these assessment reports to design (with or without external security consultation) comprehensive security strategies and policies for hybrid or multi-cloud deployment. This will help organisations proactively plug any security gaps and migrate in a secure and cost-e­ffective manner.

• Migration and security control deployment and configuration – Alongside enabling a seamless migration and deployment of workloads and ensuring uninterrupted multi-cloud integration, it is important to design and implement a security solution that covers the entire cloud architecture. Organisations should start by defining who (identity) has what access (role) for which resource. Security solutions such as CASB would then provide a unified and integrated platform to detect threats, discover cloud assets, manage user rights, govern data and data access, analyse activity, secure data, and ensure compliance. The migration should be sequenced so that the workloads that benefit the most from moving to the cloud are moved first, realising those benefits sooner. In addition, taking a sprint-based approach will allow these workloads to be moved quickly with minimum, thus avoiding any unexpected impact on day-to-day business operations. Throughout the process, stakeholders should be kept informed so that everyone can continue to carry out their business-as-usual activities without disruption.

• Monitoring, management, and controls – Round the clock proactive monitoring is needed which will cover security incident management, system maintenance and BAU support. This is because managing new cloud environments comes with its own technical challenges including, ensuring proper visibility of available IT resources, continuous optimisation of the cloud environment and complying with cloud governance and regulations. Only with a complete understanding of cloud management and governance will organisations be able to effectively overcome these challenges and reap the full value of their cloud investments.

“Cloud computing is imperative both for today and for the future of enterprise growth.”

As per a survey conducted by IDC research, 56% of organisations in India have plans to increase significantly their spend on cloud services in the coming 12 months to improve their agility, to utilise resources better, and to optimise staff productivity. It is important to note that while adopting cloud, security is often the area in which businesses find their in-house skills are most lacking, since cloud security measures diff­er so greatly from those techniques employed to secure traditional perimeters and in-house systems.

With the help of a trusted partner who can help embed the right security and management controls, an organisation can surely reap the benefits of a secured and assured cloud.

Discover more about how businesses can survive and thrive securely in a post COVID world.

The post Cloud Assured, Cloud Secured: A fully secure multi-cloud strategy appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

If there is one technology that has catapulted to every organisation’s top priority list it is the cloud. Catalysed by digital experience platforms, self-serve portals, and virtualised collaboration, businesses are adopting modern technologies to differentiate and compete in market. Yet, the shift is still gradual. While some industries like eCommerce, IT, and finance have matured their cloud strategy, and are reaping the benefits, others are yet to fully maximise the potential of cloud – the manufacturing sector being case in point.

What is holding manufacturing back?

“Cloud-native” in manufacturing operations remains less mature than on-premise deployments. This is because it is still difficult to customise due to the complexity of the legacy processes, and also because it presents integration challenges in absence of readily available API or any electronic interfaces.

“Designing and orchestrating a hybrid cloud environment that suits business requirements and integrates different parts of the manufacturing ecosystem alongside existing legacy infrastructure is also a complex process.”

Regulatory and compliance requirements can pose a challenge for cloud models — especially where sensitive data is involved. In addition to this, IT units in manufacturing are learning the ropes of negotiating service agreement including license terms and conditions with vendors selling cloud-native business applications.

It is time that manufacturing enterprises realise their cloud moment.  

The manufacturing lifecycle extends right from R&D to demand sensing, from supply chain, production to distribution and after sales. Cloud has the ability to transform the entire manufacturing lifecycle by embedding digital and centralised solutions at each phase of the journey which enables companies to be responsive, re-configurable, adaptable, and flexible. In one word, it allows companies to be agile.

“Cloud can revamp the existing decentralised and distributed processes like demand sensing, production into one seamless and centralised unit which will help manufactures to design and launch more customer centric, targeted products in a time bound manner.”

It can transform the production processes, from how products are researched, designed, and developed through highly scalable and secured testbeds, to how they are manufactured, distributed, and consumed. Cloud is also transforming and digitising the entire supply chain and fleet management for better tracking, monitoring and management perspective; it is also providing an integral view on how the production environments are getting integrated into industrial supply chains. This enables the “just-in-time” philosophy, which results in production efficiency with managed costs.

Cloud and new-age technologies allows manufacturers to adopt many forms of new production systems, from 3D printing and high-performance computing (HPC) to the Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial robots. Moreover, cloud computing democratises access to and use of these technologies by small manufacturers. As an example, the Smart Factory uses different combinations of modern technologies to build hyper-flexible, self-adapting manufacturing capabilities. Frontline workers and technology interact in an open, connected, and coordinated fashion, reducing not only the overall production cost but the production time – which in turn fuels the digital supply chain and Industry 4.0 programmes.

Many manufacturers are turning to cloud computing to better manage their end-to-end production life cycle. Empowered Edge is being driven by IoT and the need to keep processing close to the plant, rather than on a centralised cloud server. However, instead of replacing existing systems at great expense, cloud and edge computing are evolving as complementary models to legacy architectures. Inside factories, this creates opportunities to access new data sources and improve insights into production performance.

More broadly, the maturation of 5G offers a creative way to decentralise manufacturing capacity into mobile factories which are smaller, more portable and supported by an ecosystem of partners. Globally, cloud technology looks set to enable manufacturing firms to increase their business activities and reduce their operating costs.

The impact of COVID-19

Global manufacturers are re-establishing business practices in line with new priorities. They are looking to: strengthen current production processes and workplace environments with smart manufacturing ecosystems, to improve worker safety, adhere to government mandates and ensure business continuity. The post-COVID era will be heavily driven by technology and managed by robust IT infrastructure, leading to borderless growth and productivity gains. The role of the technology leaders are very crucial in this time as they have to work on an agile digital foundation which can support and create digital models across the manufacturing value chain that has the ability to leverage and analyse data to create competitive advantages while establishing a framework for ubiquitous security.

Cloud can help manufacturing enterprises realise their goals of smart factories, intelligent production, and the larger Industry 4.0 transformation by enabling:  

• Highly scalable IT infrastructure to run the resource hungry high-performance design tools
• State-of-the-art demand sensing through real-time data tracking and data analytics
• Collaborative smart processes and delivery of customised products
• Use of automation, AI/ML and IoT extensively
• Implementation of agile and efficient High-Performance Computing (HCI) in production
• A cloud enabled digital supply chain which connects every phases of the ecosystem from suppliers to consumers for better visibility and tracking
• Implement data analytics and data driven decision making to launch more customer centric products and campaigns

To summarise, Cloud Computing is transforming the global manufacturing economy by digitising virtually every facet of modern manufacturing process with the “smart manufacturing” or “Industry 4.0”.

“At the enterprise level, cloud is impacting how companies manage their operations, from demand sensing to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financial management to data analytics and workforce training.”

It is not only transforming the R&D, production processes and supply chains, cloud is playing a key role towards enabling and democratising new manufacturing production systems such as 3D printing (i.e., additive manufacturing), generative design, and the Industrial Internet of Things. In fact, digital services such as cloud computing now provide at least 25 percent of the total inputs that go into finished manufactured products.

Critical challenges for manufacturing organisations adopting cloud is still there, which includes dated IT Infrastructure and data management processes, managing the ERP environment, up-skilling, and re-skilling challenges etc. The cutting-edge technologies like AR/VR, Software Defined Network, Security Solutions, Collaboration tools or the SaaS and PaaS platforms can transform the current landscape, but everything is closely coupled with cloud, as cloud not only offers the compute and storage, it also facilitates the technology implementations. In essence, cloud computing will shape the future of manufacturing in a vast number of ways, broaden the horizon for future modernisation and its impact will be profound.

Discover more about the technology that’s helping to make the world a better place.

The post Cloud moments for manufacturing appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Take a big-picture view and you won’t miss the relevance of the Choluteca Bridge metaphor to organisations’ response to COVID-19. Initial efforts by enterprises to address the tech demands of remote-working environment has resulted in the unexpected growth of in-depth digital adoption of working from home by organisations across industries. Moving people to safe places of work – en masse and in very short timescales – they’ve largely worked digital miracles. But the rest of their worlds are changing around them, too, and every element needs an equally determined digital focus at speed.

Crucial pivots of employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX)

Coined when COVID-19 erupted, the new normal may already seem to have become a hackneyed phrase and, arguably, we’re not even there yet. McKinsey sees that point. Coming up with a more apt analogy, the first of a five-part series ‘How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves’ shows how digital acceleration is shaping what the consulting firm sees as the next normal.

Opening the first volume, Kate Smaje, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, says, “Business leaders are saying they’ve accomplished in 10 days what used to take them 10 months. That kind of speed is unleashing a wave of innovation unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The crisis has forced every company into a massive experiment in how to be more nimble, flexible and fast.”

Naturally, Tata Communications shares that viewpoint. As detailed in our previous blog, our Secure Connected Digital Experience (SCDx) proposition is helping enterprises build agile, future-ready businesses. Designed with early COVID-19 lessons in mind, the focus of SCDx has been on enhancing the employee experience (EX) and the customer experience (CX). Where else, indeed? Those are the crucial pivots around which enterprise success revolves.

In this blog we’ll examine how SCDx helps enterprises to transform into digital way of working, enabling them to deal with the threats and create opportunities that the new normal presents.

SCDx PSTN-enabled healthcare story

We’ll start with healthcare, an industry that had to adapt at the speed of thought to treat critical COVID-19 patients, while continuing to deal with other acute and chronic conditions.

“Benefiting only a tiny fraction of the population, especially in countries like India, eHealth has done little for small-town clinics or senior citizens living alone.”

Medical staff in remote locations with limited access to technology were becoming anxious.

A quick solution was needed, and Tata Communications has built an SCDx healthcare solution on the PSTN. Promising least fuss to connect from a home or remote set-up, no laptop, internet, or smartphone is needed. Just a handset. Playing the part of a virtual doctor’s assistant, it enables doctors and patients to instantly connect and, for example, manage appointments. People just dial a number and our solution does the rest.

This connected community solution is attracting huge volumes, growing by the day. Strong analytical tools map language preferences and medical specialisations, for example, making the interaction more effective and boosting CX. Constantly adding new features, the same model is in the process of being extended to provide stress and mental health support.

SCDx multisector solution stories

Meanwhile, key process outsourcing, consulting, and financial services segments needed to ensure data was not only accessible but also secure, with cast-iron access authorisation. With various connectivity modes to cater for, the demand was met by an SCDx solution combining vUTM (virtualised unified threat management) and managed VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) technologies. Designed for leading companies employing thousands, the solution creates a secure office-like environment at home and elsewhere, assuring professional-level EX amenities to help maintain the highest CX standards without compromising security.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, our people were required to support their clients from remote workstations,” says Service Delivery Manager at Tata Consultancy Services, Rajeswari Balaraman. “Tata Communications did a splendid job, enabling secure connections to our customers’ networks through two-factor authentication.”

“Another industry badly shaken by the pandemic is manufacturing. Struggling with social distancing, businesses were wary of reopening factories in case an infected worker triggered another shutdown.”

Now, a Tata Communications SCDx contact-tracing solution means they can make back-to-the-factory working environments safer. IoT-based, it runs analytics that identify an infected worker’s contact list. Only those few need to undergo tests, rather than shutting down the entire factory. Helping the business regrow, it also boosts EX.

As a final example, we’re engaging with retail, one of the sectors worst affected by the pandemic. Household names like Marks & Spencer in the UK are laying off thousands as customers simply fail to turn up. However, in India an innovative SCDx solution is powering remote motorcar sales. At main dealerships, ultra-HD cameras allow customers to virtually walk around and sit inside a vehicle while the salesperson demonstrates and talks through its features. The lifelike real-time CX has an incredible wow factor to it. The customer can do the deal online, with digital signatures and secure funds transfers, and 24 hours later take delivery at home. A part-exchange can be arranged in the same transaction. Similar SCDx solutions are in operation in white goods.

Thriving in this new world

Today, more than ever, change is constant. Soon, temporary changes driven by COVID-19 will become permanent, and as such innovation and agility will take the centre stage in business’ growth. We’d bet that the hybrid model of home/office-working will emerge with two or three days or more spent at home every week as a matter of routine (with some roles having a permanent setup at home or at office). Apps and infrastructure delivered in a matter of days to enable remote operation will need enhancing and integrating. Smarter companies are taking this opportunity to become more sustainable and, in so doing, diminish the negative environmental effects – for example – of commuting.

“Elsewhere, transformation will accelerate in upstream areas like raw materials and supply chains, and downstream disciplines like ecommerce and logistics.”

Data analytics and AI will not only supercharge customer service, but also support better and faster decision-making across the value chain.

“The fundamental reality is that the accelerating speed of digital means we are increasingly living in a winner-takes-all world,” concludes Kate Smaje, confirming our thoughts. “But simply going faster isn’t the answer. Rather, winning companies are investing in the tech, data, processes and people to enable speed through better decisions and faster course corrections based on what they learn.”

While this blog has focused on EX and CX, the Tata Communications’ SCDx proposition and the suite of solutions is being developed and fine-tuned to address many of the areas foreshadowed above, ranging from micromanagement apps to enterprise-wide business model change.

Schedule a consultation today to know more about SCDx and how it can help you build a new normal.

The post Secure Connected Digital Experience (SCDx) in the post-pandemic world appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

What will the history books say about the last six months? Will it have the same status as other historical global pandemics depicting new social behaviours, with newly created words and stories of heroism, change and challenge?

Covid-19 has brought about a fundamental shift in how we live, work, play, socialise, care for each other and more. It’s hard to rationalise sometimes that every person on the planet has likely been affected in some way.

For me, personally, the change hasn’t been as hard to accept. At Tata Communications, we’ve had flexible working policies for some time now, and I used to work from home 2-3 days a week. So there has been little change – apart from getting underfoot at home.

“My workdays are longer now and I do miss the office banter and camaraderie which isn’t the same over video or voice call but, that aside, my colleagues and I have had a relatively easy transition into home working.”

It was a great opportunity therefore when I was invited to take part in the recent NetEvents inter@ctive CIO round table discussion on ‘Business Continuity and Agility during and after times of crisis’. Essentially to find out how other businesses are managing, not only to stay in business but how they are continuing to grow in the crisis and to learn from each other’s first-hand experiences.

The big digital shift

The session was chaired by Tim Banting, Omdia’s Senior Principal Analyst, Workspace Services, who began by saying, “COVID has acted as a huge technology accelerator and those trends that we saw taking place over three years have really been compressed into a short period of time as people have struggled to adapt their businesses to suit this ongoing crisis.” Plenty of technologies have been competing for the distinction of being today’s top accelerator, but it looks like a tiny virus has seized the number one position!

Those 3-year trends Tim refers to are crystalised into 5 key shifts that Omdia research has identified:

• From premises-based to cloud-based
• From multiple products to consolidated suites
• From knowledge workers to frontline workers
• From unified communications to team collaboration
• From intra-company communications to inter-company communications

Latest research by Omdia on some thousand companies worldwide shows that only 17% “were fully prepared for remote working as part of their business continuity plans”. The 40% majority were “moderately prepared”, 34% “had continuity plans in place but were not prepared for remote working” while 8% were “totally unprepared”.

“But what interested me the most was data showing that many companies had not simply reacted but positively learned from the crisis.”

38% said that, once the virus had subsided, they would encourage and support increased remote working, while 28% would do the same, but only for specific business functions.

Enabling customers in the time of crisis

When the virus began to spread and countries started implementing lockdown, we had to think how best to maintain constructive and valuable relationships with our customers, when much of our relationship management had been face-to-face. We immediately executed business continuity plans which enabled our customer support and sales to continue thriving even in the new environment – with over 150 enterprise customers supported and 650 COVID-related orders fulfilled in super quick time. These numbers have been continuously increasing since March. It’s indeed a learning experience, and the increase in internet traffic, plus our positive financial performance coupled with increased market confidence in Tata Communications indicates we have been working with the right strategy.

I also see a longer-term benefit. Organisations are discovering how knitting together a complex global network infrastructure – to take advantage of cheaper regional suppliers – can lead to more challenges than solutions. During this pandemic, reliance on technology has increased significantly, and working and negotiating with a single global supplier is far simpler and less onerous compared to working with a range of different providers or specialists, who may offer different service support packages, levels of flexibility and technical standards under times of stress.

Transformation of the work culture

The panelists at the event also discussed the change in the attitude to working hours as workers are no longer deskbound. There is a more flexible approach that really values results achieved, over time spent at work.

This new focus on results-oriented flexible working hours is surely something to welcome, but we should not forget concerns about the move to a ‘Gig economy’ where everyone becomes freelance and the old certainties about pay and benefits are lost.

“I think working practices will become more flexible, and this may drive more ‘freelance’ work. It will also help balance the need for organisations to reduce costs through real-estate reductions, for example, and the employee need for more flexibility, and with it a better, more customised, work-life balance.”

These are, however, just a few impressions from an hour-long session – so I recommend listening to the full discussion available here.

Featured Speakers:

• Analyst Chair: Tim Banting, Senior Principal Analyst, Workspace Services, Omdia
• Graham Budd, President and Chief Operating Officer, Arm
• Rob Greig, Chief Information Officer, Arup
• Michael Cole, Chief Technology Officer, PGA European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe
• Thomas Wölker, Chief Information Officer, Rehau
• Steve Jenkins, Vice President Europe, Tata Communications
• David Whalley, Chief Information Officer, Thoughtworks

The post Adapting and growing into the new world appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

When we sit back and look at the hyper-digital world we now live in, at how connected we have all become and how ubiquitous the internet has become to our day to day life, it’s hard to believe the world wide web recently only celebrated its 31^st birthday.

It was in March of 1989 when Sir Tim Berners Lee first presented the paper for his idea of a unifying structure for linking information across multiple computers that would eventually become the internet.

Today, we’ve taken that early innovation and molded it into our interconnected society. It started our journey too – from VSNL helping bring the internet to India back in the 1980s, to Tata Communications today which is helping enable digital ecosystems across the world.

But much like digital ecosystems, the world wide web didn’t become what it is today overnight or by itself. It took numerous innovations and thousands of people collaborating to get us where we are today.

1. Email

Email was the first step on the road to global connectivity, and pre-dates the WWW by a few decades. While some limited forms of email existed as early as the 1960s, its was an American programmer by the name of Ray Tomlinson who is officially credited with email’s invention in 1975.

He managed to develop a system of sending mail to individuals using different hosts across the ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. It spelt the first time the @ sign was used to link an individual to their destination server.

2. The WELL

Started in 1985 by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant, The Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link or “The WELL”, holds the distinction for being the oldest virtual community, mainly because it was the basis for the term’s coinage before the public internet was in use.

The website describes itself as the “primordial ooze where the online community movement was born”. It started as a dial-up bulletin board system and later transformed into the first dial-up ISPs in the early 1990s once commercial traffic was allowed. It has been evolving with the internet ever since.

3. Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

This innovation is what paved the way for the real-time chat platforms so many of us rely on today. First deployed in 1988 by a Finnish IT professional called Jarkko Oikarinen, he would go on to work in medical image processing and win numerous awards for his contributions to computer sciences.

IRC is an application layer protocol that enables communication in text form. It was specifically developed to enable group communications, but also allowed users to send private messages documents.

4. The web page

Sir Tim Berners Lee was also the creator of the very first web page that went live in 1991. The page was dedicated to his still young and misunderstood “World Wide Web project”. He ran it on a NeXT computer from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.

The page, which looks very basic by modern standards, includes information around what the web and hypertext is, along with some history of how the web was developed. It’s still live so you can check it out.

5. eBay and Amazon

These two juggernauts spelled the commercialization of the web when they went live in 1995. This is when the internet really started to spill out of the screen into our everyday lives as it harkened the beginning of ecommerce and all the opportunities – and challenges – it presented retailers.

French software engineer Pierre Morad Omidyar founded eBay as a consumer-to-consumer and B2C website. While Jeff Bezos famously started Amazon from out of his Seattle garage as an online marketplace.

6. Google, YouTube and Twitter

These three websites basically denote the start of our present information age. Google, founded in 1998, became the first truly user-friendly way to search the web for answers.

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin did this by creating a system that could analyze the relationship between websites and present the most relevant results. This led to better results than the search engines of the time that ranked results by the number of times the search terms appeared on the page.

Online video-sharing platform YouTube was founded in 1998 by three former PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. It was allegedly meant to be an online dating service, but they eventually opened it up to any kind of video upload.

And Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Its early prototype was as an internal communication service for Odeo workers. Now it is one of the most popular websites of all time with up to 500 million tweets sent every day.

To read more about other innovators helping to remake the world, check out our blog, Young minds taking on COVID-19.

The post From the world wide web to the digital ecosystems of today appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Finding the Right Fit for AI

Companies today have an unprecedented amount of valuable customer and employee data – information that can be made available to any device, anywhere. They face a challenge, however, in extracting and interpreting all this data in real-time to drive business benefit – be it to better serve their customers, improve products, or drive efficiencies.

Any company that can find a better way to leverage their data can steal a march on their competition, and in some cases their survival may depend on it.

“Many see AI as a solution to harness and monetise all this information, but advances in automation and machine learning will only help humans to better leverage data to make more timely decisions, better aligned with the needs of their business.”

Intelligence Augmentation

This approach to AI, wherein machines enable people to work in more efficient, meaningful ways, is known as Intelligence Augmentation, or IA. It’s an idea that highlights AI’s potential to help individuals become more agile and effective in their roles. And there’s a lot to be gained by adopting it as a company-wide strategy.

A Gartner report identified that the greatest business value AI will provide in the coming years is decision making support, not process automation. Organizations will see the most benefit from AI implementation strategies that aim to better engage, rather than replace human employees. The report further projected that IA will drive net job growth, generating an estimated $2.9 trillion in business value and recovering 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity in 2021.

Some key industries are already seeing the benefit of Human-AI collaboration. Global contact centers are using Natural Language Processing (NLP), to listen to and identify patterns in interactions. NLP and sentiment analysis can be used to monitor emotional levels on a call in real time, and to identify known red flags, so the agent can be given advice on how to handle the situation in the moment, or allowing the call to be routed to a supervisor who can intervene before a negative outcome is realised.

Insights generated by applying NLP to large volumes of calls, analyzed with machine learning, can be used to generate successful scripts, training materials, and real-time assistance for agents. In this way, AI is able to make the organisation’s collective depth of insight and emotional intelligence, gleaned from huge volumes of experience from their best – and worst – agents, available to every agent on every customer interaction.  Making AI-generated best practice generally available can raise the performance of the entire team, or even help bridge cultural divides for employees in offshore locations.

“In the customer services space, AI can help to make interactions more human. The identity verification process, loathed by customers for its seemingly endless manual security prompts, can be simplified and streamlined by speech recognition which allows the system to recognise the customer in a more natural way.”

AI can also structure interactions to maximize the customer’s convenience, as agents equipped with tailored information on an individual’s needs can reach out proactively in ways that fit the customers’ schedule and preferences.  Based on history, the customer’s pre-defined preferences, or the specific situation, interactions can be scheduled or on-demand, self-service or fully supported, and through text, voice, or video, on any device, or a combination of these. Interactions enabled in this way improve not only customer satisfaction and brand image, but also employee experience and overall business productivity.

Connecting the Workplace

AI can be applied in similar ways to day-to-day business communications in global organisations with connected, mobile workforces. Collaboration technology has already brought diverse, global teams closer together, creating new opportunities – and also new challenges – to effective communication.

“Usage of these technologies and the need for improving their effectiveness have only increased with work-from-home measures in response to the global pandemic.”

NLP and AI can already improve efficiency by transcribing meetings, making recordings indexable and searchable, and generating meeting minutes and action lists.

But given the global nature of business, conferences calls often require advance knowledge of diverse customs, sensitivities and, potentially an understanding of foreign languages. AI can also be used to generate profiles of meeting participants and to refine talking points based on publicly available information.  In the meeting itself, NLP could be used to process multiple languages and translate in real time, adding suggested nuances or context to points made. As in the call center example, AI could use sentiment analysis to identify emotions or cultural sensitivities and suggest alternative responses in real time.  We’re only beginning to scratch the surface on potential applications, but the common denominator is clear: AI represents a tremendous opportunity to facilitate and enhance, not replace, person-to-person collaboration.

The above examples are admittedly generic and could be applied to any industry.  We have not even begun to talk about the application of AI in specific contexts of vertical industries or leveraging AI and myriad data generated by IoT to enhance and extend human capabilities.   That may be a topic for another day, but in the meantime, one thing is clear: AI represents a tremendous opportunity to magnify the impact of the organisation’s collective human capabilities and knowledge to differentiate, hone competitive advantage, and transform customer and employee experience.

Discover more about how tech such as AI is making the world a better place.

The post Can AI make enterprises more agile and solve real life problems? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The newfound high dependency on digital has broadened the surface for cyberattacks and related risks, which can potentially deprive individuals and enterprises access to their devices, data or even the internet. It’s no surprise that some of the conferencing apps with the highest usage during this time, have been the target of cybercriminals. An associated question being raised is also around data handling and data privacy as a whole lot of personal information and call data and logs – that are subject to privacy norms – are moving through these platforms.

Just a couple of weeks ago, more than 2,000 Israeli websites were defaced with an anti-Israeli video and a code that asked for permission to use visitors’ webcams. In some cases, the code attempted to take a picture of the user and send it to a remote server too. Closer home and sometime around March, when the pandemic staring picking up steam in India, the district administrator’s office in Pathanamthitta, Kerala, was also prey to cyber attackers who came with a single intention – to disrupt information flow and operations. We also witnessed state sponsored hackers who were using this opportune time to infect their targets – Chinese, North Korean, and Russian government cyber spies were caught using COVID-19-themed emails to infect victims with malware.

As cybercriminals leverage the disruption brought about by this pandemic, a recent report concluded that the total cloud-based cyberattacks on Indian companies rose by 630 percent between January to April 2020. As such, it is extremely important for organisations to grasp the need for enhanced security strategies. CISOs need to become cybersecurity enablers. At the same time, CISOs will also have to dig into the fundamentals of security and focus on three key areas – a cross-functional and collaborative team, deployment of right monitoring solutions to identify COVID-19 related phishing and malware attacks and sticking to trusted partners and vendors to support their current needs.

Pandemic as a smokescreen

The pandemic has had an immediate effect on businesses who are now facing myriads of operational challenges. They are being forced to embrace new digital solutions and rapidly migrate to interconnected technology platforms to ensure businesses continuity and minimise economic impact and cybercriminals around the world are capitalising on this.

While we see a global spike in the cyberattacks, phishing attempts in India have gone up by 667 percent. The latest and widely reported threat vector, which uses COVID-19 themes for phishing or malware attacks, highlights the evident change in the nature of threats, as attackers exploit catastrophes and human anxiety to obtain credentials and deliver malicious payloads.

A multi-layered security architecture

Though, cyberattacks are not novel to the world and cyber security has been stirring conversations for the last few years, organisations now need to relook at their security framework and deploy a comprehensive, multi-layer information security strategy that includes Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA).

Further, as businesses focus on service continuity, Availability, which is one the key pillars of the CIA strategy, has emerged as a vital factor. The foundation of service availability and its technology architecture must rest on internal teams as well as long-standing and trusted external partnerships with service providers. This is most critical during these times, when a number of enterprises have nearly their complete workforce working from home.

Followed by Confidentiality, which is imperative as many CISOs are now battling a sense of lowered security with businesses operating remotely from public networks. This is where the balancing act of a CISO to facilitate different accesses, whilst carefully assessing security and risks to both; employees and organisations will become crucial and take centre-stage.

“Amidst this, Integrity is a crucial supporting pillar for digital business, as there needs to be trust around the data, use and transaction flow for digital business to be executed.”

Hence, Integrity can help stitch together data protection, monitoring changes and privileged access to facilitate business continuity in the COVID-19 environment. A robust security architecture supported by tools such as traffic and email monitoring, filtering and blacklisting solutions, device profiling and user behaviour analysis solutions can surely  help in pinpointing any compromised users or machines.

Governance and cross-functional collaboration

As the management and IT teams reassess the risk to their data and organisations consider their response, the CIO and CISO must focus on developing and maintaining visibility across a very extended and transient IT landscape. They also need to adjust the necessary equipment supply and remote access to the organisations network to ensure that the organisation can sail through the huge, unexpected surge in demand for remote-working capacity.

“However, it’s equally vital for various parts of the organisation, such as safety, security and risk management, to come together and make sure that the organisation continues to function seamlessly, and the CISO is a crucial pivot in the business continuity strategy for enterprises to facilitate this.”

CISOs are central to contingency strategies

With technology mediating every single interaction in the business sphere, globally and locally, the CIOs and CISOs have emerged as the key players in conceptualising and executing large-scale crisis-response plans effectively, thereby playing a central role in the ongoing pandemic, ensuring economic outcomes do not suffer, beyond repair. CISOs need to orchestrate various access channels and evaluate them against the organisation’s security and risk management posture to realise organisational stability.

“If one thing is certain in these uncertain times, it is that what may be secure today may not essentially be safe tomorrow. With COVID-19 disrupting civilians and businesses alike, CISOs will become indispensable, especially when it comes to managing enterprise risk and articulating security priorities.”

Use trusted partners    

In the current situation, the need for a rapid response to COVID-19 and with millions of people working remotely, the cloud has undoubtedly emerged as the single unifying thread. However, considering the lack of return on investment on buying infrastructure for short-term requirements, a trusted partner who can deploy and manage expert solutions from virtual infrastructure can help meet the immediate needs.

Additionally, in times of force majeure, being flexible on Service Level Agreements and the norms can help reduce disputes.

Discover more about how businesses can survive and thrive securely post Covid-19.

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Shockingly, email is still one of the most preferred methods of official communication. Although there have been several upgrades and enhancements over the years, today and much like most humans on the verge of their fifties, it’s  starting to show its age. 

With many legacy tools not designed to work collaboratively, plus a whole range of new, more flexible communication platforms that often expose some of email’s more outdated abilities, for many occasions, it’s no longer the best option for enterprise communication. So why do we still spend so much time dealing with the demands of our inboxes?

“For starters, not all employees are keen to embrace new technology, preferring to stick with what they know than attempting to learn their way around any new software or service.”

Ripping it up and starting again can be a daunting prospect, but with the right training, unified communications platforms now offer far more effective and enjoyable ways for workforces to collaborate. So how do you get people onboard?

Outlining the benefits and making the transition to a new platform as easy as possible are key to encouraging adoption. However, it is also situations such as the times we are in, that actually push us to the edge. Organisations across the globe had to innovate their IT systems and look at not only how new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and IoT can be built in but also collaboration tools to keep the workforce engaged. This increased even more as businesses began to transition to a work from home mode. In fact, in the week of 23^rd March, Microsoft announced that it had 12 million new users on Teams, adding that those users generated over 900 million meetings and calling minutes. This spike, has also led to further innovation by Teams too, where Microsoft recently announced that Teams video calls will support up to 250 participants!

Hence, platforms that offer so much more than just discrete back-and-forth messaging is really the need of the hour.

“While sprawling email chains can quickly become unwieldy and difficult to follow, Teams, structured chat threads with multiple contributors offer far clearer discussions while still allowing participants to share files or converse privately one-on-one when necessary.” 

To make all this possible, and for organisations to take advantage of a variety of add-on services, they need a well-established and networked Managed Services Provider (MSP). Today, a wealth of businesses can directly integrate their collaboration technologies with Microsoft Teams only with the support from a MSP, making it easier than ever to adopt a personalised end-to-end managed solution that can cover a network of regional or worldwide offices – technologies that simply wouldn’t be possible with email.

Video calling with customised backgrounds, cloud-based audio recording and transcription, in-line message translation, and interactions with Microsoft’s Cortana AI assistant are all possible with Teams, while hardware such as Polycom Studio, a USB camera bar for group video chats in huddle rooms, and the Elara 60 Series, an on-desk solution with a dedicated Teams button for enhanced smartphone collaboration, have the capability to change the way people work forever.

“Switching to IP calling and conferencing, not only saves money, it also gives businesses access to AI-powered fraud prevention and real-time performance monitoring – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what will be possible in the future.”

Artificial intelligence solutions and machine learning will drive interactions with both staff and customers, providing a seamless experience across multiple hardware platforms and in numerous different environments, from your desk at work to the comfort of your home via an autonomous, fully connected vehicle.

This expansion of accessibility will necessitate an increase in privacy and security measures. Advances in biometrics, and more sophisticated methods that use context, actions and behaviour as extra factors in the authentication process, could enable access to your devices just through the way you walk with the phone in your pocket and how you pull it out.

While email will still have a part to play for the foreseeable future, that’s likely to shrink as new unified communications platforms show their flexibility and value. As people who grew up with social media start to make up a larger percentage of the workforce, tools that look and behave more like the apps they’re used to communicating with, will be more in-demand. And, with so many benefits on offer, it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince people that they’re the future.

With the rise of the remote workforce today, discover and uncover more about the world of Teams.

The post Growing pains: collaboration tools and the rise in remote working appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Every year, it seems children are becoming more intelligent, innovative and compassionate.

And with most young people today, digitally-native – born into an already digital world – they also have more potential than ever before to push us forward technologically.

At present, the world stands face-to-face with a global pandemic the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades. And while large enterprises and governments are working hard to face this challenge, it’s also being taken head on by numerous young innovators all around the world.

Portable ventilator

– Kartik Tara and Vinayak Tara, India

Two young brothers from Haryana’s Ambala district created a portable ventilator with knowledge they gained in a robotics class. And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, they made one that took social distancing measures into account!

The ventilator is enclosed in a wooden frame which, when compressed, pumps up a ball housed inside. The ball is connected to a motor and circuit which helps to pump that ball, making the entire process automatic.

The entire setup links to a mobile app that allows for remote monitoring. It’s already been trialled in a busy hospital and the brothers are currently talking to medical professionals for advice on how to make it commercially viable.

Xermsol

– Rayvon Stewart, Jamaica

Technology student Rayvon Stewart devised a simple way to prevent the spread of the bacteria and viruses through contaminated surfaces. Originally thought up to help prevent deaths from infection in new-borns, the device has proved to be equally effective on Covid-19.

After doing a bit of research on which surfaces were most likely to contribute to the passing of pathogens, Rayvon created Xermosol – a device fitted to doors that automatically disinfects handles with ultraviolet light after each use. Tests so far have shown it to be more than 99.9% effective at killing pathogens. It’s easy to install and can be used in hospitals, schools, and workplaces.

Rayvon has been struggling to get funding for the mass production of his device. But it was recognised by the Commonwealth Health Innovation Awards and he hopes this will boost interest in Xermsol.

Corona-nearby and Corona map

– Lee Dong-hun, Choi Ju-won, Kim Jun-tae, Lee In-woo, and Park Ji-hwan, South Korea

A group of South Korean students in their early twenties have developed a set of contact tracing technologies to help track the spread of the virus within the country.

After a year learning programming together, they decided to put their skills to the test when South Korea became an early epicentre in the pandemic. They were concerned about the limitations in the format of the information being shared with the general public.

So, they created a website called ‘Corona-nearby’ which lays the information on a map to help people know which places are safe to visit. It uses location services of the devices to track areas where confirmed Covid-19 patients have recently been.

They also created ‘Corona map’ as a way to monitor Covid-19 clusters, but this also focuses on dispelling misinformation created on social media platforms. It does this by using raw data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and plotting it on a map.

The young inventors said they’ve received lots of positive feedback and appreciation for their websites. The deep sense of pride, they said, has motivated them to continue working in the public interest until Covid-19 is a thing of the past in South Korea.

Contactless soap dispenser and ventilator

– Ezedine Kamil, Ethiopia

Ezedine was already a prolific inventor before the Covid-19 pandemic came around. At only 18, he had more than 30 inventions under his belt.

However, since Covid-19 started to become a global issue, Ezedine realised his creative mind could be beneficial to his community.

The first pandemic-related invention he put forward was a contactless soap dispenser. It had an in-built sensor to remove the need for buttons and was also equipped with a manual pedal so the device could also still be used during blackout.

It was a success and more than 50 of them were installed in businesses, hospitals and the university in and around the rural town outside Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

But he was just getting started.

Ezedine, who is from a rural town outside Addis Ababa, knew the 557 ventilators, the entire nation had wouldn’t be enough if the situation got worse. So, he searched an open source online manual and built a mechanical ventilator with an Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) bag, all of which is controlled from a mobile app.

He hopes once the prototype is completed, it will be used in local communities. However, he still faces issues getting it mass produced, and hopes he’ll eventually receive some investment from either the Ethiopian government or private investors.

Covid-19 has underlined the difference that everyone can make in coming together to combat the crisis. And with their technical skills and impressive inventiveness, young people around the world are making an incredible contribution to the effort.

Discover more about the power of diverse minds and its impact on creativity in our blog, Diverse thinking – The key to creativity and innovation.

The post Young minds taking on Covid-19 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Organisations are now keen to absorb the learnings from this environment which pushed them to the edge to improve operational excellence. Business leaders are thinking about going one step further and remain proactive towards infusing new ways to retool their organisations. Over the last three months, they’ve seen first-hand drastic measures which were not practiced before have helped, optimise costs, and rebuild their operations while maintaining the safety of their employees. What remained common in the last three months and will only increase in the next six will be the rate of digitisation. We foresee the following areas where enterprises will or have already actioned to reinvent themselves in a post COVID environment.

1. Reimagining customer and ecosystem engagements

Over the past few months, there has been a sea change in the way people work, interact with their co-workers and loved ones, spend leisure time, etc. This has enabled acceptance of non-physical methods of ‘e-meet’ engagements amongst the larger consumer base. Changes in consumer behaviour and demand patterns reveal that organisations have an opportunity to reimagine ways of building new customer relationships by enabling effective digital experiences in their business.

In order to do so, organisations need to quickly compile an inventory of the processes that require in-person interaction, and plan to augment customer outreach methods with more digital tools as soon as possible. Relationship Managers across industries like Banking & Insurance, Automobile, and Retail need to significantly ramp up customer interactions through collaboration tools; Contact Centre employees will be able to deliver superior customer experiences using digital channels effectively; Ecosystem engagements across the Supply Chain and Sales Distribution Networks can also be strengthened further by using digital channels. Adoption of cloud native applications, containers, DevOps will increase to create a seamless application experience for customers as virtual will be the new normal. We will continue to see an evolution in the way we interact with customer support in the coming days.

2. Embracing the next phase of work from home

In every sense and it’s true for a number of corporates that COVID actually got the wheels of digital transformation going. Now, three months later, while the extent of such adoption may normalise a bit, it is evident that organisations see this as more of an opportunity to be leveraged going forth.

One of the biggest factors driving this change is the resultant cost-savings, both for organisations and their employees.

“While remote workers save on daily commute and other miscellaneous expenses, organisations in turn can save on operational expenses with on-site IT spend, employee workplace support services and real estate costs.”

Increased productivity and time savings is another factor that will influence this change. A study by MoveInSync found Indians spending more than two hours in daily work commute which can be easily recouped by working from home. COVID has helped organisations unearth these benefits of efficiency and productivity while ensuring the safety of employees too. In the next phase we will only see more metrics being added as we continue to develop and fine tune further.

3. Walking a tight rope

It’s important to note that the fanfare of digitisation does not mean an endless corpus of funds. There will be a renewed focus on working capital management and cost optimisation. For the CIO, this means immediate prioritisation of IT spend with a dual objective of investing and saving. Simultaneously, aggressive recovery of revenue and profits will be the immediate and compulsive focal point of all organisations. One of the ways that CIOs will be able to resolve this paradox will be by shifting their workloads to the cloud.

Business continuity plans will have to be thought through even deeper and wider to accommodate and plan for such unexpected pandemics. (Gartner’s Business Continuity Survey showed that just 12 percent of organisations were highly prepared for the impact of coronavirus). Organisations will need to revise incident response, business continuity, disaster recovery, talent succession, and vendor succession and importantly, stress test them. CIOs should use this opportunity to co-opt business leaders on decision making on the digital transformation front and lead the change management.

4. What needs protection has now changed

Today with a major workforce working from home, organisations need to be extra cautious as employee’s access corporate network from outside their protected office perimeters and potentially from their own, less secure devices.

One potential method of avoiding some of these security issues is to adopt the zero-trust security model which mandates a ‘never trust, always verify, enforce least privilege’ approach to access IT systems and data.  The zero trust approach network assumes that there are attackers within and outside the network, so no users or devices should be automatically trusted. This approach helps minimise each user’s exposure to sensitive parts of the network helping organisations better support remote work and manage risk.

“By providing employees with timely training and information about policies, companies can significantly reduce risk for their remote workforce.”

In the near term, apart from enforcing granular access permissions for their distributed workforce, organizations can enable anytime, anywhere monitoring of remote workers and their endpoints by leveraging tools and technologies like managed detection and response (MDR) and UEBA.  Lastly, the cloud-based remote desktop solutions will continue to play a critical role to facilitate the secure remote working for employees including amongst others, developers, designers, and researchers. As we progress into the next phase of the new normal, rest assured cybercriminals will also look at new ways to exploit updated procedures and systems.

5. For many Managed Services will be a preference

As organisations look to optimise their IT costs while ensuring employee security in the new way of working, the need for a collaborative managed services partner is felt more than ever.

“Few organisations will be able to tackle all these challenges and mature their IT programs quickly enough to keep pace with the increased uncertainties.”

Organisations will find that partnering with a chosen managed services provider can provide complementary strengths in building governance, technology adoption, addressing skill gaps and also support their ability to scale as per business needs. In a nutshell, accelerated cloud adoption will help organisations improve their business continuity plan, betterment in application performance, better management of the IT estate and most importantly, contribute to faster time to market in this unprecedented situation.

COVID-19 descended an unexpected manner and we were able to respond, adapt and adjust to the new realities in a short time. The pandemic has made us leverage technology even more and this could result in opening unlimited possibilities as we reimagine businesses of the future. Organisations which have shown such creative leverage and flexibility have emerged stronger, others will now follow suit.

Discover more about how organisations may re-think ‘business as usual’ after the pandemic.

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Logistics companies are in an urgent need to stamp out inefficiencies in complex supply chains. Doing so will deliver significant and far-reaching benefits to stakeholders and to our planet. The Internet of Things (IoT) offers a way forward but, until now, fragmented connectivity has constrained its value.

Seeking to fulfil the IoT promise

More than 10 billion pallets, 20 million cargo containers and 900,000 unit load devices (ULDs) are in use by the global logistics business. Failure to maximise these assets can be incredibly costly.

“I know that one major transport operator with 300,000 containers used to spend about $1 billion every year simply moving empty units around. Another multinational company used to write off $1 billion per year on lost, damaged, and under-utilised assets.”

About 10 to 15% of global freight assets are reusable items that logistics service providers (LSPs) rent out to customers. Sharing resources this way increases usage efficiency by about 30%, creating a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to ownership.

Managing these resources has proved challenging for LSPs, so the hope was that IoT technology would help track reusable assets more effectively. But initial solutions tended to be highly localised with limited device connectivity. Modern supply chains don’t fit into neat geographical packages. Assets cross borders, straying into territories covered by different mobile network operators. Without seamless and borderless connectivity, there’s limited cohesion.

Digital supply chains: the missing link

Here at SOLiD, we decided to fix that, but the business case had to stack up.

Given the thin margin of profitability in logistics business, I believe that the cost of tracking technology solution should not exceed more than 10% of the asset value for large scale adoption. Hence the visibility technology makes more sense for high value assets, more so that are reusable, returnable and follow the business models of the ‘sharing economy’.

We focused our efforts on developing an IoT tracking solution for reusable containers, which will allow logistics companies to track their assets across borders anywhere in the world, without having to deal with a host of mobile network operators. For this, we selected Tata Communications MOVE for our solution, to offer seamless and borderless connectivity on land and near-shore. Tata Communications added even greater value by customising their off-the-shelf product in line with our vision. With this partnership, we aim to create a connected supply chain, which will benefit the entire logistics ecosystem.

Liberating data to create value

To extend connectivity coverage beyond the reach of conventional cellular networks, we are in the development stage of a hybrid multi-modal tracker device called ‘Nirvana Blue’. Switching intelligently between Tata Communications MOVE to LPWAN (suitable for low cost local private network with minimal infrastructure) and satellite (the most expensive option and always the last resort), Nirvana Blue is expected to be one of the first solutions to provide seamless multi-modal supply chain connectivity, an approach I expect to gather momentum fast.

I believe that around 20% market adoption is the tipping point for IoT (currently at about 1-2% penetration) in the logistics industry and that Nirvana will help speed up the process while simultaneously releasing data from siloes. LSPs can turn that to their advantage. Consider the following.

Shortening cycle time. In the container industry, cutting an average 100-day cycle time by 10% saves $35 – $49 per cycle per unit. Even more importantly, reducing cycle time enables LSPs to serve more customers and increase revenues.

Reducing damage and losses. Damage and losses can be catastrophic, especially to ULDs in air transportation which must be repaired by specialist technicians. Some of the leading players lose as many as 60 million pallets every year.

Increasing profits. Some of the work we’ve done with our customers shows that cutting logistics costs by around 10% yields a typical improvement of 1.5% in annual profits. That reflects the asset-intensive nature of the industry. High gearing between the capital cost of replacement and operational overheads drives proportionately positive effects on the bottom line through reductions in the former.

New horizons for LSPs?

As these changes take hold, I envisage LSPs evolving into logistics integrators. With data at their fingertips they’ll be able to offer IoT-based services at differentiated price points using Nirvana. With what I’ve dubbed as visibility-as-a-service, customers will be happy to pay to see where pinch points are, with the information necessary to identify and rectify the causes.

For example, tracking the location of an asset could be offered as an entry-level service. Monitoring a cold chain, on the other hand, would add considerable value. In 2018, it was estimated products worth $900 billion were spoiled in broken cold chains. Helping prevent such losses could enable LSPs to charge a premium for that service.

LSPs thus have an opportunity to become orchestrators of the digital supply chain, offering a portfolio of services to suit myriad needs. It’s an exciting prospect.

As well as LSPs, freight operators, manufacturers and food producers could all benefit enormously from these developments. So, too, will our planet.

Winning together: the environment and enterprise

The logistics industry is committed to operating sustainably, and there are huge environmental challenges that Nirvana can help solve. I’ve already mentioned inherent difficulties in the cold chain, but it’s worth looking at them again in the context of food loss.

One third of food produced for humans is currently lost or wasted annually. Initiatives are underway to tackle this. Maersk, for example, carries 27% of the world’s refrigerated containers and a staggering 25% of its food commodities. The company is piloting ways of preventing food spoilage. One is cutting inefficiencies caused by fragmented global cold chains. Nirvana offers similar logistics operators an ideal means of improving efficiency and sustainability in their own cold chains.

So, there’s so much to gain, environmentally and across business ecosystems too. A final word about the size of the opportunity that’s opened by Nirvana. According to my calculations, visibility-as-a-service through connected supply chains would be worth some $5 billion annually in a $38 trillion global industry. Let’s go get it. Together.

Discover more about how the logistics industry is being transformed by technology.

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Beating entries from over 70 technology start-ups from across the world, Germany based alugha GmbH won the inaugural edition of the Innovation Hub platform. alugha aims to break language barriers by creating multi-lingual video content to enable a more personalised engagement with the global golfing fan base of the European Tour.

No matter where I’m doing business, golf is omnipresent. So much so, that I decided to learn the sport. Unfortunately, right after I got my license to play, I suffered a car accident which prevented me from actively playing for many years. I am still very connected to the sport and it has had a big impact on my life. When my partner and I first heard about The European Tour Innovation Hub with Tata Communications and the opportunity to serve the golf community, it was clear to us that we needed to participate, as we already enthusiastically talked about how alugha could be the perfect solution for golf.

Apart from my personal experience and business relationship with the sport, this competition struck a chord because the implication of winning would directly impact how my dad enjoys the sport. He is also a passionate golf fan but suffers a common language limitation: speaking only one language. This excludes him from truly experiencing the events, highlights and excitement of golf.

Viability and accessibility 

Right from the beginning of the competition, we pictured alugha as the perfect and innovative solution to carry the excitement of golf around the world in the native languages of golf fans.

“Golf, with its passionate fan base, has the potential to shine as bright across the world as football does today.”

Just imagine the impact golf would have if it utilised a similar multilingual strategy like FC Barcelona, which publishes all content in Catalan, Spanish and English. Most importantly, the PGA European Tour has the perfect requirement for multilingual content, with 48 tournaments in 31 countries and 37 different player nationalities.

One of the issues that content owners such as the European Tour face is deciding which content will be made available in which language. Factors such as market size, cost of translation and distribution channel determine the viability of translation projects, and thus the level of accessibility. It simply doesn’t make sense economically to make every clip available in every language, so, unfortunately, a lot of die-hard fans around the world are left without watching a near perfect tee off the 18th in a language of their choice!

“Translation is a time-consuming process, and hence for a tour as big and broadly covered as the European Tour, it is impossible to translate and distribute all coverage promptly so that it still feels fresh and relevant in the mind of the end consumer.”

To sum up, the reasons that prevent the sports broadcasting industry from translating all of their coverage into every language under the sun are too expensive, too time-consuming and not economically viable.

Technology that makes multilingual possible

With alugha, we not only have the perfect solution to simplify the multilingualisation process but also the technology to make the language, enriched content globally available. The platform makes the multilingualisation process more efficient by reducing management overhead costs, allowing translation projects for niche markets and “minor” languages.

Let’s get into the details of what happens behind the scenes as we look at developing and improving the platform on a daily basis. First, imagine the amount of data it takes to get a video to your device. But you are not alone out there. There are thousands of people who want to watch the video at the same time. That’s obvious, right?

So, let’s take it up a notch. Imagine the complexity of delivering content across all possible devices, you may watch the content with an iPhone, while your friend does it with an Android. Back at home you can choose to keep watching on your tablet, smart TV or PlayStation- and this is just the front end. While Apple relies on HLS, others are more comfortable with mpegDASH, one browser requires MP3 as an audio source, others may use it with the opus (audio format). The technical challenges to deliver a video are never-ending but alugha makes sure that the content looks crisp and vibrant wherever you watch.

And all this didn’t even address the most engaging factor: reaching the user in their native language. Up to this point, we assumed that the user understands the language in the video. What if this isn’t the case? That’s when it gets complicated. Now for every language, a video has to be uploaded. So, for example, one video for Spanish, one for German, one for Russian, one for Arabic, etc. Ideally for all 31 languages of the European Tour. So that’s up to 31 videos on your servers and you can’t even be sure that the golf fans find the right video in the right language. That’s not easy at all!

“This is where alugha comes in with a solution. Our player supports multiple audio tracks in a single video, which saves storage, time, and resources.”

But most importantly, the viewer can watch a round directly in their language! In addition to the audio tracks, all content is also available as subtitles automatically extracted from transcripts providing people with hearing impairment access to the content as well.

But how do the languages actually get into the respective video? With the alugha dubbr toolkit. We’ve created an online environment where language tracks can be added, where audio tracks can be directly recorded for each language and where collaborators around the world can add their voice to a video.

The most important stakeholder: the golf fans 

We believe in the power of inclusion and driving immersive, personalised experiences for golf fans worldwide. That’s why we see great potential in not only including professional voice actors in the videos but also inviting golf enthusiasts to voice their passion. Highlights, event videos, on-site impressions can all be translated and dubbed by fans from the comfort of their homes or even as they are attending the event, immediately transmitting the excitement of the sport in their native language.

“Imagine if it would be possible to use the voice of a fan standing on the 18th green with the cheering crowds for your favourite golfer in a language that you speak. The possibilities are endless.”

The immersion workshop at London

The competition had a great atmosphere of growth and comradery between the finalists. Together with our fellow competitors eyecandylab and Sparx Technology, we experienced a great week full of industry insights, workshops and valuable input from industry leaders about our products. The interactions with the experts from the Venture capital community helped in getting deeper insights into the geography as well as potential product feature enhancements that might be required to get the perfect product-market fit.

During the diverse workshops, there was one aspect that particularly resonated with us, the three pillars of the European Tour of being innovative, inclusive, and global, which perfectly match alugha’s vision and the fundamental benefit of multilingual content. All in all, an enriching experience for a young company like ours looking to scale new heights, one language at a time.

The post alugha – Breaking language barriers and reimagining the game of golf appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

We are firmly in an age where people have access to infinite amounts of data and resources online, designed to make everything we do in our professional and personal lives easier, and often faster. The internet is readily available for many people; it can be used for a positive change as individuals and communities can head online to stand together to speak out on issues that affect them. At the same time, the internet is also increasingly being used to spread misinformation and troll other users. The key challenge now is how to ensure that the internet is a safe space for information and sharing and engagement.

Is regulation the answer?

The lack of online accountability has fuelled the spread of fake news and cybercrimes while at the same time the online platforms such as I-Witness and SGSecure have empowered users to exercise vigilance by reporting crimes and harmful activities.Yet there is still a need for the industry to determine how underlying issues relating to online privacy, anonymity and accountability are addressed or even regulated.

“Privacy, anonymity and accountability all start with some form of traceability.”

Enabling law enforcement agencies, for example, to access conversations on services like WhatsApp is a highly complex issue which I don’t claim to have a solution for. But it’s clear that constructs would be needed which would enable traceability while also recognising people’s right to privacy and freedom of speech.

As far as regulation goes, Singapore stands out for adopting legislation goals to tackle the proliferation of fake news and spread of inaccurate information. The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), gives the government the power to remove falsehoods online or demand for corrections to be put up alongside it.

“The law also gives the government the power to order technology companies to block accounts that are spreading untruths.”

The penalties for breaking the law range from $30,0000 to $500,000. Examples – For individuals, the penalty for communicating false statements of fact is a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $100,000 or both.

For individuals, the penalty for making or altering bots for communication of false statements of fact in Singapore is a jail term of up to 6 years, a fine of up to $60,000 or both.

The obvious challenge is of course that fake news can spread in a matter of minutes. So, this law is likely to be more effective as a deterrent for those who might consider sharing misinformation on social media, rather than as a means to prevent the fake news reaching millions of users after it has already been posted online.

Blockchain: a potential solution

Alongside stricter laws, blockchain technology could be leveraged to combat this problem too. Blockchain is defined as a decentralised, distributed, and often public, digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved record cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks.

“In layman terms, imagine a spreadsheet which tracks all changes which spawns millions of other spreadsheets the moment the previous document gets altered.”

This technology could make users more cautious about what they post online as their movements can be tracked. Also, it removes the possibility for an external intervention as the records cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent documents. So, blockchain could potentially help act as a powerful deterrent for malicious activity online, and verify and track the origins of fake news.

The New York Times is leading the charge in the fight against fake news, exploring how a blockchain-based distributed database could be used to prove the authenticity of images in journalism. The thinking behind its innovative “News Provenance Project” is to show how easy it is to manipulate photos and “then circulate widely through digital spaces with few brakes applied from social platforms, messaging apps or search engines.”

“Ultimately the project aims to empower users to know where any photo comes from and whether it has been changed in any way.”

While there is an ongoing, at times philosophical, debate between the technology industry and governments to find a way to balance anonymity, privacy freedom of speech and traceability, it is evident that technology is both a friend and foe when it comes to information sharing online. The solution is therefore likely to involve a combination of regulation and greater efforts by online businesses to prevent the spread of fake news and other malicious content.

Ultimately, the benefits of the Internet far outweigh the challenges it faces today. So, my hope is that in the end, the Internet will be a safer place for people worldwide to engage with one another in a constructive way and to access a wealth of information and diverse opinions.

Read another blog by Srini CR on how the future of data will impact our privacy and anonymity here.

The post Blockchain: A potential solution to make Internet safe appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Picture this dreaded scene: you wake up one day, turn on your computer and you see a pop-up message. All of your data has been encrypted. You can’t access any of your work or personal files, your messages, and so on. Your machine has been rendered essentially useless, unless and until you send funds via a highly complex route to an untraceable account of a mystery person – someone who is holding you and your life to ransom.

Now imagine the same thing has happened to your entire business. Globally.

This was the scenario facing Travelex, a major foreign exchange and currency provider, as it dealt with the impact of an ongoing ransomware attack which first struck on New Year’s Eve. Many of us that are frequent travellers have probably used Travelex services and know that the company has many outlets distributed across several countries, about a 1,000 outlets in 26 countries to be precise. Currently those stores are trying to get back to normalcy, with staff previously having to resort to paper-based processes in an attempt to serve customers.

The company’s online currency services also went down, and partners including HSBC, Barclays and First Direct – which rely on Travelex to provide foreign currency options to their customers – are unable to offer this service.

The threat in question is a particularly sophisticated strain, the Sodinokibi Windows ransomware.

Reports state that this ransomware is available for purchase online, ready to be deployed by cybercriminals targeting large businesses in the hope of a significant ransom pay out.

Whether or not these particular cybercriminals were successful in achieving the $6m they demanded from Travelex is unclear. But the devastating effects of this attack reinforce the significant risks posed by increasingly powerful malware and ransomware today. So how can businesses protect themselves to avoid becoming the next major victim?

Stay clean and stay updated

While it sounds obvious, it’s so often overlooked because it can be operationally hard: critical updates and patches (often issued as a direct response to emerging threats) are no good if they aren’t implemented in a prioritised manner. In our experience this is more than just a workload issue attributable to over-stretched IT and security teams. Often there are cultural and organisational issues in play whereby teams are kept waiting for sign-off to implement new patches. A CFO for example might fear a patch causing downtime around key financial reporting periods such as month or year end. Delaying the implementation of patches can leave firms extremely vulnerable to new threats and should be avoided at all costs.

Be proactive through vigilance

Buying a security solution (or suite of solutions) doesn’t mean it’s “job done” for the year. Companies must maintain a proactive mindset. The threat landscape is constantly changing and simply deploying security tools and hoping for the best while new threats  emerge is not a strategy.

The “incident response” mindset is getting outdated and instead, companies must implement “continuous response” thinking.

This means deploying both detection and predictive tools and red-teaming services to gain a complete overview of your defences and addressing any weaknesses as soon as they are uncovered.

Companies should make this switch as part of their ongoing digital transformation efforts.

You’re not alone

Due to the scale of the security challenge facing businesses today, more and more organisations are turning to managed security services providers (MSSPs). MSSPs can work with companies to develop preventative security strategies based on the risk profile of the company, to reduce the chances of the organisation falling victim to an attack, for example by providing constant proactive monitoring and threat hunting.

If the worst happens, MSSPs also support businesses with emergency response to help mitigate threats, including services like emergency helps desks and proactive patching of antivirus systems, servers and desktops.

This would be a hefty job for a business to tackle on its own, especially at the time of a highly stressful and evolving crisis such as the crippling ransomware attack Travelex is currently facing.

It’s hard to overstate the impact this attack is having on Travelex’s business, its partners and its customers. The cost of any such breach stretches to millions with only a few hours of impact. These types of attacks are becoming more frequent, more serious and more damaging. No business can hope to have a 100% effective security strategy in the modern era, but a strategic mix of proactive and reactive strategies and well-chosen security partners will give any organisation the best possible fighting chance of averting and repelling threats.

As we head into a new year and a new decade, take a look at our top 5 blogs of 2019.

The post Travelex Ransomware: Lesson learnt to update to MSSPs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The biggest mobile payments company in South East Asia (SEA) is not a bank or mobile company but a ride hailing company – Grab. Riding on the stellar customer experience (CX) provided by Grab – GrabPay, the mobile payments platform on the Grab app, has become one of the first e-wallets at scale from SEA to be accepted worldwide. In contrast, the banking experience from traditional players has remained stagnant, becoming redundant in the eyes of the end-users who’ve moved on to what they consider a better offering.

“The writing on the wall is clear – if enterprises do not up their CX game, customers will just take their business elsewhere.”

The fact is that poor customer service is costing businesses more than $75 billion a year! Also, according to Gartner, artificial intelligence (AI) will be a mainstream customer experience investment in the next couple of years, with 47% of organisations expected to use chatbots for customer care and 40% to deploy virtual assistants.

While the basic tenets of customer service are everlasting, consumer expectations are not. As we make breakthrough forays into a ‘customer first’ dimension, evolving customer expectations coupled with complex interactions at every stage of the customer journey are pushing enterprises to shift from being ‘customer attentive’ to ‘customer committed’.

Contact centres and the enterprise CX strategy

Enterprises must focus on innovating beyond the predictable product or service threshold and delivering a CX that truly differentiates. This brings the role played by contact centres with the integration of AI and automation – the critical bridges between an enterprise, the understanding of hidden intents and its customers – to the forefront.

“The failure of contact centres to provide seamless, contextual, immediate, and personalised experience and service across the customer’s channels of choice could lead to significant customer churn.”

Transform your contact centre from a cost to a strategic asset by transforming the CX.

So, what do customers want? I believe there are three key expectations they have when it comes to contact centres:  

1. Prediction of needs and personalisation of services: 84% of consumers state that being treated like a person – not a statistic – is the key to winning their business[i]. In practice, this meansthat enterprises and especially their contact centre agents need to have constant access to a customer’s entire interaction history, analyses of their preferences, and key digital footprints, and leverage these insights to offer a stellar and tailored CX. Let’s take the example of a frequent traveller who has a Delta and SouthWest airlines gold membership. He has to book a ticket to Florida from San Francisco on a United Airlines flight for time convenience. He calls the United contact centre agent who gets a quick running analysis through their AI and ML algorithms that the customer is a United Airlines blue member but is a frequent traveller holding gold membership on other airlines. Hence the agent treats him as a potential gold member and offers him attractive options to choose from.

2. Omnichannel operability: Accustomed to channel and device hopping, consumers now expect seamless omnichannel services. Research from Salesforce shows that 75% of people expect similar experiences while engaging with brands – be it through social media, mobile apps, or while interacting with an actual person.

3. Responsiveness: Immediacy is in demand. Customers have low tolerance for resolution times and want fast and accurate responses to their problems. Research states that 66% of consumers expect a same day response to their query, and over 40% expect a reply within the hour.

Why are traditional contact centres falling short?

The biggest challenge of contact centres today is lack of timely access to relevant data and the inability to derive real time insights from it. Organisations may have a mobile app, a social and a brick and mortar presence – however these are often not integrated under a central CX umbrella and operate in silos.

“It’s vital for contact centre agents – be it human or bots – to be able to reference the customer’s previous purchases, preferences, contacts, and complaints across these channels and have a 360° customer view.”

Businesses need to provide exceptional CX through integrated interaction channels – voice, email, and chat, powered by AI-enabled and contextual capabilities.

Lack of cloud-based infrastructure and cognitive tools curtails an organisation’s ability to integrate and analyse their customers’ feedback and consumption patterns holistically. So, when a customer approaches a contact centre, they find broken experiences and slow service. In addition, most enterprises still primarily depend on voice-centric contact centres, limiting the customer’s ability to reach out to them from a channel of their choice. Today’s standard multi-choice menu options at the start of voice calls is very passé, and customers are often annoyed at having to identify and share their personal information to authenticate themselves each time they speak with an executive or log into a mobile app.

The intelligent, omnipresent contact centre on the cloud

While there are several contact centre solutions in the market offering omnichannel capabilities, cloud and managed solutions and numerous AI tools providing dynamic, predictive analytics – they aren’t meeting the needs of the modern enterprise.

“What companies need is a single solution that does it all – a unified, ultra-agile, secure, omnichannel, cognitive, and end-to-end managed contact centre solution.”

Pioneers with proven market leadership are heralding in cloud-based, AI-enabled contact centres that offer predictive analytics based routing, leverage data across multiple systems, and apply predictive analytics to dynamically predict every customer’s need and map them to the agent best suited to address the requirement. In these most advanced contact centre environments, humans and AI work hand in hand: an AI is able to target a specific customer request while simultaneously acting as an assistant to live agents, helping them optimise tasks and mine multiple data sources using a live transcription of the call.  Gartner reports that 35% of contact centre and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020.

Effortless engagement is crucial, not just between an agent and a customer, but also between departments and lines of business. So, your contact centre platform needs to enable seamless collaboration both internally and externally across multiple devices to allow your organization to truly elevate the service you provide for your customers.

The call-to-action for enterprises is clear – go digital or lose your market advantage. While upgrading legacy contact centre infrastructure and incorporating digital tools may entail immediate costs, it will guarantee a tangible and appreciating ROI in the long term. The new frontier for enterprises is to develop an ultra-agile, high performing contact centre strategy and start using CX for a competitive advantage.

Missed Ankush’s previous article about enhancing your organisations customer experience? Get up to speed here.

The post Is your customer experience at risk from your legacy infrastructure? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Technology has already changed the way we hail taxis, order our Friday night takeaways, and pay our bills without getting out of bed, but as the Internet of Things – combined with technologies like cloud, edge computing and AI – evolves to better serve businesses’ needs, we will see digital transformation across all kinds of sectors. Here’s a snapshot of a few industries that IoT will change for good.

Farming

Over the years, inventions such as the seed drill, the plough and fertilisers have had a dramatic impact on the way many farmers operate – but data generated through enhanced connectivity and the use of IoT devices will ensure they can make the very most of what they produce.

“Out in the fields, sensors in the earth will give farmers a far clearer picture of soil conditions and allow them to make better-informed decisions in order to increase crop yields.”

Similarly, sensors placed on livestock allow farmers to keep a closer eye on the health of their herds, picking up potential health problems before they have a chance to spread to other animals.

Construction

Employees of major construction companies could be working on a new shopping centre in Spain one day and checking in on the progress of a state-of-the-art football stadium in Russia the next, which makes borderless connectivity essential to staying on top of things. They need to be able to access all company systems without clocking up huge roaming charges or running into connectivity issues, no matter which corner of the globe their work takes them to.

“Meanwhile, IoT sensors can also enable previously impossible levels of monitoring, ensuring that structures maintain their integrity both in construction and afterwards, avoiding reliance on periodic inspections to catch potential problems and instead providing advance warnings of when maintenance work is required.”

This relies on affordable, low-demand, always-on connectivity no matter where in the world the project is.

Food and beverage logistics

Travelling can be an arduous enough process when you’re a human being strapped into a reclining seat, with a catalogue of films to watch and people on hand to serve you food and drink as and when required, so imagine what it’s like if you’re a tomato packed into a crate or a bottle of wine stowed away in a dark box.

Any business that transports products internationally can benefit from better monitoring of the process, particularly when conditions on the journey can affect the quality of the cargo when it arrives at the other end.

“IoT and borderless connectivity not only allow companies to keep track of the progress made by logistics vehicles, but sensors onboard can also monitor the temperature and condition of the cargo, ensuring that it’s transported correctly and arrives exactly as it left.”

In the wine making industry, for example, sensors in different parts of the vineyard could also give winemakers better insight into the health of their crops, the sugar levels in the grapes, and the conditions of the soil, to help ensure the high quality of wines each year.

Healthcare

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are veritable data factories, generating huge amounts of information on patients every single day. Appointments, test results, and patient monitoring systems all contribute to the torrent of information flowing out of each one, so as IoT devices become more sophisticated and widespread, and more medical equipment gets connected, there is an opportunity for medical and administrative staff to harness this data to improve the quality of care.

Devices that remotely monitor a patient’s blood pressure, for example, and relay this information to a healthcare professional in real-time could help identify patterns and support treatment planning, as well as alert a nurse or doctor if severe issues emerge. Through new telehealth applications, IoT is also transforming healthcare in remote areas.

Emergency services and maintenance

Most people use wearables to keep fit – but for someone with a dangerous job it could be the difference between life and death.

“In hazardous environments, IoT-enabled wearables, like sensors incorporated into protective clothing, can monitor workers’ fatigue and stress levels, particularly those who work with potentially dangerous equipment; ensure they’re not being exposed to harmful substances; or just track their location using GPS and keep them in regular contact with co-workers.”

This is just a snapshot of the transformational potential of IoT – but they demonstrate that the capture, movement and management of IoT data, and leveraging this data for actionable insights, is only possible with reliable, secure connectivity. Increasingly, edge computing and AI are also being leveraged by businesses in IoT use cases to enable real-time data analytics for immediate decision making and action by the device itself.

With Mobile World Congress 2020 just a few months away, my mobility and IT colleagues and I will be delving deeper into how different industries are harnessing the power of IoT, AI and edge computing to enhance operational efficiencies and open up new revenue streams. So watch this space…

Discover how technology is helping us live better and longer lives here.

The post 5 sectors that IoT will change forever: a snapshot appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

When the polymath and Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, said: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” it’s unlikely he was referring specifically to the digital transformation of your business – but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t right.

Such a significant overhaul can be a daunting prospect for any business and it inevitably involves some challenges. But finding reasons to put it off in favour of sticking with the comfort of familiarity will only damage your performance in the long term.

Think about it: what have you really got to be afraid of? Here are five things you shouldn’t worry about if you want your company to thrive.

Don’t be afraid of failure

Failure has very negative connotations in our society but some of the most successful companies have developed through building minimum viable products and applying a mindset of continuous improvement and development. This approach gives companies valuable information around what makes their products and services better – with documented processes on the learnings which can be taken forward – offering clear knowledge and sight of what takes them closer to their end goals.

“Re-framing initiatives as ‘experiments’ that may or may not succeed promotes a culture of learning and tolerance for risk-taking and failure, which can yield greater results than if you constantly stick with what works.” 

After all, there’s a reason why many big players in the technology industry have become household names.

Don’t be afraid of the unknown

This fear of failure often stems from the unknown. But with technology moving fast, you won’t always be able to let others test the waters and give you a model to emulate, meaning you might have to take risks where the impact on the business is unknown.

These experiments don’t have to be big, enterprise-wide projects. In fact, according to our study conducted in conjunction with Singapore Management University – Executive Development (SMU-ExD), KPMG and DBS Bank, giving smaller, more nimble teams the resources required to try new things is more likely to cause a culture of innovation to spread organically, with a greater level of confidence, credibility and receptiveness.

Don’t be afraid of technology

Whether it’s Luddites in the late 1700s, destroying machinery in fear of losing their jobs, or prospective railway passengers refusing to board trains in the 1800s in case the high speeds (a terrifying 30mph) made their bodies melt, or concerns that the proliferation of Wi-Fi networks would slowly fry our brains, humans have a long history of being distrustful of new inventions.

So while new technology has the potential to significantly disrupt business practices and fundamentally change the way companies function, its impact shouldn’t be feared. Even as game-changing tech such as advanced robotics and artificial intelligence becomes commonplace, humans will continue to have the most important role to play. As a species, we are uniquely positioned to interact with machines to make sure they are achieving their full potential and serving our needs as much as possible.

Don’t be afraid of leading the way

Digital transformation is a company-wide process but C-suite leaders, particularly the CEO, have a critical role to play in its adoption being a success.

“Even if they’re not digital natives, for the CEO and other senior staff members to be seen embracing change and demonstrating its benefits has a huge impact on its acceptance by the rest of the company.” 

They must also play an active role in directing strategy and providing direction specific to the company, at least until the process has reached a stable position.

Don’t be afraid of empowerment

Digital transformation is all about creating a dynamic company with a fast-moving workplace culture, but that can be seen as a double-edged sword. As your staff become more empowered, they must also take responsibility for their own professional development in order to stay relevant.

From my experience, I can say that these steps lead to a stronger, more diverse workforce. Staff that upskill themselves in order to keep pace with the demands of the modern workplace can help to drive change within their teams. If Benjamin Franklin could upskill by experimenting with a kite in a thunderstorm, to the point that he was able to invent the lightning rod – it doesn’t get more empowering than that.

Read about the importance of tenacity when leading your business towards success.

The post Things you shouldn’t fear when digitally transforming your business appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

If you’ve only got a pond in your garden, you cannot sail a yacht in it. The same logic applies, when you’re try to run the latest bandwidth-hungry applications on legacy network infrastructure.

“Business leaders are increasingly adopting a new approach to operations and service differentiation through the strategic use of technology.” 

Known as Business 4.0, this transformation involves innovations in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, analytics and the IoT, with enterprise networks playing a pivotal role in making this transformation journey a success.

Traditional networks are not optimized for the cloud. Organisations looking to take advantage of these Business 4.0-enabling technologies first need to prioritise a holistic network and WAN transformation to support a secure, hybrid environment that can cope with the rising demands placed on them.

What does SD-WAN adoption bring to the table? 

At Tata Consultancy Services, we’ve enabled countless customers to build more dynamic, adaptable and cognitive networks with next-generation technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN) and virtual network services (VNS). But there’s still some resistance out there to such significant change, particularly when it comes to software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN).

SD-WAN networks offer a number of benefits but the three that stand out for me are: total cost of ownership, agility and efficiency. Before you take the plunge, though, there are several things that must be taken into account.

• Cost of ownership: Firstly, consider whether your enterprise is displaying sufficient growth to see a return on your investment. In my experience it can take two or three years before businesses realise the financial benefits of the change, but we often see TCO being reduced by between 25 and 40 per cent.
• Agility: If your business is growing, though, the agility of SD-WAN can be a real benefit. Expanding to new sites would previously have taken between six and eight weeks, but we’ve seen that cut to under a week with SD-WAN – sometimes even as little as two or three days.
• Efficiency: Once in place, an SD-WAN can have a transformative effect on both network and operational efficiency for the enterprise. It’s particularly suited to cloud-driven traffic patterns, with features such as automation, self-provisioning, customised reporting and rich data analytics helping to make the most of the existing IT infrastructure.

Transformation approaches and considerations

SD-WAN implementation isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, though – it’s important to take your existing infrastructure into account. I encountered one organization that had chosen a particular technology that wasn’t suited to its current setup, and even after running a pilot scheme for 14 months, multiple hurdles were encountered in the first three or four sites alone. Subsequently, technology selection is being revisited.

“When enterprises move their workloads from the data centre to the cloud, it is prudent to redesign their links for greater affinity with the cloud. Without this, application performance can be negatively affected, which can impact the user experience and potentially cause the business to lose faith in the technology.”

One of the choices you’ll have to make is between a fully managed and a do-it-yourself SD-WAN. The former involves a third-party being responsible for the management of the service post-implementation, with a choice between a bundled network underlay or bringing your own network (BYON), while the latter involves the customer managing the entire solution independently.

A major consideration when deciding which approach to take should be aligned to the structure of your business. Companies that operate globally, with offices or branches scattered across multiple countries or continents around the planet, often have to rely on different service providers depending on which territory they’re in, therefore establishing multiple regional telco hubs. Irrespective of your final choice, some global network service providers are increasingly providing flexible, agile solutions that will enable you to make the most of your network infrastructure.

This choice also has implications for the security of your SD-WAN. Banks and financial institutions, for instance, do not want their transactions and associated traffic to be on a shared platform. For others, allowing traffic to go from the branch to the cloud means security considerations need to increase.

Traditionally, data centre traffic would go through a firewall, ensuring all the unified threat management is handled, but as the number of exit points increase, you need to improve intrusion protection and detection accordingly. Some SD-WAN solutions have integrated next-generation firewalls but if not, an organisation must address that at all points with complementary technology.

“Frequent patching and updating is essential, but with so many more potential points of vulnerability, you need to find a way to automate the process. If you only apply them to some sites and not others, it leaves your organisation open to attack.”

Some enterprises find these considerations off-putting, but the positives of implementing an SD-WAN far outweigh any perceived obstacles or drawbacks – and there’s never been a better time to do it. With cloud spends surpassing traditional IT spends in Q3 2018, the number of organisations using SD-WAN is expected to rise by 30 per cent by the end of 2019.

The benefit of an integrated solution

The partnership between TCS and Tata Communications delivers an end-to-end play for enterprises, combining our IT services and infrastructure capabilities to enable organisations to build a dynamic, business-responsive network.

Take the example of a deep-water drilling contractor in Europe, who wanted to consolidate their application and network providers to ensure that connectivity at their remote rigs remained stable. As an integrated operation, our One Tata approach resulted in an effective hybrid WAN solution, with SD-WAN-enabled singular accountability, and readiness in future for collaboration, security tools and applications.

Many of our customers have cited the network reach, IT expertise, consultative approach, reduced total cost of ownership, agility and synergy between TCS and Tata Communications as being instrumental in informing their decision – will your business be the next to benefit?

Read  Song Toh’s recent blog post about SD-WAN and network transformation.

The post The benefits of adapting to SD-WAN appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Contact centres as we know it have changed almost beyond recognition over the past 20 years or so. Earlier it was all about voice, database and software development kits (SDKs). Now we have real-time speech recognition, data analytics and APIs. Automation and robotics have taken the centre stage!

“What was once a department designed exclusively for dealing with telephone calls is now a multimedia hub handling multiple different streams of customer feedback.” 

To businesses of various sizes this has led to an almost overwhelming flood of communication, with customers expecting responses and resolutions more quickly than ever.

Those trying to deal with this with pure manpower alone will soon find themselves falling behind the competition, or having to invest heavily in staff to cope with the increased demand. But there are various technological measures that can help automate and streamline these processes, which not only relieves the pressure on the contact centres, but frees up time and resources, enabling agents to deal with more complex tasks.

At the most fundamental level, transforming to a cloud-based digital infrastructure increases scalability and cost efficiency, allowing teams to grow more easily in response to the needs of the business, but it also means you can offer a more proactive service that allows you to deal with customers across multiple channels.

“Embracing this kind of omni-channel communication allows you to gather valuable insight on customer journeys and offer a more personal feel with any communication and resolutions.” 

Furthermore, efficient and effective collaboration within and between different customer servicing teams, combined with innovative technologies, allow far greater use of the workforce’s collective knowledge and skills, no matter where they are in the world.

Human judgement and experience can also be augmented through the use of artificial intelligence and analytics. Basic things such as call routing can be handled by AI, but it can also take on other repetitive tasks and free up human employees to do more complex jobs or handle cases that require the kind of emotional intelligence that machines can’t offer.

With contact centre activity generating more data than could possibly be monitored and processed by human resources alone, running analytics on the information allows companies to create dashboards that show all the relevant statistics for their business. These aren’t just for behind-the-scenes analysts to utilise, they can also be displayed in the contact centre to provide real-time feedback for staff on the ground to take advantage of.

Enterprises – large, medium or small – can leverage the power of AI and analytics to improve customer satisfaction.

“The scalable nature of cloud-based solutions means that the insights are available to all- sized businesses, enabling them to take advantage of all the data their systems generate.”

Vendors that offer hybrid cloud solutions, as Tata Communications does, also allow business to make the transition at your own pace and in direct response to business requirements.

As more and more organisations implement innovative contact centre strategies, the analytics will only become more sophisticated. Likewise, advances in IoT tech mean that a growing number of future customer service cases are likely to be initiated autonomously by connected devices, so a futureproof approach to digital infrastructure will pay off even more noticeably in the coming years.

With bigwigs like Google, Facebook, Apple, Twilio and Amazon entering this sector, the growth of contact centres is imminent. Businesses need to adapt and adopt innovation to ride on this growth.

Read about how India is paving the way for borderless connectivity. 

The post Enhance customer experience with building digital infrastructure appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Would you be surprised to learn that businesses leading with customer experience (CX) exceed revenue growth of those that don’t by almost 15%? A Salesforce report which surveyed over 6,700 consumers and business buyers worldwide found that by 2020, CX will overtake price and product as the key differentiator. It also found that emerging technologies play a key role in influencing customer expectations. Brands that manage to win the customer’s trust have a clear competitive advantage. In fact, a staggering 95% of customers said that trusting a company increased their loyalty. Clearly, experience-driven businesses outperform others on attracting, retaining, and engaging customers.

“CX is not only a big driver of growth and retention but it is also the key to survival and sustained differentiation.”

Trust and ease of use: foundational principles for CX

Sleep products retailer Casper is a perfect example of how trust and credibility can win the day. At a time when retailers and consumers were convinced that mattresses had to be bought in a physical store where they could be tested, Casper came up with an original concept—the ‘mattress in a box.’ The company would ship mattresses to customers who could test it for a whole 100 days, instead of the three minutes they would customarily receive at a physical store. A relatively simple concept and yet, the company, founded in 2014, posted revenues in the region of $400 million and is valued at over a billion.

Another brand that turned traditional customer experience on its head was Dollar Shave Club. Founded in 2011, it offered a $1 monthly subscription service to razors. Not only did they remove the friction of buying a low-involvement product like razors each month, but they also made it easy to do so. When customer experience expert Shep Hyken’s razor handle broke, they replaced it, no questions asked. As he says, “Everything Dollar Shave Club does, creates confidence. Confidence gives them a great reputation and loyal repeat customers – or should I say, members. Dollar Shave Club is the total package. Great value with great service.” Five years after inception, they were acquired by Unilever for $1 billion.

Clearly, both these brands set a benchmark for exemplary customer experience by demonstrating that they had the customer’s best interests at heart. They managed to delight customers through the two simplest and yet timeless CX principles: ease of use and trust.

“They both began at a disruptive point of the customer journey—not at the point of where their profits would come from but what would be most advantageous to the customer. The revenue followed.” 

B2B companies too would do well to learn from these examples—and innovate relentlessly.

The power of recommendation as a growth multiplier

In the digital age, the stakes and opportunities are higher than ever before. Digitisation works in two ways: one, it allows the disruption of traditional business models, and two, it allows positive and negative experiences to go viral.

Today, negative customer experiences are extremely costly because bad customer reviews almost always translate to poor Net Promoter Scores (NPS); in turn, impacting profitability. Potential consumers gather information from primary and secondary sources, including surveys and peer reviews. This could mean that purchase decisions are made entirely on the basis of another person’s testimonial.

As Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, once pointed out, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” And they do. On an average, customers are about 50% more likely to report bad experiences than good ones.

As we can see from Shep Hyken’s description of his experience with the Dollar Shave Club, these testimonials often place emphasis on how an issue was handled, the support a customer received and the processes a company followed, rather than just the end resolution.

What it means to put customers first

Often, companies imagine that technical and functional prowess translates to better profit margins. While products definitely need to meet expectations, what sets one brand apart from another is good service support and a strong amalgamation of people and processes.

According to a Gartner survey, companies that implement customer experience projects should begin by focusing on ways they collect and analyse customer feedback. This is a great starting point for meeting your customers’ expectations.

The post The power of customer experience in the age of digitization appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

So, you’re in a hurry to go to a store and buy a shirt – having decided you need a formal style. But you meet a sales adviser there who greets you like a long–lost friend and starts showing you some appealing, more casual alternatives. The result? You’re confused and no longer feel sure what you want after all.  Surprising as it may seem, this scenario says a lot about the cloud purchase process.

You may have read my earlier blogs ‘Turbulence in the cloud’ and ‘How to secure your cloud’ where I discussed how to make the most of the cloud and how to secure it. I recently had an interesting meeting with a customer who had read both of them and asked me a pivotal question: “What you wrote is fine. But how do I choose the right cloud?” If this challenge rings a bell with you – read on.

Make a plan

The good news is that, by following a series of carefully orchestrated steps, you can make the right choice that leads to a planned move to the cloud – so that you’re not just ready to operate there, but also innovate. The first stage involves assessing your current digital estate, planning the best approach to migrating, and then doing so without disruption to operations. You’ll then be better placed to manage the routine, optimise redundancy and re-innovate the overall architecture to upgrade.

“The following is how I broke down the steps and actions for my inquisitive customer. Hopefully, it’s an approach that can work for you too.”

Step 1: Where are you now?

Action 1: Make an inventory of your apps

Classify apps by those parameters that define your business user or customer requirements – such as whether they need to be:

• On internal or external infrastructure – namely within a private network or web-facing
• Rendered only on a desktop – or whether the apps need to be mobile–friendly too
• Regulated or non–regulated. And if regulated, what are the specific regulations they need to adhere to?

This process can help you define which apps can move to a public cloud and which should remain in a private cloud/hosted architecture.

Action 2: Take stock of the investment you’ve made in your data centre, servers, storage boxes, switch etc

How old they are on your books? If you’ve invested in the servers just a year back, your CFO is not going to be happy if you inform them you’re going to move to cloud and don’t know what to do with the existing investment.

Action 3: Define each app’s network requirement

Define the bandwidth requirement, the number of sessions, whether the app has external users or only internal users etc.

Action 4: Define the security architecture required for your app stack

This should not only depend on the confidentiality level of the payload information, but also consider regulatory compliances and end-user or end customer requirements.

Note: You can get help on this from CSPs or providers such as Tata Communications who can run this as a consultancy project for you.

Step 2: Plan the best approach towards migration – based on the holistic picture drawn out in step 1 above

For example, putting a figure on the investment you’ve already made will define when you can move cloud-ready apps to the cloud.

Step 3: Migrate without disrupting your operations

Plan a dual run of your business’ old and new architecture for at least three months (as per best practice) to ensure stable operations.

Steps 4 and 5: Run and optimise

While running BAU operations, you now relentlessly explore the opportunities to optimise. This can also mean bringing in apps from hosted architecture to the cloud when the servers are at the end of life (EOL). You can also run a step 6 here – where you can look at re–innovating to upgrade. But that’s for another day.

“Breaking up the process into easy–to–implement steps in this way will help you take things forward easily, as my customer did. This allowed them to define the right cloud migration approach, rather than simply selecting the vendor.”

In some cases – such as when we worked with Infiniti Retail – we’ve helped at every stage of the journey, starting with designing the right architecture for migration and working with them through to optimisation. Once they stabilise the migration, I’m sure that the next step – re-innovating the overall architecture – will not be too far away either.

Read more about steps you can take to improve your business in a digital age.

The post Kick confusion into touch when buying cloud appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Three years ago, Bluestar – an air conditioning and commercial refrigeration company was facing a massive challenge to provide timely customer-service across more than 1200 customer sites where their products were installed. The company then leveraged IoT to connect all installed units to a central location to identify and predict an issue, enabling them to start remote diagnosis thus saving cost and time. Within two years, the company succeeded in IoT enabling 600 customers’ sites and has now incorporated IoT across multiple areas in the company.

A major business disruptor providing a wealth of opportunities, IoT’s potential is limitless. However, today’s IoT market is overcrowded and fragmented, with different technologies being offered by different players, vying for both market share and mindshare, hindering the market from scaling. The result? A significant number of IoT projects are taking long to reach scale and creating the impact they intended to.

“A well-planned and well-executed Proof of Concept (PoC) is important to identify design challenges without large-scale financial or infrastructure challenges so that enterprises are empowered to begin an end-to-end IoT implementation journey.”

Through our experience and supporting research on the Indian IoT landscape, we believe that enterprises must keep in mind the 6 S’s right at the onset of designing their IoT roadmap: Solution, Surplus, Skill, Speed, Security and Scale.

Solution

While IoT continues to be a hot topic globally, business imperatives should steer the technology, and not the other way around. First, identify the business need – this could be discovering operational inefficiencies, understanding the pulse of your customer when using your products or creating altogether new revenue streams. Once you have determined the need, map it to the right IoT product / solution for it.

Surplus

The ROI from IoT is largely perceived to be in the form of cost savings and increase in efficiency. But with the right use of the technology, there is potential to also introduce new streams of revenue for the business. For instance, Sheela Foam (the makers of Sleepwell mattress) use IoT to build personalised, on-demand mattresses. The company opened IoT-enabled experience zones in showrooms across India wherein sensors and 3D imaging effectively analyse a customer’s pressure points and weight distribution and accordingly design a personalised mattress. Through this, the company succeeded in transforming India’s mattress manufacturing industry.

“Instead of looking at IoT as a subset of a company’s digital transformation project, it’s important to outline the long-term, bigger goals an enterprise seeks to achieve and then start with the quick wins, instead of waiting for full scale disruption.”

Skill

Enterprises must shift their focus from just prioritising technology capabilities to also assessing the IoT providers’ skill, especially their ability to bring all the pieces in the ecosystem together offering scalability, ease-of-use and overall fit to deliver a complete integrated solution.

Speed

The outcome of a PoC is a good way to determine if the IoT idea can be turned in to a reality. It is not to establish the best process or understand the market potential – this comes at a later stage. Think of your turn around time (TAT) and work towards setting a minimum TAT for your project. The other approach is to learn from the experience of others and leverage the learnings from other use cases.

Security

In several organisations today, cybersecurity has become a boardroom issue. While the security awareness in enterprises is growing, the adoption remains a key challenge in the experimental phase and this only intensifies with scale as security gets left out resulting in a no-ownership issue.

A recent research shows that enterprise customers are willing to buy more IoT devices as well as pay more (nearly 22 per cent more on average) if security is addressed effectively. Hence, incorporating security right from the onset should be a no-brainer

Scale

Interestingly, research from the Ovum study has shown that majority of enterprises who have deployed IoT, have seen measurable benefits within 12 months of deployment.  The best way is to start small and then scale up gradually.

We have seen our customers start with a pilot but also have a plan to scale fast once they see the solution performing. But as more customers adopt IoT, we expect the newer adopters to go for scale right from the start.

This is also reflected in how some of the solution providers are scaling. Once the solution has been implemented successfully, the uptake is fast. For instance, Bengaluru’s WeGoT, an IoT-based utility solutions company took three years to establish its prototype VenAqua, a solution that empowers customers with data and recommendations on minimising water consumption in homes. The project was first rolled out in only 500 homes and a year later, it expanded to 2 cities and more than 2,000 homes. Today, the solution is present in more than 20,000 homes and has saved 550 million litres of water!

“The benefits of IoT cut across process efficiencies, new business opportunities, enhanced customer service and engagement while also bringing in productivity and cost savings.”

Following the 6 S guide can help move your IoT projects from PoC to deployment at scale.

Discover how India is putting its best digital foot forward here. 

The post From Poc to scale a roadmap for enterprises building everything IoT appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Everyone agrees: collaboration is key to becoming a digital business.

According to the Wainhouse Research in their 2017 End-user Video Conferencing Survey, there’s been a 50% increase in collaborative intensity in the workplace over the last 10 years. 97% of businesses believe technology-enabled workplace collaboration is key to competitive advantage – hardly surprising when 90% of a knowledge worker’s time is spent in meetings, messaging or on the phone.

“Yet, despite its importance, companies still struggle to make collaborative projects work.”

McKinsey research, conducted in collaboration with the University of Oxford, found that on average, large IT projects (over $15 million) run 45% over budget and 7% over time. They also deliver 56%  less value than predicted.

A separate 2018 study by Forrester reported in Forbes found that 35% of enterprise projects fail to meet their original business intent.

So, what’s going wrong? And how can companies make sure their collaboration projects live up to expectations?

There are many factors at play, as we’ll see, but one stands out above all others.

“For collaboration to work you must focus first and foremost on your users – what they do and what they want.”

Understand how people want to use collaboration

Collaboration is never vanilla flavoured. The tasks people use it for vary considerably from industry to industry.

In the financial services sector, for example, companies use collaboration to inform branches about sales promotions, train staff remotely and broadcast morning briefings. They even use video chat to give high net worth clients the personal touch remotely.

In manufacturing, by contrast, the use cases are quite different. Here, collaboration is used to accelerate the design process across a dispersed R&D ecosystem, as well as coordinate with supply chain partners around the world.

Over in the film, TV and music industries, collaboration takes on yet another meaning. The product is digital content, so when companies collaborate, they’re actually sharing high definition video and audio files. User experience expectations are much higher and they need their collaboration service to support studio-quality sound and visuals.

Ask users about their preferences and expectations

Today there are a myriad of collaboration options – and not everyone wants to connect the same way.

Although Wainhouse Research states that 84% of knowledge workers carry a smartphone or tablet, only  15% like to use it to connect to video conferences. 14% tend to use a dedicated video conferencing system, but the biggest proportion (39%) connect via their desktop or laptop computer.

Companies need to ask their employees whether they want an app on their device or if they’d rather join from a huddle space or their desk. Senior executives may need the privacy of an immersive video conferencing suite, but other groups may not like using them. It’s important to understand the size of the groups that will come together either in informal huddle spaces or formal conference rooms, and whether they’ll make use of features like digital whiteboards if you provide them.

The results of this sort of research can be surprising. One of our clients, the civil engineering company Gammon, installed a new corporate network to all its construction sites that could support modern collaboration techniques. Instead of doing project reviews every few months face to face, to everyone’s surprise, they started doing them weekly using video conferencing.

“Employees watched incredulously as we connected projects by video,” A.P. Kamath, Group Head of IT, told us. “It has changed the way we work, allowing our people to connect with each other more effectively.” It’s also cut travel costs for the company by an impressive 30%.

Follow our methodology for success

Drawing on our vast experience implementing all kinds of collaboration services for many of the world’s leading organisations, Tata Communications has developed a reliable, six-step methodology to deliver a successful project.

Step 1: Set your collaboration strategy based on user experience – make sure you know what your overall business vision is and set a collaboration strategy that aligns with it.

Step 2: Assess, develop and adopt – talk to end users about what they do and develop use cases for different industries, job functions and demographic groups.

Step 3: Select the right technology and provider – opt for a technology platform that will meet the use cases and user experience expectations you’ve identified. Select a provider who can integrate the new technology with what you already have.

Step 4: Finalise your plan – be sure to include metrics of how you intend to measure success and return on investment.

Step 5: Beta testing – test your use case scenarios, develop a training and adoption plan, and carry out readiness assessments of systems and security.

Step 6: Launch – implement your adoption plan, tell people about the new service, show them what it can do, and encourage them to use it.

See our full collaboration project methodology in this infographic.

This is why many companies work with collaboration experts

It’s clear there’s much more to collaboration than simply buying some technology or signing up to a SaaS offering. This is why so many organisations turn to a leading provider of global digital infrastructure services to ensure their collaboration strategy succeeds.

“The right experts can help you achieve a correct alignment between business vision and collaboration strategy, understand user experience expectations and define use cases.” 

They are also able to efficiently integrate new technology with what you already have, and provide all the other elements – such as cloud, networking and security – on which collaboration depends.

Critically, adoption is managed so that your people actually use the services you provide, and you achieve your target return on investment. The beauty of leveraging services like these is that you can focus on what’s important  – your business.

Learn more about the technology that can improve your collaboration.

The post Six steps to successful collaboration appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Excitement around 5G continues unabated. Yet, amidst the excitement, it is important to be pragmatic and identify the short to medium-term use case opportunities where 5G can make a significant difference compared with existing 4G/LTE network services. This includes enabling the shift in data processing and management towards the mobile network edge, and targeting the applications that are likely to benefit the most from 5G at the beginning.

5G and the edge

“The heavy data demand in modern mobile communication networks means that a traditional architecture – which puts data processing, storage and management at the heart of the network – is increasingly inefficient.”

The result is that increasingly, service creation and delivery needs to happen at the network edge.

Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) uses a distributed, cloud-based architecture and is seen as a logical next step for mobile network architectures. MEC enables mobile network operators to address growing demand for IoT connectivity, meeting the needs for low-latency, high-availability connectivity and real-time network data. What’s more, MEC is also ideal for 5G because it complements the software-driven, fully programmatic network models planned for 5G.

Transformational potential of 5G

Industry analysts estimate that widespread adoption of 5G is just a few years away, with China, South Korea and Japan likely to be the markets leading the way.  While at Tata Communications we don’t operate our own cellular network, we’re watching closely the developments in 5G to ensure that we’re able to optimise our own services to meet our mobility and IoT customers’ evolving requirements.

There are a number of use case areas that I am excited about when I consider the potential of 5G in industrial IoT-type applications, from automotive through to mixed reality apps.

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-dump-truck-near-pine-tress-during-daytime-93398/

Automotive: this includes so-called V2X communications (Vehicle-to-Vehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure etc.), including things like automated toll road operations, hazard warning, collision avoidance or congestion avoidance systems. Cellular V2X is gaining traction both within the automotive industry and the broader smart infrastructure ecosystem, because of the efficiency and safety improvements it could bring about. Some other use cases with potential include in-vehicle infotainment and driver behaviour monitoring. Much of this can be and is already being delivered using 4G. My own car already warns me about driving conditions and to my shame, it sometimes nags me about my own driving behaviour. The low latency connection delivered in conjunction with 5G opens up a whole new world of possibilities for V2X – not to mention the much-hyped autonomous vehicles space.

While I am as eager as the next petrol-head to try one of these out, the technologist in me knows that the autonomous vehicles market is unlikely to be a short-term, mass-market, revenue-generating opportunity.

Industry 4.0: The basic premise of Industry 4.0 is the automation of factory environments – and 5G can help accelerate this transformative process. The counter-argument is that WiFi could deliver similar connectivity. However, in a factory environment WiFi is subject to signal interference, while a cable-based approach can cause obvious health and safety issues in an already hazardous environment. State-of-the-art augmented reality, (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality applications, enabled by 5G, could have a particularly transformational impact in some industries and help realise businesses’ Industry 4.0 goals.

Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality: These applications are likely to boost the demand for 5G, not unlike the iPhone did with 4G more than ten years ago. While AR, VR and MR are technologies that tend to be associated with the consumer market – think Pokémon Go and other gaming apps – the most interesting applications in my view are industrial and medical use cases. Remote medical procedures, engineering, public safety and field service all represent big opportunities for low latency, 5G-enabled AR, VR and MR services. It remains to be seen whether B2B or B2C use cases will command more focus in the short term. A lot will depend on the large consumer electronics companies and the availability of 5G connectivity.

“As mobile network operators around the world are racing to be amongst the first in 5G, we’re busy working with our customers across automotive, manufacturing, sports, media and entertainment to develop ideas for new applications that would benefit from the capabilities of 5G.”

I am excited about how the new technology will live up to the expectations and the hype, transforming how businesses operate and how people engage with brands and the world around them.

How can China realise the full potential of the MVNO market? Read our previous blog here to find out. 

The post Will 5G drive us to the edge? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) in China have faced many challenges since the market opened to new entrants. So, while the MVNO subscriber share has grown, there is plenty of extra potential for growth. This growth could be unleashed with the adoption of new mobile virtual enablement models, leveraging the cloud, mobile-network-as-a-service solutions, web services and application integration via APIs. The combination of these technologies will bring new opportunities for MVNOs in the greater China market and beyond.

Barely scratching the surface

Initially, wholesale margins on airtime access prevented creative tariffing or innovative new services in China. This made the MVNO model commercially challenging. Industry analysts at GlobalData estimate that MVNO subscribers now represent just over 5% of the region’s total market. Even though the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in China (MIIT) issued a new batch of 15 MVNO licenses in June 2018, with operators including Xiaomi, Alibaba and JD taking them up, existing MVNOs have tended to focus on providing low-cost data and calling services.

“We’re seeing little innovation in this market, beyond a straightforward discount model, barely scratching the surface of what’s possible. There could be a change on the horizon though.” 

MIIT is clearly anxious to create competition for the incumbent Chinese communications service providers. This, combined with developments in virtualisation and cloud technology and new business models, represents a new route for local MVNOs to succeed.

The traditional approach is limited

The 20 or so existing Chinese MVNOs have focused on prepay-only services so far, which relies on relatively light infrastructure. The introduction of a more complex service mix will require more complex back-office systems, which is not a viable option for most MVNOs. This hampers innovation in the face of strong competition from the Chinese incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs), who can easily compete against MVNO entrants on tariffs and service bundles.

Despite regulation designed to accelerate the growth of the country’s fledgeling MVNO market, in practice, it isn’t easy for these new players to compete. Securing capacity at reasonable wholesale prices in one barrier, as incumbent MNOs can switch on their extensive marketing machinery to retain their subscribers or win back those who have churned.

“In this environment, simply reselling airtime and capacity in an undifferentiated way quickly becomes uneconomical.”

Ahead in the cloud

There are opportunities for ambitious MVNOs to stand out in the crowd and serve specific segments and niche markets with a range of targeted communications services. We’re seeing increasing demand among enterprises and OEMs for next-generation MVNO services in areas like M2M, automotive, SME, youth, or other sub-segments and interest groups. This new wave of MVNOs focuses on differentiated services. To minimise CAPEX, they combine a cloud-based model, service integration via APIs and web-based self-service with relatively little physical communications infrastructure.

While new MVNOs may have different objectives and business models, they have many things in common too. They want to serve a clearly defined target market, have a unique and tailored service proposition, a strong brand and the ability to use the power of online services to engage with their customers.

They also want efficient and flexible charging, billing and settlement options, with comprehensive BSS/OSS capabilities to ensure optimum service. They want access to security and fraud protection capabilities, to safeguard their customers and their business from ever-changing threats. Partner management processes to ensure efficient, automated call and data session handling processes between the MVNO and their MNO host are also a must.

The Mobile Network-as-a-Service (MNaaS) model perfectly suits the new diverse MVNO dynamic, because it doesn’t require any infrastructure or software investment. From a commercial perspective, it can scale up or down as required – making it ideal for smaller niche markets ranging from just a few thousand to several million subscribers.

The virtualised network functionality of the MNaaS model makes it easy for MVNOs to create, launch and develop services.

“While dropped calls and slow data connectivity might be forgiven with a discounted mobile service, it’s not acceptable for MVNOs who want to focus on good quality and coverage, instead of just competitive prices.”

Unleashing the growth of Chinese MVNOs

Next-generation MVNOs and their customers will soon think of mobility in the same way everyone thinks of the world wide web and cloud infrastructure today – it’s ubiquitous, accessible to all, and it simply works. MNaaS can help make it a reality for new MVNOs, spurring the development of new mobile services and IoT applications and making them easier and more cost-effective to manage through the cloud and using 3rd party application integration to create new services. This approach will allow China’s new generation of MVNOs to pursue segments and services that until now haven’t been economically viable.

It will take a shift in thinking to realise the full potential of the MVNO market in China. But we’re already seeing how this model is levelling the playing field between industry incumbents and newcomers, and paving the way for a more competitive, innovative and dynamic market.

Want to meet the new MVNOs on the block? Read our previous blog to see which one fits your business.   

The post The potential of China’s new generation MVNOs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In part one of this blog, I evaluated the significant growth of the connected car industry in India in the last few years and the potential for further progress in the future. There are key factors contributing to the expansion of automotive IoT, and important elements to consider for production and commercial success without regional restrictions.

Government policy is helping to drive vehicle connectivity

From April 2019 onwards, all public transport vehicles in India will have to be fitted with a tracking device and emergency call button. This far-sighted and enlightened initiative is part of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) programme, which was launched by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).

The ITS has several objectives, focusing around the need for better control over transport efficiency, quality, comfort and safety.

“The overall aim is to create a safer, smarter transport system by adopting technology for the benefit of society as a whole.”

The ITS incorporates the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS-140). This standard applies to state-owned transport companies, private bus operators, emergency services, schools and colleges, and car rental companies. Interestingly, private taxi operators and car-share organisations are also affected, and it’s possible that compliance with the regulations may become an issue.

All these organisations will be required to have an embedded SIM (eSIM) technology in their vehicles. eSIMs are tamper-proof, virtual SIMs which can receive over-the-air (OTA) updates and upgrades. They can be re-programmed remotely to work over any mobile operator’s network in India or any other country.

Enabling borderless growth

The commercial opportunity for all kinds of players in the connected car market does not stop at the border of India. An important feature of India’s automotive market is that around 12% of car production each year is destined for the export market.

Vehicle connectivity has become a key topic for all manufacturers and across all geographies. While regulation drives demand in some circumstances, there is also an increasing commercial imperative for automotive manufacturers to provide services that can be broadly categorised under the headings of security, analysis and infotainment. The former category includes vehicle tracking, AIS-140 compliance and driver assistance services. The analysis includes remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance services, and infotainment includes location-specific services, content streaming and related marketing activity.

“To provide such services automotive manufacturers working on connected car projects need to ensure their vehicles can be easily and securely connected, whatever country a vehicle is sold and operated in.” 

This requires a reliable and consistent approach to multi-country mobile connectivity, something that Tata Communications has made a significant investment into over the past two years.

The Tata Communications MOVE global mobility platform enables vehicle connectivity at home and abroad. It provides the network-independent, cross-border cellular connectivity Indian car makers need, to deliver connected car services for both home and export markets. It takes care of the global connections, including last mile cellular and radio access, so the automakers can concentrate on designing and building engaging connected services for their customers.

Our work in this area is a good example of private sector alignment with the objectives and requirements of the ITS and AIS-140 initiatives. We look forward to working with Indian automotive OEMs and telematics companies on this exciting journey.

Read about the growing industry of connected cars in part one of this blog.

The post Connected Cars: A futuristic possibility for cars in India (Part 2) appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The Indian economy is booming and so is its connected car market. With a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of around 7%, India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

“Continuing urbanisation, a booming consumer class, and favourable regulatory environment have all helped to make India the fourth largest automotive market in the world, according to India Brand Equity Foundation.” 

And as such it presents a huge opportunity for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract manufacturers, solution providers and communications service providers in providing connected car services. According to an article in Economic Times, during 2018 car production in India grew 8%, while global automobile production declined overall by 1.1%.

Automakers are focusing more and more on vehicle connectivity to deliver a new generation of so-called Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) services – building connected telematics, safety, navigation and infotainment services into their new models as foundational offers. For example, the Korean car maker Hyundai has been one of the first into the Indian connected car market, with its Venue model offering connected navigation, live traffic information, and software updates over the air. MG’s Hector, due for release in India in May 2019, offers similar services as well as voice recognition, remote control, and geofencing.

A recent study by Ovum predicted that the global connected car market will grow from 59 million vehicles in 2016 to more than 308 million vehicles by 2022. While China, Europe and the US account for around 80% of the total global market, India is showing one of the highest growth rates.

“In India, connected cars are set to increase to around 1.7 million vehicles by 2022, from less than 300,000 in 2016.”

This growth trend in the number of physical cars is reflected in the growth of the mobile services that connect them. Automotive IoT service revenue in India is set to reach more than $100M USD over the period covered by the Ovum report. The vast majority of this comes from the technology that’s embedded in the vehicle at the factory.

Growth and penetration rates are impressive

When considering the potential for connected cars in India, it helps to take a relative, rather than an absolute, view. The numbers quoted above from Ovum’s connected car study indicate a relatively small absolute number of connected cars in India, but a huge growth in vehicle connectivity, outstripping more industrialised markets in North America and Europe. There are also some fascinating trends for the India market.

“Most connected vehicles will continue to use 2G cellular technology even by the end of the forecast period, indicating the diversity and value of 2G enabled use cases, vs latter generations of cellular technology.”

There is likely to be a more than doubling of after-market vehicle connectivity installation and a near quadrupling of connected electric vehicles in the period 2018-2022.

Another industry analyst, Global Data, has developed a mobile data forecast for India, which also makes a compelling case for the growth potential in the region. This India Mobile Data Forecast study covers a 10-year period, during which the growth in India GDP never falls below 7% – an economic growth rate that would be the envy of most European countries.

The study indicates IoT mobile subscriptions reached 9.7 million in 2018, representing a penetration rate of 1%, with growth expected to reach 68 million by 2023, a penetration of about 5%.

So what is helping to drive the growth of vehicle connectivity and the car industry? In part two of this blog, I review the government regulations contributing to the current momentum and the commercial opportunities beyond India.

Read more about the power of IoT in reimagining mobile connectivity in India and beyond.

The post Connected Cars: A futuristic possibility for cars in India (Part 1) appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Cloud may be the ‘new normal’, but it still presents something of a confidence conundrum for CIOs when it comes to security.

I have been in cyber-security for a good many years now and along the way have met many extremely talented CIOs. And yet, I can only think of one that would attest to having 100% confidence in the security of the cloud, having secured his entire digital architecture.

I must mention here that this particular CIO was responsible for managing a very complex architecture, serving internal and external customers, with lots of vendors and contractors involved. An environment many enterprise IT professionals will be familiar with. Here is how he did it.

A process of elimination

He started, like many CIOs would, by thinking about security at the overall enterprise architecture level. But he quickly discovered that this approach couldn’t stand up to the avalanche of changes coming its way: users bringing their own devices to work, shadow IT, a variety of vendors supporting the network, and constantly changing compliance regulations to adhere to.

You can’t blame him for trying, though. This CIA architecture – Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability – is the traditional way of assessing the threat landscape, and then defining, designing and implementing security for the network, apps, and users. And, in all honesty, it works perfectly well in many cases.

Sadly, it doesn’t translate to the cloud. It is too centralised and rigid to cope with the dynamics of securing XaaS, shadow IT, identity services and DevOps.

“The going can get tough, especially on public cloud platforms where security responsibilities are shared and, unfortunately, not everyone is aware of their responsibility or knows how to manage them.” 

The next logical move was to try constructing his security architecture on the three states of data: at rest, in motion and in use. Yet, even this tried and tested approach cannot always meet the demands placed on it by the complexities and dynamics of cloud.

Back to basics

This CIO decided to put these questions to users: What do you do? What devices do you use? What systems do you access? How do you access them? And from where?

Based on the responses, he then defined his governance, risk and compliance architecture – a crucial stage that many may forget. The assumption is that simply doing vulnerability assessment, penetration testing (VAPT), or a security posture assessment using the Center for Internet Security (CIS) framework is sufficient. Unfortunately, sometimes even this level of assessment isn’t enough for a truly comprehensive, cloud-ready security architecture.

Now, even though our CIO had all the basics, he still didn’t have a full real-time view of all his security. So, he added a layer of security information and event management (SIEM). With this in place, accessible through a single-pane-of-glass dashboard, he finally had a near perfect hybrid security architecture. I say “near perfect” because it is hard to create a completely faultless security architecture.

Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships

Our CIO, of course, did not undertake this hefty transformation alone.  He worked with specialist technology partners to assess and build the architecture. As cyber-threats continue to grow in scale and complexity, enterprises often struggle to keep up and ensure they have the skills and very latest tools to protect themselves. Working with a security specialist gave the CIO peace of mind, as he was able to tap into state-of-the-art cyber-security technologies and leading experts in the field. Tata Communications, for example, provided several components, including SIEM, and integrated them into the overall framework, helping to effectively simplify cloud security.

Key learnings

Over the years, I have seen the ever-growing adoption of cloud driving a clear trend towards the kind of hybrid, integrated security architecture that our CIO implemented.

The first step on any successful cloud security journey is knowing where you’re starting from. This might seem like a back-to-basics approach for some, but it can yield near perfect results if matched with real-time technology.

“The lesson here: secure your cloud before it bursts – and avoid a deluge of security issues raining down on your head!”

Read Raj’s previous blog on how to avoid turbulence in cloud environments.

The post How to secure your cloud – before it bursts appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

From speeding up innovation to understanding customers better, digital transformation has emerged as the primary driver of corporate evolution. IDC estimates that worldwide spending on digital transformation will be nearly $2 trillion by 2022 up from ‘just’ over $1 trillion this year.

It is seldom a smooth undertaking though. Reaping business benefits requires fundamental changes to an organisation’s culture, business processes, and the very technologies that underpin it. While digital technologies can provide amazing levers of growth, they also help widen the threat landscape.

“In fact, anxiety surrounding not only spiralling costs (43%) but crucially also security (40%) and privacy (37%) are the key adoption barriers for business decision makers when it comes to innovations such as AI and IoT, according to the Cycle of Progress survey by Tata Communications.”

Even as Indian enterprises have been consumed by putting up an additional cyber-defences, attackers and threat vectors are evolving rapidly as well. For example, as organisations rapidly adopt cloud delivery models, software-defined networking, IoT, analytics, blockchain and open APIs, they concurrently require a more systematic and proactive approach to addressing security threats and managing compliance requirements.

Indian organisations have also been guarding their information assets through a myriad of point solutions, which are clearly inadequate since threat vectors have evolved to take advantage of the legacy security solutions in place. The degree of difficulty rises when business units begin consuming technology, like cloud services, without any IT intervention — the IT team will have little visibility into systems that do not show up on its radar.

For most organisations, security is neither seen as a revenue generator nor as a business enabler. A direct consequence is that business processes and the IT that enable them, mature faster, and thus their security cover is in a perpetual scramble to catch up. As a result, for most technology initiatives, security is often the last thing to get bolted on.

A rash of incidents over the past few weeks helps illustrate this:

March 1: Over 2 million identity records on government officials and politicians from every country in the world leaked from a Dow Jones watch-list

March 21: Facebook admits that it has not properly secured the passwords of as many as 600 million users

April 15: IT outsourcing giant Wipro begins investigating reports that its IT systems are being used to launch attacks against some of its customers

Malware; hackers; botnets — over the past months, the media has focused on the surge in security incidents that have had an adverse legal, financial and reputational impact on Indian enterprises.

“Despite this growth in awareness, IDC estimates that 93 per cent of Indian organisations have just basic cyber-security protection in place.”

So, on one hand, enterprises realise that they need to harden their resilience to threats, and on the other, they need to do so facing the realities of user expectations, shorter business cycles, legacy environments, managing multiple technology providers and internal skills gaps.

The security conversation within organisations clearly needs to change. It’s rather unfortunate that fear has been the traditional basis of accessing security investments. It also, possibly, reflects a legacy mindset at work in organisations. Today’s threats and tomorrows challenges can’t be dealt with by brandishing fear, they need a risk-mitigation approach to get business buy-in. IDC has also identified the acute shortage of cyber-security professionals and ineffective security sourcing among the top 4 vulnerabilities of Indian enterprises on their digital journeys.

To emerge from chaos to order will require leveraging intelligence, technology and talent in equal measure to devise appropriate yet agile response mechanisms.

From skilling to keeping pace with threat vectors by using emerging technologies such as machine learning, and analytics to even enhancing resilience, is a challenging journey for an organisation to undertake on its own. As the velocity, variance and sophistication of cyber-security attacks intensifies, organisations need to partner with specialist security service providers with demonstrable capability for innovation and the use of emerging technologies.

The goal should be to not only reduce the probability of an attack but also to switch the focus to risk-mitigation and quick remediation. Making the CEO and the Board aware of the many fast-evolving threats by highlighting the invaluable role of security controls in minimising business risk is part of the process. A shared ownership of risk with business stakeholders and forging the right technology partnerships will enable organisations to unlock the full potential of the latest digital technologies — and pave the way for total business transformation.

“To ensure the cyber-security readiness of Indian industry, the CII-Tata Communications Centre for Digital Transformation is launching various initiatives like the International Conference on Cyber-Security  as well as Cyber Security Training-cum-Certification Program for both security professionals and those interested in a career in this field.”

Find out more about Tata Communications’ truly integrated security suite for the digital enterprise.

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As businesses’ reliance on cloud-based data and applications continues to grow, the traditional WAN (wide-area network) can’t cope. It is often too slow, inflexible, expensive and simply not scalable enough, as it wasn’t designed for the cloud. This leaves established businesses unable to innovate, scale up and offer new services at speed, putting them at a disadvantage compared to their younger cloud-native rivals. That’s why software-defined internet-based hybrid networks are the only way forward. SD-WAN (software-defined wide-area network) enables businesses to manage these hybrid networks more effectively, helping them to remain competitive.

Not only does SDWAN lower costs, but it also enables businesses to roll out applications and bandwidth rapidly across the network and branch locations. It also offers the flexibility to try out new configurations and services before introducing them on a larger scale.

However, it’s essential that businesses understand that SD-WAN is not just as simple as slapping on a quick fix on top of their existing not-fit-for-purpose networks. A future-proof infrastructure should anticipate and prepare for long-term business objectives, needs and limitations as well as predicted technology developments.

The range of industries that could benefit from an SD-WAN network is huge but one company that’s already done so is Carlsberg. The global brewer’s Tata Communications assisted switch to a software-defined hybrid network is part of the company’s digital transformation program. The aim of the transformation is to harness the power of the internet and cloud computing to boost agility, increase efficiencies and reduce costs. The scalability and cost-effectiveness of a hybrid network have already enabled Carlsberg to digitise its supply chain and explore new AI-enabled opportunities that’ll keep it ahead of the crowd.

That’s just one example. In manufacturing, it can protect factories and provide maximum availability through load sharing; secure and control partner access through the extranet; and address compartmentalised lines of business. In banking, more robust integrated security will allow faster threat detection, while ubiquitous encryption addresses differences between ATM machine communications and branch-to-branch VoIP or video. What’s more, the technology also has various potential applications in the wider financial and trading services world.

Of course, businesses are only able to see these benefits if SD-WAN is implemented correctly, which is why many are looking to trusted partners — including vendors like Cisco and managed service providers (MSPs) like Tata Communications — to manage it all for them. With lots of complex issues to consider and important decisions to make, such as how to manage broadband provisioning, how to ensure security at the network edge and what role on-premises hardware will take, making use of an MSP to deploy and maintain SD-WAN infrastructure can eliminate any hassle and help to avoid enduring any extra costs through unforeseen problems or complications. It also allows businesses to allocate more resources to strategic initiatives.

MSPs can vary massively, from consultancy firms to system integrators, but those that operate their own network have a built-in advantage and offer a number of benefits for customers. At Tata Communications, we’re collaborating with Cisco and other technology vendors in order to lower the barriers for businesses aiming to make the move to hybrid SD-WAN infrastructure.

This kind of cross-industry partnership is essential when it comes to adopting emerging technologies. Tata Communications’ long-standing business collaboration with Cisco is a perfect example of how bringing experts together from different fields can cater for our customers’ wide-ranging digital transformation needs and give businesses the best possible foundation for success in the digital era.

The cloud-centric future will be mostly WAN-less — where site-to-site connectivity is the exception rather than the rule. For businesses to thrive in the digital era, they require a SD-WAN hybrid infrastructure that combines the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public internet, with the resilience and reliability of a private network. In short, agile businesses require an agile digital infrastructure.

Read about the adoption of SD-WAN and its barriers in our previous blog.

The post How SD-WAN can remove the barriers for network transformation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Many organisations rushed to cloud, thinking it would be the answer to all their problems, only to find it didn’t deliver what they hoped for and actually created more complexity.

In the first wave of cloud, some companies simply bought a few virtual machines on a hyperscaler, moved what apps they could onto it and waited for the savings. Others used public/private hybrid clouds and were more ambitious in the apps they migrated, but still found that unforeseen complications awaited them.

Many early adopters suffered from loss of visibility and poor user experience. While some costs did reduce, others rose, and any savings were quickly undermined by operational ramifications and poor levels of service.

Why it happens

Investing effort, resources and capital into something that doesn’t end work effectively is one of the biggest frustrations when managing a business. The key to solving this, and ensuring the same mistakes aren’t repeated, is understanding why and from where a problem originates.

The reason cloud hasn’t delivered the benefits these organisations expected is because they didn’t go about it systematically. Their lift-and-shift approach overlooked some important architectural considerations, particularly around networking, security and operations.

Before cloud came along, organisations generally had a data centre-centric architecture. Corporate applications lived in the company’s own data centre, and users connected to them over private networks. Internet access was possible, but only from behind heavy central security.

Moving to the cloud without re-architecting the network has led to inefficiencies, poor service and increased costs. For example, forcing data traffic back to the data centre before breaking out to the cloud makes apps run slower and pushes up WAN costs. Meanwhile, security architectures designed for central breakout struggle to cope in the cloud world – operational support also gets more complicated when things aren’t under the organisation’s control.

Add to this the complexities of Bring Your Own Device (BOYD), shadow IT, and users opening personal accounts on public SaaS services, and you can see why companies who thought they could simply ‘move to the cloud’, haven’t achieved their desired outcomes.

What to do about it

The good news is that there are many successful implementations of cloud, where the transition was done strategically. These companies thought not just which apps to move where, but how they needed to re-architect their networks and security. As a result, they’ve reaped the benefits.

Generally, success stories like these happen when the organisation follows a planned journey to move, operate and innovate on cloud through a series of carefully orchestrated steps. These are to assess their current digital estate, plan the best approach to move, and migrate without disrupting operations. Then they manage the routine, optimise redundancy, and re-innovate to upgrade.

To illustrate, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) wanted to consolidate its disparate network systems across India onto one unified platform – without raising costs or impacting on the core business.  By working on one centralised platform, the company has enhanced staff collaboration and productivity, reinforced security and eased network management issues, ultimately reducing capital expenditure and operational expenses.

Another example is Infiniti Retail Group. When the company found that emerging discount challengers were having a detrimental impact on its market share within the Indian retail sector, it decided to adopt a hybrid cloud architecture to give it more flexibility with computing capacity – reducing or expanding with ease.

Successful organisations avoid turbulence in their cloud journey by following a methodology like these examples above. They’re clear about their cloud strategy and business drivers, know if they want to focus on public, private or hybrid cloud, and if they tend towards IaaS, SaaS or PaaS. They assess how virtualised their infrastructure is to begin with, and which workloads they’d like to move. They’re also very clear about what is, and isn’t, possible within their regulatory environment.

Cloud winners design security into their cloud architecture at the outset too. They think about how they’ll accommodate their future plans for DevOps, APIs and containers. They know if they’ll want their applications to run across hybrid clouds, and how they’ll manage back up. Finally, they don’t forget about setting up a new model of operational support and service management for their new environment.

While businesses are keen to embrace technologies that promise increased output and more convenience, it is important to carefully consider core business needs, limitations and future objectives. By marrying this with focused planning and a customised approach, organisations can successfully migrate to the right type of cloud architecture which will help it to thrive.

To learn about the evolution of the Internet from dialup days to a business-critical platform, read Raj’s previous blog here.  

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Traditionally, fuelled by surging consumer demand for mobile services, businesses like Aerovoyc, GiffGaff, Lycra Mobile and Red Pocket contracted network access from mobile network operators to create their own customer-facing offerings. These MVNOs simply re-sell airtime or add additional customer features and functions onto of the existing network.

The digital transformation reshaping businesses worldwide today is making its mark through new enterprise mobility models too. The rapid adoption of cloud-enabled services, APIs and automation, as well as a rise in ‘As-a-Service’ platforms for communications and mobile networks, means that the nature of MVNOs is changing.

For example, this new generation of MVNOs is taking an open technology approach by adopting APIs for system integration, which allows them to configure and merge new services, and create service mash-ups – rather than offer traditional linear mobile services like voice or data.

But, these new MVNO types don’t want to be restricted by the limitations of complex BSS/OSS. They require simple set-up and customer interaction processes. They need the ability to launch services quickly, minimise risk and improve customer satisfaction through transparency and simplicity.

Meet the new players

Today almost any company can become an MVNO and offer value-added mobile services for its customers. This has led to the diversification of the MVNO model, now consisting of several sub-segments that include brand extensions, IoT, roaming, and B2B2C. In my view, the three most exciting MVNOs shaking up this market currently are the digital natives, enterprise MVNOs and device manufacturers.

1. The digital natives

These next-generation service providers and Internet-born companies are looking to expand their service profile to offer a broader range of customer engagement options. It’s about ‘stickiness’ – building a stronger, deeper relationship with the customer by extending the core offering to mobile too. Google Fi in the US is a great example of this. The tech giant uses both the T-Mobile and Sprint mobile networks to offer its customers an easy switch alternative to other mobile services.

2. Enterprise MVNOs

More and more enterprises are actively seeking to gain better visibility and control over their mobile communications. One of the drivers for this is the desire to reduce costs while making the most of different unified communications platforms, IoT services and offering employees access to data and applications anywhere, anytime.

Today, MVNOs are hosted almost exclusively in secure cloud environments – which naturally makes the service more scalable and faster to deploy, and less CAPEX-intensive to manage. This is also making the MVNO model more viable for medium to large enterprises. For example, under an enterprise MVNO, employees could bring their own phone to work and get a branded SIM and associated number, while retaining their personal number. Calls and messages would then be delivered to both, just as they are with services such as Google Voice. Any data used on corporate apps could be charged to the employer, with private app usage continuing to be charged directly to the employee – whether roaming or at home.

3. Device Manufacturers

Any company whose core business is about making things – anything from lightbulbs to white goods – can now become an MVNO. For example, a company like Philips, that is known for making light bulbs can now offer additional lighting-as-a-service solutions that combine its lighting expertise with ubiquitous connectivity. The end result is a connected service that gives its customers greater control over lighting remotely, and new insights on energy consumption – saving money and energy.

Thanks to innovative services like this, the relationship between the manufacturer and consumer is transformed from a one-off transaction to ongoing engagement, boosting customer loyalty.

The next chapter for MVNOs

The new generation of MVNOs show how it is possible to get the best of both worlds: the traditional mobile network operator characteristics of quality, reliability and scalability; but with faster time to market, lower CAPEX, and a range of value-add services to create more seamless user experiences.

This is an exciting new chapter in the global mobility story. While the market is constantly evolving, one thing is clear – there are now more opportunities than ever for forward-looking businesses to innovate and accelerate their growth through new mobile services.

Read our previous blog about the potential of esim here.

The post Introducing the new MVNOs of the era appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The embedded SIM (eSIM) is paving the way for a truly borderless mobile experience for people and things, and driving digital transformation across the global mobile and IoT ecosystem. More and more enterprises – including technology giants such as Apple and Google – are embracing the eSIM to ensure their devices are future-proof and network-ready, and Ovum predicts that eSIM unit shipments will grow nearly 10-fold from 2019 to 2022.

The conventional physical SIM = a difficult partner

The conventional SIM can enable cost-effective, reliable and secure connectivity. However, it also requires difficult choices to be made very early in the manufacturing process. These choices – such as selecting a particular communications service provider (CSP) for connectivity services – will have an indelible impact on the way a device is connected over its lifetime, regardless of where or how it will be used.

Further complications with the traditional SIM can arise once the device is in the field. Inter-operability issues can make switching CSPs a challenge, especially in an industrial IoT environment.

To illustrate, the use of IoT devices in remote or hard-to-reach locations can be expensive, because staff must be deployed to physically swap one SIM for another to be able to change CSPs. In reality, this may effectively create a situation of CSP lock-in.

Add in the need to comply with regional or national regulatory requirements – which can impose limitations on permanent roaming – and designing connectivity at the point of manufacture becomes a real headache.

Adopting eSIM – what’s gained? (hint: agility, flexibility)

With a 5G future set to be filled with billions of connected ‘things’, the development of the decades-old SIM couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. A fully-integrated 5G-capable eSIM offers flexibility in capabilities never seen before – but this is indeed a revolution, not an evolution.

An eSIM enables seamless switching of mobile CSPs remotely using over-the-air (OTA) updates, without the need to physically exchange. That is why the eSIM can have a transformational impact on IoT. Its benefits include:

• Significant cost savings, both in terms of the manufacturing process and ease of changing connectivity contracts and SIM providers post-production
• Greater control over network selection and customised service, even after the production, shipment and deployment of connected devices
• Easier adherence to country and region-specific regulatory requirements
• Better coverage and enhanced security

Commercial advantages

Because of these benefits, the eSIM also offers many commercial advantages. It simplifies supply chains, meaning that OEMs will no longer need to keep an inventory of SIMs. Most importantly, the eSIM allows OEMs to focus on product innovation, rather than operational concerns. They will be able to design sleeker, more resistant and more cost-effective devices – crucial for an IoT industry seeking small, tough, zero-maintenance devices.

For CSPs, the eSIM open up a world of opportunity far beyond the traditional mobile market. They could provide convergent offerings between a variety of devices – a smartwatch, a mobile device and a vehicle, for example – and generate new revenue streams from new innovative business models.

What’s next for the eSIM?

The eSIM has ushered in a new era of control and flexibility in the way that both consumer and industrial IoT devices are connected. But with any disruption to the digital landscape, new challenges inevitably emerge.

Around a decade of development lies behind today’s GSMA eSIM standards. Yet the new commercial models and benefits the eSIM may bring about are still being debated and tested. Expertise in managing eSIMs may be lacking among OEMs that want to use the technology and take advantage of its flexibility, post-deployment, in the field: while traditional SIMs have typically been configured one time for a specific device, CSPs will need to update their BSS/OSS infrastructure. This is essential – to enable management of devices and new commercial models and to ensure the same level of security and authenticated access to mobile networks provided by traditional SIMs.

Deploying eSIMs may also require CSPs to rethink their own business models. For example, how will the use of eSIM work in markets where CSPs subsidise devices which are locked to their own network? With any large-scale change of this kind, some guiding principles are needed – and adherence to GSMA specifications is critical.

The adoption of an industry-wide ‘hubbing’ model would help address these challenges for eSIM providers, CSPs and OEMs alike. Such an approach would provide full inter-operability between eSIM vendors and CSPs, while supporting OEMs and distribution processes. It would ensure the seamless factory-to-field connectivity that the eSIM is designed to deliver, and create the secure operating environment needed to fulfil the enormous potential of this technology in the future.

Read our previous blog on adopting Global SIM.

The post eSIM Age: An answer to all future complications of traditional SIM appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The big banks have been around for hundreds of years. That longevity is impressive, but often it comes with a slow-moving culture that puts established banks at the opposite end of the spectrum from disruptive start-ups that have nothing to lose.

New thinking for new environments

A business-as-usual mentality isn’t a good idea in a world where new FinTechs can invest hundreds of millions of dollars in investor cash and start with the blank sheet of paper that is a legacy-free IT environment.

The core of modern banking operations is their digital presence and communications networks because fast networks are central to excellent user experiences. But the old thinking about networks was more about up-time than performance and it led to conservatism because breakdowns in network services in use cases like High-Frequency Trading can cost banks millions.

This has led to a situation in which banks today suffer from patchwork systems that have been accreted over years and decades while mergers and acquisitions have led to glued-together systems and data silos. Generation Y and their successors hardly know of them but COBOL (common business-oriented language) code and the mainframe computer still roam in banks. Nobody wants to take chances with the processes riding on these, no matter how old the underpinnings are becoming.

And this really is a dependency. An estimated $3 trillion ($3 trillion!) in daily commerce flows through these hosts, the antecedents of which date back to the 1950s. Is this risk aversion in practice – or a deathly embrace of risk? It’s debatable. The skills pool of people who know the mainframe and COBOL is, quite literally, dying, and maintaining the status quo is no safe haven.

Lipstick on a pig

Even when banks try to transform, their changes can often be only skin-deep. A recent CEB blog post highlighted the idea of just ‘looking digital’. The COO of a large financial services firm told peers: “A lot of digital is smoke and mirrors. Customers may make a digital submission, but … the same processing behind the scenes is happening as it always has been.”

That’s surely true: many banks today are applying lipstick to the mouths of pigs, slathering on front-facing changes while realising that the back end, infrastructure and network are no longer fit for purpose. They are saving up problems for later: some industry experts expect a seven-fold increase in the volume of banking data between 2016 and 2020. If banks have so far got away with using ancient systems, they will either pay for this inertia with systemic failures or be stuffed by IT suppliers that have them under their thumbs.

And so, we come to the nub of the matter: banks face a balancing act between modernising and adopting new technologies that let them protect mission-critical data and processes while enabling new models and workflows.

Let me suggest three ways forward:

Cloud computing provides a halfway house: Where once the sector looked upon cloud as anathema, today there is a widespread awareness that for many processes, especially non-critical or heavily differentiated applications, the public cloud represents a perfect fit for bankers.

Refresh infrastructure: This doesn’t have to be an overnight shift but think now about the servers, networks and dependencies that are slowing you down.

Gain some thinking time: Consulting with outside experts can bring a fresh perspective at a time when the stakes in banking are higher than ever.

Ultimately, the answer to our earlier question is critical, and simple: As customer habits change, and digital- and mobile-dependency grow, banks need to be proactive and embrace transformation.

Read more from Karen about the future of digital banking here.

The post In banking, can the old elephants dance? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The attack didn’t stop here. Two days later, on August 13th, in another malware attack on the bank’s server, a SWIFT transaction was initiated – transferring funds to the account of ALM Trading Limited in Hanseng Bank, Hong Kong.

The total losses from the attack stand at INR 94 crore, or 13.5 million USD. Cosmos Bank was forced to close its ATM operations and suspend online and mobile banking facilities.

How did the attack happen?

• Malware attack: The core banking system (CBS) of the bank receives debit card payment requests via a ‘switching system’. During the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system.
• ATMs compromised: When depositors withdraw money at ATMs, a request is transferred to the respective bank’s CBS. If the account has sufficient balance, the CBS will allow the transaction. In the case of Cosmos Bank, the malware created a proxy system that bypassed the CBS. While cloning the cards and using a ‘parallel’ or proxy switch system, the hackers were able to approve the requests – withdrawing over INR 80.5 crore in approximately 15,000 transactions.
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines: RBI has clear guidelines to protect against incidents such as the Cosmos Bank attack which must be followed. The security measures across Indian banks are moderate and given the high level of coordinated international attacks, all banks need to upgrade their security mechanisms.

Why is this attack more serious?

Just a few days prior to this attack, the American FBI had warned banks of a major hacking threat to ATMs worldwide. According to Krebs On Security, the influential cyber-security blog run by journalist Brian Krebs, a confidential alert to international banks informed them that criminals were plotting an imminent, concerted global malware attack on ATMs.

Smaller banks with less sophisticated security systems were believed to be most vulnerable to attack – with a scheme known as ‘ATM cash-out’ as the likely approach that the criminals might take. This is where crooks hack a bank or payment card processor and use cloned cards at ATMs around the world to fraudulently withdraw millions of dollars in just a few hours.

Banking experts and industry players fear this could be a ‘pilot run’ unless the authorities take the attack seriously. Essentially, this malware attack was not against any bank but rather, the banking system. It was carried out at international scale in a meticulously coordinated manner.

Alert type – Severe

How can I protect my enterprise?

To defend your company from the spread of malware, it’s essential that you are equipped to detect and defeat such threat in real-time.

These are our recommended immediate best practices:

1. Back up data regularly – verifying data integrity and testing the restoration process
2. Secure your offline backups – ensuring backups are not connected permanently to the computers and networks they’re backing up on
3. Audit firewalls, servers and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) configurations – block access to known malicious IP addresses & Server Message Block (SMB) ports 139 and 445, and disable SMBV1 and Windows Management Instrumentation Command Line (WMIC) in servers and Active Directory (AD)
4. Patch operating systems, software and firmware on devices – use a centralised patch-management system
5. Scan all incoming and outgoing emails – detect threats and filter executable files from reaching end users using sandboxing
6. Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing emails – authenticate inbound email using technologies such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC), and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) to prevent spoofing

Be prepared

Enterprises need to ensure that security is inbuilt end-to-end – starting at the very beginning. Protecting your network should be the #1 priority to safely extend your reach virtually anywhere. Solutions such as our Managed Security Services offer 24/7/365 security.

Talk to us now or learn more about our Managed Security Service for ransomware protection.

The post Lessons learnt from cosmos bank attack appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The truth of the matter is that security doesn’t scale as well as other enterprise operations. While the executive suite might say it’s fully supportive of organisational security, it may not have the budget or know-how to implement a strategic plan. Internal security teams are perennially short-staffed, and in many cases security solutions are not effectively managed, which can create cracks in the armour. Adding more personnel won’t always allow a team to keep up with security demands – not even Superman could sift through hundreds of thousands of security alerts every day. Most enterprises are inadequately equipped to prevent advanced attacks, and there’s no telling what lies in wait.

Against this backdrop, enterprises need to adopt a holistic approach to improving their security posture – one that incorporates people, processes and technologies.

One option is to adopt an internally driven approach. It is theoretically possible to create and sustain a mission-critical security program, but it is not easy and is probably getting harder as IT infrastructure becomes more dynamic and expansive. There is also the problem of total cost of ownership. While on paper it might seem to cost more to enlist the help of outside security vendors, these fees must be weighed against the costs of a serious security incident. In a world where a single breach can bring down an enterprise, it probably isn’t cost-effective to adopt a DIY approach to security.

Many organisations are partnering with Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) to improve their overall security posture. MSSPs can augment an internal security team by providing additional manpower, domain-specific expertise and security tools. MSSPs deliver greater visibility, control and ability to scale while off-loading mundane tasks, enabling security teams to focus on strategic business initiatives. Partnering with a modern MSSP can help bridge the gap between infrastructure demands and security requirements in a rapidly expanding enterprise.

To learn more about the role an MSSP can play in helping to build a robust cybersecurity program at scale, register for the webinar sponsored by Tata Communications on August 28: Overcome the Challenges of Building Your Own Cybersecurity Program.

The post Safe on all fronts – building a robust cybersecurity program appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

As enterprises aren’t sure whether an SD-WAN can do the same job as an MPLS network, they are being cautious and as a result missing out. Not wanting to be an early adopter, and being unsure about having to invest in virtual routers, they are waiting to see what happens before making their next move. Yet, at the same time, their ambition to ride the digital transformation wave is high too.

Some business leaders are beginning to see great potential in SD-WANs, and realising the value of it being a part of their overall business transformation journey. Visteon, for instance, a leading automotive supplier of innovative cockpit electronics and autonomous driving enabling electronic products, is on a similar path. Their move to a cloud-first strategy was triggered by an existing inflexible infrastructure that was impeding innovation and the new pace of business growth. With an SD-WAN solution, Visteon has been able to quickly move into an agile mode to enhance customer experience, business flexibility, and expansion into different geographies including emerging markets like China, without compromising security.

SD-WAN makes business sense

Consider this scenario. An enterprise wants to expand its business by adding five more international offices. Cloud makes it possible to add multiple users to its SaaS subscription in just a few minutes. But, the company also needs to consider other aspects that are critical for the enterprise network – namely security, integrated service levels, optimised user experience, and application provisioning policies for remote and office workers.

This leads them to a hybrid SD-WAN enabled network, because it ticks all these boxes and then some: it creates an agile, flexible platform for business growth while enabling a seamless management of the network through a tight interplay between the overlay and underlay. Moreover, the new network will lead to significant cost savings because the IT team is able to manage traffic and even deploy applications globally in real-time. What would have previously taken a global business with thousands of employees days or weeks, can now be done in an hour.

Taking the first step

 As WANs evolve to support applications right from the cloud, an SD-WAN can not only give forward-thinking enterprises the agility, scalability, and network intelligence that the business needs, but also the flexibility of taking existing investments along on the digital transformation journey for future expansions.

After all, an SD-WAN deployment is never just about the nuts and bolts of the network, but about laying the foundations for organisation-wide digitisation. For forward-looking businesses like DHL – which has harnessed cutting edge technologies to reduce its carbon footprint and shape the future of the entire industry – the network is now a business-critical asset.

In order to future-proof this critical asset and replicate the success of digital disruptors like Visteon and DHL, more and more businesses are partnering with global networking specialists. They can help IT decision makers break the barriers of SD-WAN adoption and guide them through the complexities that might come up along the way. To find out more about the ins and outs of moving to SD-WAN in the whitepaper from IDC, click here.

Read more about the business considerations posed by SD-WAN here.

The post Breaking barriers to SD-WAN adoption – part 2 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Given the central role of the network in the age of the cloud-powered enterprise, more and more businesses are leveraging software defined (SD) networking to accelerate their digital transformation and boost their agility across all their operations.

The promise of the WAN evolution

The cloud is well and truly here, and enterprises that are embracing it are able to generate new revenue streams from new business models, adopt more efficient business practices, and introduce more innovative ways of engaging with their customers. So, it’s no wonder that many are now moving mission-critical applications off-premise and into the cloud.

Yet, as the production of cloud applications gathers speed, many enterprises haven’t been able to keep pace with the change. Their existing WANs are often too slow, inflexible, expensive, and not designed for optimal cloud performance.

While many might be keen to rethink their network and go hybrid with an SD-WAN overlay, any changes to this critical infrastructure raises some fundamental questions:

• How painful will the deployment be and what will happen to the existing infrastructure?
• How secure can any edge-to-edge network really be?
• What visibility will IT decision makers have over the entire network? How can they guarantee service levels?
• Will the solution deployed be future proofed for technology innovations that might emerge further down the line?
• And crucially, how tightly integrated can the underlying new hybrid network and SD-WAN overlay really be?

These concerns are not uncommon. Industry analysts IDC carried out a survey of over 1,200 enterprises in 2017, asking IT decision makers to select the three most important WAN challenges they faced. The paper, Predictable Internet Connectivity and Investment Protection, outlines IDC’s findings in detail. From security concerns to the need for better analytics, the respondents cited a number of concerns that were holding them back.

The paper provides useful insights to guide IT decision makers looking to adopt an SD-WAN, with a focus on the key challenges and how to overcome them.

In part two of this blog I will discuss the transformational potential of SD-WAN.

Read about whether using the cloud is the right solution for businesses moving into the information age here.

The post Breaking barriers to SD-WAN adoption – part 1 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Companies in the travel, retail and banking industries have been using A2P SMS for years to deliver automated notifications such as like anti-fraud alerts, balance statements, payment reminders, coupon/savings alerts, withdrawal notifications and reservation confirmations to customers’ mobile phones.

For an example let’s look at the customer service industry. The recent increase in customer response automation technology (i.e. bots and computer-generated responses) has positively influenced other communication channels, such as short message service (SMS) and voicemail drops. At Tata Communications, we help TCN leverage high speed networks to help their clients deploy a variety of A2P and P2A technology features to shorten agent handle times and reduce caller wait times.  When used correctly, businesses can engage customers more effectively, provide faster responses and improve overall customer service.

An opportunity and a challenge

MNOs that want to serve enterprise customers with A2P messaging face a market that’s not only complex, but also frequently insecure. And, while A2P presents an opportunity for MNOs to capture new revenue from enterprise customers, there’s been a surprising lack of commitment throughout the mobile messaging ecosystem to assure secure end-to-end message delivery from the originator to the final customer. This is important because MNOs need to be able to terminate legitimate message traffic and protect their networks from potential fraud and spam traffic.

The lack of action is creating a missed opportunity for the industry. Analyst firm Ovum forecasts A2P messaging to grow to 1.28 tr messages by 2019, up from 1.16 tr in 2016. There is an opportunity here, as well as a challenge, which is the need to assure and protect the complex mobile messaging value chain.

Securing the messaging value chain

The A2P messaging value chain involves an array of intermediary companies who process, aggregate and transmit messages on behalf of their customers. These SMS aggregators will usually seek the cheapest routes to send messaging traffic – an approach that’s not always compatible with ensuring quality message termination.

There is, of course, an issue with fraudulent SMS origination. The reality is that while spam messages do generate revenue, if they’re terminated legitimately, the MNO may also face a range of issues including grey routes, SMS bypass and other forms of SMS-based fraud. All can cause significant losses. The impact of grey routing blurs the lines between legitimate and non-legitimate traffic, making it difficult for MNOs to control messaging traffic and monetise A2P messaging.

Indeed, some A2P messages that find their way onto mobile networks are not terminated legitimately at all – a practice referred to as ‘grey routing’. This sees MNOs completing message termination to their subscribers without receiving compensation. In fact, research indicates that up to 70% of MNO networks are subject to this unprofitable grey route traffic.

Although messaging originators have very little interest in the problems that MNOs face, their activities do bring them negative impacts. As MNOs take steps to block grey route traffic, it means that marketing campaign message and customer service alerts are simply blocked from reaching their destination. And while the MNO’s problem is partially solved, a new one rears its head for the originating organisations. They will not always be able to see who received their messages – or indeed what percentage of messages were successfully terminated.

There are several ways for MNOs to secure their networks against grey route traffic. These include something as simple as checking their interconnect termination rates and ensuring all their GSM AA.19 interconnect agreements are as up-to-date as possible.

Installing an SMS Firewall is another option. This doesn’t mean traffic will automatically be blocked, but instead that it can be filtered and legitimate messages accepted.

Getting it right for the long-term

The best approach to assuring enterprise messaging traffic is for all industry parties to agree on a best practice code. This code should detail the type of messages enterprises will generate, how SMS aggregators will route traffic to MNOs, and how MNOs will put in place appropriate processes to allow only legitimate traffic through.

Many solution vendors and trade associations have already learned the hard way that the complexity and diversity of the mobile messaging value chain may make a code like this difficult to enforce.

While this might remain a challenge many years to come, I am confident that a process of evolution, education and adoption of best practice will help reduce, if not totally eliminate, grey route traffic and assure A2P messaging end-to-end. If the industry succeeds, everyone in the value chain will reap the rewards. MNOs will be able to earn more revenue and enterprises will be able to send more messages which actually reach their intended recipient, while mobile subscribers will have the latest information and best deals at their fingertips.

Read more about the value of managed service hubs here.

The post Securing & Monetising A2P: Challenges faced by MNOs appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In order to change this economic model, many companies in the telecom wholesale space have turned to third-party management models. Roaming clearing houses and hubs have managed the inter-operator roaming process for many years, while co-location and hosting facilities have been managing infrastructure.  Applying managed service models to inter-operator telecoms wholesale systems and processes creates opportunities to improve cost performance and drive business growth.

Another way to grow your voice business and keep costs down is through applying the principles of network function virtualization (NFV). This approach makes it possible to build a profitable voice business through measures of efficiency, rather than top-line revenue generation. Instead of focusing on building margin through incremental revenues, it allows instead for a focus on the cost element associated with investing in next-generation network, services and systems.

A Network-as-a-Service’ (NaaS) approach enables migration to IP service delivery without the need for heavy capital expenditure and without the need to tie service delivery to long-term investment cycles. While this creates a dependency on the NaaS provider, the dual sourcing approach can ensure redundancy and business continuity, as well as the opportunity to work with service providers with complementary physical network assets, for better regional coverage as needed.

Putting It All Together

Tata Communications offers a managed service model that employs a combination of applications in the cloud, network virtualization and service virtualization. Our world-class IP network provides predictable performance and service-level agreement (SLA), and we also offer a routing engine and fraud protection mechanism. Our model provides several opportunities for telecom providers to grow their businesses. 

Productivity and efficiency
This type of model aims to minimize capital expenditure and reduce cost. This creates a more flexible usage-based approach to service consumption and eliminates capital investment. The model delivers quick access to Network-as-a-Service and Virtual PoP solutions, supporting the growth of next-generation IP networking.

Borderless growth with control
With an interest in expanding global routes, a virtual service approach delivers borderless growth options, based on regional targets. New services, applications and tools can be brought on stream as needed to support a company’s business objectives. The dynamic nature of the model protects legacy investment while being able to access new services, with a predictable cost outcome.

Performance
Communication services can be matched with the appropriate types of complementary tools and features. For example, voice services can be matched with fraud protection as well as routing optimisation. Reporting and analytics can be harnessed to add an extra dimension to network efficiency. With 3rd party KPIs being applied to monitor performance, a more predictable approach to performance also becomes possible. When connecting routes you are also ensured that QoS and QoE are optimised and delivered, on an end-to-end basis.

Pursuing the managed services approach also opens doors to knowledge and expertise in areas such as managed voice termination services, customer and supplier aggregation, optimal routing or fraud protection. This ensures that a leaner wholesale service operation can be run, with a focus on trading efficiency, while other services are provided to supplement the core trading function. Such an approach can, of course, be extended to accessing applications in the cloud. Under this model, a wholesale team can be retained in-house, while the back-office systems required to manage the wholesale business are maintained and supported by a 3^rd party. This can extend to applications including voice trading tools and cost analysis applications. The idea extends to a range of OSS/BSS functions such as provisioning, mediation, billing or bi-lateral management.

The growth and continued adoption of IP communications across the mobile and telecom ecosystem provides global connectivity for businesses, but also a challenge for telecom providers. A third party managed service provider is the key to continuing to expand borders and revenue in this ever-changing space.

Read more about using IP to drive productivity across borders here.

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Ten years on from the crash and we are experiencing an entirely new digital financial landscape, and facing a brand new set of opportunities and challenges. Although the crash resulted in a number of regulatory and legislative measures to prevent a similar event from happening again, the changes in our banking habits are already attracting a new breed of threat: cyber criminals.

Incumbent banks and insurers have been under growing pressure to evolve the way they operate over the last decade in order to compete with a host of innovative new, data-driven, digital savvy competitors who have grown out of a consumer demand for more convenient, personalised services.

In order to compete and offer an increasingly personalised experience for their customers, banks need to collect and maintain a wealth of data on their customers. The return for the financial industry, from banks to insurers, is clear as experts estimate that organisations that invest in big data are anticipated to increase their operating margins by 60%.

The value of data has increased exponentially in the last decade and the next financial crisis could be caused by security attacks.

We’re already seeing ripples in the financial industry in this space – the most recent example being the huge data breach at US credit reporting bureau Equifax. The breach resulted in a significant loss of data in which the personal details of over 145 million people across the US, UK and Canada were leaked. The event has already started to affect a change in the US, spurring a rethink of data protection laws and has financial services industry commentators considering the role of cybersecurity in banking.

In Europe there will soon be an eye-watering financial tag associated with data loss of up to 20 million Euros or 4% of group worldwide turnover. Elsewhere in the world bodies like the new Computer Emergency Response Team in Financial Sector (Cert-Fin) in India show that institutions around the world are taking steps to mitigate the threat that cyber criminals pose.

This demonstrates the hugely damaging effect that a breach can have on revenue but the industry must also consider the reputational fallout. According to a recent study 50 per cent of consumers would consider switching banks if theirs suffered a cyber-attack, with 47 per cent admitting they would “lose complete trust” in their bank, should the worst happen.

Trust is paramount in the financial services sector, and the industry is acutely aware of the criticality of the information they’re handling, but as the industry evolves, so too does the threat.

Combating new cyber threats

In early 2017, UK-based banks operating under Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland were hit by a significant DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack over the course of 48 hours. More recently, a host of South Korean Banks were threatened by a damaging DDoS attack if they did not pay the $315,000 bitcoin ransom demand. Thankfully, banks are acutely aware of the criticality of the data they handle, and in both cases the attacks were successfully defended against.

Although DDoS attacks remain prevalent across a number of industries, the effectiveness of the method relies on the organisation paying up the ransom, which many organisations are refusing. Another more worrying form of attack for banks is one that quietly siphons off data across a period of time. These are often introduced in the form of malware driven attacks, such as banking Trojans.

An example of these kinds of threats is an evolving malware project called TrickBot which, while currently plaguing Latin America, has targeted banks in over 40 countries across the globe.

Attacks that lead to a systematic leakage of data over time don’t have the immediate shock effect of a swift attack, but they can be just as damaging, and serve to weaken the banks’ defences over time. An additional layer of complexity to this issue is that there will soon be more and more channels in which hackers can access the systems. P2P services are on the rise, and regulation such as PSD2 is being introduced to increase competition in the industry by introducing an open API standard for banking in the UK, for example.

Securing all the various channels will only get more difficult for the industry as the way we bank continues to evolve and leaders must be armed with an agile cybersecurity plan to move into the next generation of finance with the confidence of their customers behind them.

Securing the future of banking from threats

Traditionally, the banking industry has been one of the main investors in security, and it’s likely this will continue to be the case as we navigate the new threats landscape that the future of banking presents.

As open banking accelerates and the industry’s data becomes more and more interconnected, the industry cannot afford to take risks with the data they hold on their customers. One leak could be the first symptom that infects the whole industry with a sickness that could have wider-reaching effects.

In order to combat this evolving threat, the industry needs an adaptive, 24/7 method of detection, defence and counter-attack. Many organisations are looking to outsource their security services in order to ensure they have comprehensive, around the clock coverage. Investment in security operation centres for example is on the rise.

One of the main learnings of the 2008 crisis was that the industry needed to be more responsible in its approach to risk. By keeping abreast of the latest security threats, and investing in security applications that are able to adapt to the future of banking, the industry will be able to avoid a similar crippling financial event.

Read one of our previous blogs on consumer security in 2018.

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With that in mind, these are some of the broad cyber-security trends that we’ll see moving into 2018:

Cyber-security skills continue to evolve

As technologies progress, the skills needed to deal with cyber-security needs are changing. The challenge is to train cyber-security professionals so that they can deal with threats as quickly as possible and also adapt their skills as needed. There will be some 3.5 million unfilled cyber-security roles by 2021, according to a Cyber-security Ventures report, so it’s up to governments, universities, schools and businesses to collaborate in order to bridge this substantial skills gap.

Shift from protection to prevention

In 2018, security breaches should be thought of as inevitable, rather than something that can be completely avoided. As a result, the focus is shifting from prevention to resilience. Businesses must talk openly about vulnerabilities, promoting awareness and accountability. Resources that are currently focused on prevention need to be redeployed towards the timely detection of and response to potential security hacks.

Digital ecosystems drive next-generation security

As smart technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) become more widespread, safeguarding customer data is even more important. As data breaches that reveal sensitive information can have a direct physical impact, organisations have become responsible for people’s safety. Accountability is a key challenge and technology companies must ensure that their devices, services and software ensure a certain level of security for their users. As cyber-security needs and regulations evolve, businesses will need to strategically develop next-generation frameworks to minimise risk. Not only will these need to support today’s requirements, they must also be designed to cope with disruptions caused by emerging technologies.

Bigger, more sophisticated threats

Up to 70% of emails today are spam, and the vast majority of these still involve phishing scams. Other common hacking threats include ransomware, malware and Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, all of which have been responsible for major data breaches in recent months and which can leave both company and customer data vulnerable to cyber-criminals. A massive 93% of data breaches are motivated by financial gain, according to a recent Verizon report. Hackers aim for the highest return for the least amount of effort, which is why smaller businesses with lax security are often successfully targeted.

Emerging technologies are a double-edged sword

Emerging technologies have enabled cyber-criminals to use increasingly sophisticated methods but ironically, these innovations could also help to boost defence against hackers. For example, there is an increasing threat of artificial intelligence-enabled attacks, but AI could also help to speed up the process of identifying potential risks. AI is set to be so integral to cyber-security in future that it is estimated that the global AI security market will reach $18.2 billion by 2023, according to a recent report.  Similarly, the expanding network of connected IoT devices opens up more potential security threats with some 22.5 billion IoT devices predicted to be connected to the internet by 2021, according to a report from Business Insider. While security will be a challenge, the vast amount of data generated by IoT technology could actually help researchers to spot security flaws.

Threat landscape continues to evolve to target vertical industries

While cyber-threats are a key concern for businesses across all industries, here’s what the security landscape looks like for a number of key sectors:

• Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI): The BFSI sector is under growing pressure to update its legacy systems to compete with new digital-savvy competitors. The value of the customer data they hold has grown as consumers demand a more convenient and personalised service, but trust is essential. Some 50% of customers would consider switching banks if theirs suffered a cyber-attack, while 47% would “lose complete trust” in them, according to a recent study. A number of major banks around the world have already been subject to high-profile cyber-attacks suggesting that the sector needs to improve its approach to risk. Financial firms should invest in security applications that are able to adapt to the future of banking to ensure comprehensive, around-the-clock security. Shared Ledgers will feature prominently in the future of the BFSI sector, the best-known example of which is Blockchain, which forms the backbone of cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Blockchain is a database that provides a permanent record of transactions. It leaves an undisputed audit trail that can’t be tampered with, meaning it could completely transform security in the BFSI sector.

• Healthcare: The digitisation of patient records completely revolutionised the world of healthcare, with health-monitoring wearables and apps bringing further improvements. What’s more, emerging technologies including AI and IoT are now being used to speed up diagnoses and improve patient care. However, the sensitivity of the data involved and greater connectivity increases the risk. Earlier this year, Experian predicted that the healthcare sector would be the most heavily targeted by cyber-attacks and the WannaCry ransomware, which temporarily crippled healthcare institutions around the world, showed just how vulnerable it can be. In this sense, the healthcare sector needs to adopt a similar approach to risk analysis as the banking sector, while a set of industry-wide standards for healthcare data systems may also be required.

• Retail: The emergence of online shopping and data analytics has helped retailers to craft a more convenient and personalised experience for customers. However, with that comes a huge responsibility to safeguard their data, which could include not only their shopping preferences and login credentials, but their banking details and home address. The shopping experience is becoming increasingly connected thanks to IoT technology, augmented reality and even facial recognition — and once again, more connectivity ups the risk of a data breach. That’s why the retail sector requires a similarly robust approach to the risk of cyber-attack as banking and healthcare.

• Telecom: There is a significant cybersecurity risk for telecom firms as carriers of internet data, and therefore a huge responsibility. Providers need to integrate cybersecurity measures into network hardware, software, applications and end-user devices in order to minimise the risk of a serious data breach, which could leave customer credentials and communications vulnerable. Consumers are increasingly careful about who they entrust their personal data to, providing a strong opportunity for networks that offer additional security services. In addition, collaboration between rival operators could lead to greater resilience against cyber attackers.

• Manufacturing: The manufacturing sector is the third most targeted industry by hackers, according to IBM research. Being financially motivated, hackers in this area tend to concentrate on industrial espionage, aiming for the increasingly connected production line that features robotics and 3D printing. A security breach enables hackers to access product blueprints and potentially even alter machinery to sabotage production. Not only could this kind of breach have significant financial cost, it could also endanger the lives of factory workers. Manufacturing firms should be continuously scanning the production line for vulnerabilities and implementing control measures that limit access to other areas of the system if one component of the manufacturing line is breached.

• Government: No organisation is immune to data breaches, not even government agencies. The data held by governmental departments, from voter details to military defence plans is incredibly sensitive and therefore a major target. While governments around the world are gradually increasing their spend on cyber-security measures and implementing response plans to deal with any security breaches as quickly as possible, there is still some way to go. Some government agencies have already started to make use of bug bounty programmes where ‘white hat’ hackers are encouraged to seek out and report potential security flaws in return for financial reward. As the number of hacks continues to grow every year, digital security is now a critical investment for all governments around the world.

In summary, while it’s important for individuals to be more mindful of cyber-security, the same awareness must also be present at an organisational level. Businesses that invest in security measures to reduce the risks of a data breach will have a competitive advantage. What’s more, the issue needs to be tackled at a country level with governments and international bodies adopting a more prescriptive approach. Laws and regulations must be updated accordingly, while governments must also encourage education and enable international threat intelligence sharing. Regulation is essential so that providers can build the necessary defences.

Read one of my previous blogs on consumer security in 2018.

The post Cyber-security trends to look out for in 2018 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The perceived complexity of UCC deployments is holding back many CIOs – especially in large organisations with employees spread across multiple continents. Yet, it’s precisely in businesses like this where UCC can make the biggest difference, breaking down geographical barriers between teams and paving the way for truly seamless collaboration.

That is why it’s important for service providers to explore ways to eliminate that complexity for their customers – which is where SIP trunking comes in.

Imagine an instance – like a natural disaster – where there is a need to alert hundreds of thousands of people about something critical. Often the most effective way of getting the message out as quickly as possible is using short, automated voice messages – because nothing quite beats the pervasiveness of voice. Everbridge is a US-based global critical event management software service provider for government agencies like FEMA as well as businesses. It enables organisations to reach the right people, at the right time, anywhere in the world. In an emergency situation, when a message goes out using Everbridge’s Crisis Commander system, all those calls are carried over Tata Communications’ network. The scale and immediacy is made possible by SIP trunking.

Many SIP trunking projects today are not only about IP telephony consolidation – they also often include conferencing, email, cloud contact centres, and other UCC applications. In fact, SIP trunking is now seen as key for integrating all voice, video and data communications within the enterprise, and between the enterprise and its customers and partners. In a similar vein, while the initial drivers for SIP trunking adoption were cutting network costs, simplifying dialling plans and reducing voice trunks, the benefits that enterprises today seek to achieve with SIP trunking are much more far-reaching. It’s therefore fair to say that SIP trunking has evolved from its humble voice-only beginnings to a business critical communications platform.

To make the most of SIP trunking and quickly reap the full efficiency and productivity benefits of UCC, enterprises need a single global SIP platform. A platform like this, underpinned by a global network, not only enables enterprises to generate immediate savings from on-net audio, but also ensures a seamless, consistent end-user experience worldwide – regardless of whether employees are collaborating over IM, video or any other way. That is why SIP trunking is increasingly seen as the foundation on which all successful UCC deployments are built.

Another trend gathering pace in enterprises is the use of hybrid UCC technologies, specifically harnessing both cloud and on-premise models for conferencing solutions. This means that there is a growing need to bridge the gap between these two deployments and bring them together onto a single platform, which will ensure a consistently high-quality user experience. SIP trunking not only acts as this platform, but also makes the geographic distance between the user and the conferencing platform disappear, thereby enabling a truly borderless collaboration experience.

The challenge that many service providers face, however, is how to cater for their customers’ increasingly global collaboration demands. Building technology capabilities in the US and Europe and the main business hubs of Asia may have been enough some 15 years ago, but not anymore. Businesses want to operate seamlessly and successfully across both developed markets and the high-growth economies of Africa, Middle East, South America and Asia. For example, U.S. foreign direct investment in India increased from $7.2 billion from 2005 to $28.3 billion in 2015. In fact, over a quarter of large US companies intend to invest in the country.

This drive for borderless growth means that service providers, system integrators and channel partners have the opportunity to help enterprises cope with the complexities that come with operating across different established and emerging markets. In tandem, enterprises increasingly want their SIP trunking solutions to come with the same flexibility and scalability as their pay-as-you-consume cloud applications. SIP trunking, and increasingly APIs for SIP trunking, are central to this.

However building a global, scalable SIP platform and UCC offering requires time, resources and subject matter expertise. That is precisely why Tata Communications is committed to growing a strong and rich partner ecosystem of like-minded enterprise solution providers. This gives them the global reach and technology expertise to address their customers’ rapidly evolving demands through a single platform – without the risk and investment involved in developing their own solutions from scratch.

Looking ahead, as the number of different video, voice, IM and other UCC platforms – such as Microsoft Office 365 Skype for Business and Teams, and Cisco Spark and WebEx – continues to grow in enterprises, adding a technology agnostic SIP trunking solution to their offering will enable service providers to navigate this maze with ease.

With more and more enterprises turning to different forms of UCC to boost productivity amongst their employees and drive organisation-wide efficiencies, there are huge opportunities for service providers to generate new revenue streams from SIP trunking. The key to unlocking the potential of this market and supporting customers’ international growth ambitions is finding the right partner with the technology capabilities spanning both developed and emerging markets.

Learn more about the benefits that SIP trunking can bring to enterprises.  

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The cloud-first world

According to the latest RightScale report, 95% of businesses are already using or experimenting with cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS). And, by 2021, Gartner reports that out of all organisations using the cloud today, more than a half will not just have a few workloads in the cloud, they will be “all in.” This means that rather than lifting and shifting into the cloud, companies will be refactoring and re-building directly in the cloud. In other words, there’s no going back to on-prem.

Agility through hybrid cloud

Enterprises expect business agility, on-demand scalability, innovation, reduced total cost of owership with improved security. While public cloud seemingly addresses these requirements, the lack of in-house cloud experts, managing multiple vendors, expensive platforms, and the complexity and constant evolution of public clouds are some of the challenges that prevent the CIO from harnessing the true power of the cloud.

Hybrid cloud provides the scalability most businesses seek by integrating public cloud resources with an organisation’s existing infrastructure, so they can provide new capabilities to their end users while reducing costs even more. Essentially, hybrid cloud solutions give organisations unlimited resources on-demand while maximising their existing infrastructure investments. Businesses like the flexibility behind the model, and it’s for this reason that hybrid cloud adoptions continue to rise.

Adopting a hybrid cloud model doesn’t necessarily free you from the challenges of public cloud. It all depends on how your solution is architected and managed. If you manage your hybrid cloud yourself, you’ll likely find the same challenges with talent acquisition, or managing the infrastructure and applications (perhaps more so), as with a pure public cloud approach. Even cost management may not fully be solved if you don’t know where to place your workloads. Therefore, it’s critical to work with your cloud service provider to architect a proper solution that addresses the scalability and growth of your business needs while taking advantage of your current infrastructure.

The CIO’s best friend

Among the many successful use cases for the cloud, enterprises are increasingly using the cloud as their disaster recovery location or leveraging the power of cloud for SAP by reliably running the critical yet suitable instances of SAP workloads on cloud. Amidst such complex cloud deployments, the right cloud management partner could end up becoming the CIO’s best friend. If you tap into the partner’s expertise in cloud architecture and management, you and your IT team can instead focus on working closely with your businesses on other projects to drive revenue growth. A managed cloud services provider is also able to handle your hybrid platform for you if you wish, or work together with you to make sure you’re getting maximum mileage from your systems.

It’s easy for a new cloud project to get derailed because of spiralling costs. Perhaps most importantly, a managed hybrid cloud provider can also help you keep track of your billing, so you can manage costs – which is the #1 challenge of mature cloud users, according to RightScale. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone on your team who understands how it works, and make sure you’re scaling efficiently? A managed provider will monitor your environment and can alert you to any sudden increases in your cloud spend, freeing you from the hassle of trying to figure out which cloud is getting what percentage of your budget.

Harnessing IT for growth

There is a long way between developing a cloud strategy and successfully executing it, and there are often many roadblocks ahead. The risks posed by cyber threats and potential leaks or loss of data are a critical concern, forcing CIOs to re-look at their IT set-up to ensure that critical IP and customer data are protected. Yet, at the same, they are under growing pressure to create efficiencies and harness IT for the growth of the business through digital transformation programmes. This is a balancing act where the scalability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of hybrid cloud, as well as the right partner, will make a huge difference.

Learn more about how you can scale your business with the power of hybrid cloud.

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In a recent blog post, my colleague Srini CR talked about how anything that is connected to the Internet is a potential target of attack for cybercriminals, and how – as the number of connected devices is set to reach over 20 billion by 2020 – the fight against cybercrime will be crucial for the long-term success of everyone with a stake in the Internet of Things (IoT).

When criminals use global communications networks to commit fraud, steal or intentionally disrupt services, there are direct monetary losses that are compounded by lasting damage to relationships. Cyber-attacks lead to end users losing faith in applications, devices and services, while we in the carrier ecosystem lose the trust of our partners.

Srini’s blog post reminded me that as new innovations like the IoT shape our future, we still need to solve security challenges in more established and ubiquitous services like voice.

There are over 5 billion unique mobile phone subscribers globally, according to the GSMA, and just like in IoT, each one of these subscribers and their devices can be used for voice fraud. Voice fraud occurs when voice services are used to illegally to acquire funds from a service provider through things like PBX hacking, False Answer Supervision (FAS) and a whole range of other fraudulent activities.

Service providers lose more than USD $38.1 billion from voice fraud annually, according to the Communications Fraud Control Agency (CFCA). In a voice market where margins are declining, any loss from fraud is too much. Service providers have to take action or face potentially going out of business. It is that important.

I see three critical elements to today’s fight against voice fraud:

1. Platform-based approach – Service providers should be looking at the big picture and building fraud solutions into their voice platforms. Voice fraud identification and mitigation shouldn’t be a bolt-on solution. It should be a fully integrated part of every voice service that a service provider delivers. Service providers should recognise that voice fraud identification and mitigation is now core to a successful voice offering and ensure that their platform is ready to fight voice fraud 24/7/365.
2. Moving in real-time – Service providers have to fight voice fraud in real-time. The days of checking Call Data Records (CDR) and looking at bills months after a voice fraud has occurred are over. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are enabling service providers to act immediately to stop voice fraud as it happens, and use historic data to maintain an optimised networking environment. AI accelerates decision making, which reduces the scale of voice fraud losses, and can adapt to a changing threat. AI and machine learning provides a fluid foundation for fighting voice fraud and evolving to combat cybercrime.
3. Collaboration and partnerships – Voice fraud has a negative impact on our whole ecosystem and that is why we have to work together to fight it. Everyone benefits when working together, and no one service provider can go it alone against a constantly changing threat. Service providers should choose partners that share the same commitment to fight voice fraud and get active in industry forums like the i3forum. The more you learn about voice fraud and participate in the wider conversations around fraud and cybercrime, the better off you’ll be.

Voice fraud will never go away entirely but we can limit its impact on our businesses, partners, customers and end users. We can build trust across the ecosystem by taking action and putting these strategies into practice. Cybercrime is a constantly evolving threat that demands a new approach. Criminals are innovating to continue to profit from it and we have to innovate and go beyond the status quo to protect and grow our businesses.

If you’d like to learn more about collaborating in the fight against voice fraud, please take a look at the i3forum’s website. I’m the Vice Chair of the i3forum and a real believer in the power of collaboration in the fight against fraud. Together, we can create a healthy, sustainable and secure voice market.

Learn more about how to fight voice fraud and other types of cybercrime.

The post Let’s step up the fight against voice fraud appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Securing the Internet-of-Things

Connected toys such as mini robots and smart teddies are high on kids’ wish lists for 2018. Yet, fears about their security are justified. Unlike with smartphones and PCs that have been designed with security built-in, with toys, security is often an afterthought. The most alarming scenario is that a hacker could potentially communicate with a child through an unsecured Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-enabled toy. This could quickly escalate into something even more sinister.

As the home becomes increasingly connected, we will see more and more “things” become “devices”. Unfortunately, because things like doorbells, toys and kettles don’t hold any financially lucrative or sensitive data or information that a hacker would want to get hold of, the security standards on these devices can be lax to say the least. The problem with that is that they are still an entry point to other devices connected to your home network which do contain information that needs to be kept secure.

If you think about your home as a collection of things which connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and cellular networks, then everything in your home is a potential vulnerability through which a hacker could gain access to your network. Even if your Wi-Fi connection is password-protected, if a hacker can access a toy that is connected to it, they could then infiltrate data on your devices such as smartphones, laptops and TVs. Once they have access to those devices, they could steal sensitive files, or hold your applications and data hostage, demanding a ransom from you.

Suddenly, the security standards of the connected toy are an issue of genuine severity for you and your family. For peace of mind, consumers should only buy consumer technology products from trusted retailers and manufacturers and ensure that they come with robust security built-in.

Staying safe when shopping online

The new year period leads to an upsurge of online activity, with consumers rushing to take advantage of the January sales. However, this also leads to a surge in online criminal activity. According to a recent survey by Barclays, 52 per cent of consumers said that the lure of a bargain can get in the way of checking website security credentials.

You can get ahead of retail fraudsters by taking the time to ensure the websites they’re accessing are genuine sellers. Generally, genuine websites will have additional signs that mark them as secure, such as a “https://” address. Another quick way to check if a website is secure or not is by looking out for the lock sign, which is a standard feature among web browsers that denote a website that has been marked as secure. Fraudsters often replicate reputable sites and retailers to trick consumers, so it’s always worth double checking the address. Before clicking ‘confirm’ at the checkout, you should always ensure that the payment system on offer is reputable. If in doubt, contact your bank.

Security at work

At work especially, there is seemingly a perception from employees that their work devices are fortified, impregnable machines that are completely immune to influence from the outside world. So, employees often operate under the assumption that if they click a link to a seemingly harmless and enticing online sales promotion when they have no idea who has sent it and what it will trigger on their work machine, there will be no consequences.

The reality, however, is that a malicious link from an unknown sender could infect your email application with a virus that would automatically send the file to every address in your contact list. You may have a sleepless night with people from all over the world phoning your mobile asking what the suspicious email you have sent them is and whether they should open the file or not. While this is a very tangible impact for you as a consumer, such an attack means your device is being used to infect other devices, and eventually bring the entire network to a standstill. This then allows cyber-attackers to gain access to sensitive, valuable and incriminating data and extort a ransom from your company.

The key takeaway for consumers is to take a more proactive view on cybersecurity this time of the year. Exercising additional vigilance in 2018 means that you won’t get caught out by cybercriminals. In today’s increasingly connected world it is more critical than ever to extend an increased awareness of cybersecurity issues in every aspect of our lives.

Read one of our previous blogs on the security for the Internet of Things.

The post Consumer security: a worthwhile 2018 resolution appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In fact, in my two decades in the voice industry, I’ve never seen a market that is more dynamic and that is more wide open and full of possibilities. In the old days of voice, there was only so much you could do with a voice minute. Today, it feels like voice can be a part of any application or any service imaginable. This is why I see three big opportunities really defining the market in 2018:

• Evolving traditional voice – Offering a comprehensive suite of solutions and a depth of expertise is more important than geographic reach. Wholesale voice providers should evolve their businesses to focus on enabling profitability and solving challenges. Today’s customers want consultancy and support rather than just A to B connectivity. It is mind set shift, but one that creates long-term customers that depend on not just destinations but fraud solutions, routing engines and a whole platform of solutions focused on profitability.
• Enabling UCC – Service provider customers need to differentiate their UCC offerings to compete. With the right wholesale partner, they can add capabilities and benefit from deep voice expertise. Partners can help to build their footprint globally while also enabling the integration of multiple UCC platforms into their offering. Service providers can also lean on their partners to create new efficiencies and help them to terminate traffic outside of their UCC clouds. Wholesale can be the key to removing the limits on their voice offerings.
• Preparing for the future – There are growing opportunities in supporting roaming for voice over LTE (VoLTE), Machine-to-Machine Communications (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These technologies have been evolving slowly on a local level but will eventually have applications that demand fully integrated and seamless roaming environments. From connected cars through to international artificial intelligence platforms, voice players with experience in global roaming will be able to support limitless communications. At the same time, we are seeing calling and messaging being incorporated into an infinite number of applications and services. Today, voice services can be part of any solution and often need termination on the PSTN.

While the word “wholesale” is out of fashion in carrier business, it still underpins global communications, and expertise in wholesale is essential for enabling new services. Expertise in voice is still in demand although business models are changing. In 2018, the voice players who will be successful will need to continually evolve their strategies to adapt to the new business models.

Christian Michaud will be representing both Tata Communications and i3forum at Capacity Asia. He will be moderating the panel “Next Steps for IPX: VoLTE and RCS and Beyond” at i3forum’s conference on 13th December.

The post Three transformative approaches to the voice business appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In this blog, I will discuss the challenges of achieving the high availability SLAs demanded of enterprise-grade Openstack solutions.

Identifying bugs

High-availability services are deployed on multiple nodes. These nodes are named based on the services they host. For example, controller nodes host API and scheduler services, storage nodes serve the storage disk needs, network nodes provide connectivity between virtual machines (VMs) and internet and compute nodes are where the VMs are created.

Since each of these services get hosted on multiple nodes, identifying broken ends and root causes of issues is becoming challenging. One needs to look at logs of each node hosting that service and find where the error is.

Once you know the error, it is possible to identify where the root cause is. Unfortunately, this requires looking through each node again, which is a time-consuming task and can jeopardise meeting the high availability SLA.

Finding a solution

Current debugging solutions commonly aggregate the logs from all the nodes and services in one location and have a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to look through the data. Given the volume of logs which must be viewed, however, the search process deployed by the GUI can be significantly enhanced, yielding more useful results in a fraction of the time.

To this end, Tata Communications has developed a cloud inspector framework, which makes debugging the Openstack based cloud infrastructure much easier. We have added two new fields to each VM workflow as they are created – a request tracking identifier and a dynamic logging level. So, when the API receives this request, it saves these two new keys for further processing.

This makes it easier to search the logs for all the entries related to a specific action, which in turn makes it far easier to identify the root cause of a bug, understand the service node from which it originated and ultimately fix the issue.

Inspecting the cloud

Moving forward, we will see services such as Cloud Inspector integrated with our IT Service Management (ITSM) interface, so that whenever an action fails, the system can filter log entries using the request tracking identifier and help users understand what needs to be debugged.

As these systems become highly automated and technologies such as AI enable platforms to self-maintain and heal, IT managers and decision makers can invest their time in more strategic areas than manually searching for errors and bugs in the IT infrastructure.

Read one of our previous blogs on modernising your cloud infrastructure.

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In one of our recent blogs, we highlighted an impressive statistic stating that 93% of organisations use cloud services in some form today and this is growing! According to recent Forrester Research, 59% of respondents are adopting a hybrid cloud model.

One of the big challenges facing IT teams today is building the right cloud migration strategy and avoiding the risks of it going wrong, which can result in technical difficulties, downtime, reputational damage, security threats and data protection issues. Not only do IT teams need to choose the right tools – they must make the right plans and decisions to succeed. IT teams need to be aware of the factors that can derail a migration project and know how to avoid them.

As Gartner states: “Any cloud migration decision is, in essence, an application or infrastructure modernization decision and needs to be approached in the broader context of related application portfolio management and infrastructure portfolio management programs.”

So, how do you minimize these risks and making sure it’s a successful transition?

1. Start with the big picture

Look at the business strategy, the present and future workloads. You will typically find that legacy infrastructures don’t have very good application zoning. This requires analysis of existing workloads and, more importantly, anticipating business expansion needs to ensure the right choices are made.

2. Consider all the platform technology options

When it comes to platform selection, you have lots of options. For example, some workloads fare better on VMware, some are better suited to Hyper-V and some to KVM. We believe it’s important that service personnel work closely with the application team to suggest multiple options and help the customer make the optimal choice.

3. The right tools for the job

The biggest challenge you need to consider next is business disruption. Regardless of what platform you’re moving to, the data conversion and migration will always be a challenge. You can use various tools to ensure a seamless transition and the tool you select will depend very much on the application. This decision shouldn’t be made lightly and needs to be informed. Explore all the available options to find the best choice that avoids downtime and any data conversion issues.

4. Connecting with end-user needs

Cloud deployments can fail because little or no consideration is given to how end-users interact with it. Thought needs to be put into how you provide a ‘uniform and easily updated business-facing tool’ and this starts by understanding the needs of the business units that will be using it.

5. Continuous refinement

It is important that the build teams with a detailed understanding of your platform continue to manage it. Then if you encounter live service problems, they can transition their knowledge into the new environment. This should be supported by continuous service improvement. For example, if there is an incident or problem, then the management of these issues, by default, will result in improvements being made.

6. Supporting the enterprise beyond the initial journey

Once your hybrid cloud platform is in place you need to extract management information that works across the whole organization. For example, when considering IT, one might include current initiatives being worked on as well as innovations that are happening in the industry. Business leaders want to see that they are getting return on investment (ROI) and have the optimal solution for the business. So again, we share different management information.

To summarise: for a successful transition to the cloud, you need to have the right technology, processes and people in place as well as a ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude.

Read one of our previous blogs on modernising your cloud infrastructure.

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While this ubiquitous global connectivity enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) opens great possibilities for personal and organisational growth, it also exposes us to security vulnerabilities that can cause financial loss, endanger personal and public safety, and cause varying degrees of damage to business and reputation. Anything that is connected to the Internet is a potential attack surface for cybercriminals.

A new landscape for hackers

IoT brings with it a host of new possibilities, from smart city advancements to transforming how industries produce goods. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has seen significant advancement in recent years, for example by connecting assets in a factory, organisations can have better insight into the health of their machinery, and predict any major problems with their hardware before it happens – allowing them to stay one step ahead of their systems and keep costly outages to a minimum.

However in the rush to connect every ‘thing’ in sight, from lampposts, to factory machinery, to the wearable fitness monitor on your wrist, security has ranked low down on the priority list. Despite most manufacturers taking steps to build-in security, it doesn’t count for much if the end-user implementing the technology doesn’t properly configure the devices.  What’s even more disconcerting is a recent study that suggests that 70 percent of all IoT devices have serious vulnerabilities.

For example, an organisation may roll out a series of sensors across their factories, but fail to set up a passwords. Those same sensors are subsequently left vulnerable to be used for malicious functions they were never designed for.

Security is also a concern for governments who are investing in smart city infrastructure. IoT has the potential to create a wealth of new services and improve existing public services. Without adequate security, innocuous items which generally pose no threat, can be transformed into something far more sinister. For example, traffic lights that tell cars and pedestrians to go at the same time, or changing tracks to put a commuter train on the wrong course. A real life example of this kind of disruption came to light in late 2016, when San Francisco’s public transit system was hacked – forcing the city to allow commuters to travel for free, and causing wide-spread disruption across the city.

The insecurity of things

Another problematic insecurity is the networks that IoT data travels over. In addition to vulnerabilities in the device, malicious elements can reach you system through insecure networks. However, as technology press rapidly on, we’re not taking the appropriate steps to ensure end-to-end security is built in.

What’s worse is that this is a sin that has been committed in the past. Specifically, when the initial worldwide internet infrastructure was being built from 1990 to 2005. During this period security was an afterthought, and that enabled early hackers to grow and disrupt.

With this in mind, it’s important that organisations take time to pause and think about how they can work together to create an end-to-end infrastructure that can deal with the influx of new devices.

Know your enemy

As with any defence, the first step is to be aware of the threats and arm yourselves with the appropriate tools to minimise the risk falling into those traps. There are many effective methods of preventative and reactive security, but each approach will differ depending on the devices in your ecosystem.

An overall understanding of the end-to-end journey of your data, and the threats it faces at each leg of the journey will be beneficial, and organisations who work with partners to create a secure network for their devices will be rewarded in the long run. Unfortunately there’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to securing the IoT infrastructure, and it will take a considered, group effort to ensure this beneficial technology evolves in a secure, and effective way.

Read one of my previous blogs on the evolution of ransomware.

The post Security for the Internet of Threats appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

According to a Bain & Company research brief, “The changing faces of the cloud”, global cloud spending is predicted to increase from $180bn in 2015 to $390bn by 2020. From 2012 to 2015, cloud demand accounted for 70% of related IT market growth, and it is expected to represent 60% of growth through to 2020.

IT executives cite cost, innovation and agility as reasons for cloud adoption, according to Gartner. Cloud reduces the high cost of hardware and allows scalability and flexibility, which gives businesses a competitive advantage to grow quickly with manageable IT infrastructure expenses.

While there has already been exponential growth in cloud computing, arguably cloud technologies are still in the formative stages. While many talk about a cloud-first strategy gathering pace in enterprises, we think that most enterprises do not use the cloud to completely replace existing infrastructure – they are only using it for a relatively small portion of their needs. There is still a great deal of untapped potential to modernise infrastructure and unlock capabilities using the cloud.

Here are our three recommendations to make the most of the advantages available through cloud computing:

1. Invest in software-defined infrastructure

IT defines application and operation policies, while orchestration software automates infrastructure provisioning and configuration to meet your needs. A software-defined infrastructure (SDI) operates independent of specific hardware and is programmatically extensible. This video from Intel provides a useful snapshot of SDI.

Orchestration software continuously monitors telemetry provided by resources to manage workloads. As service demands change, the orchestrators will intelligently analyse and determine which resources can provide the best support. Orchestration software will learn from past patterns to optimise future decisions and make your datacenter smart and self-scaling.

2. Optimise cloud infrastructure across a full range of workloads

Your cloud strategy, whether it’s private, public or hybrid, needs to be determined by the needs of your organisation and the specific solution or service in question. In a private cloud, an organisation typically owns the cloud infrastructure components and houses them within its own data centre. In a public model, the cloud infrastructure components are owned by a cloud provider. A hybrid consists of a mix of both models.

To gain the advantages of the cloud while maintaining control of intellectual property, most companies focus on hybrid-cloud approach. But, whatever the model, IT needs to set up and configure the cloud environment so that the workloads will be organised and managed effectively.

Cloud infrastructure is of course present in each of the three main cloud models. The infrastructure consists of the hardware and software components such as servers, storage, network switches and virtual machines, memory, network, virtualisation software and more. A cloud-based infrastructure has the capability to decouple the storage control and management from the physical implementation via a distributed file system.

3. Accelerate cloud deployments

Deploying cloud computing with the appropriate infrastructure can pose a formidable challenge for IT managers – and an open source platform and community, OpenStack, attempts to solve this challenge. It is a set of software tools which enables IT administrators to manage compute, memory, storage and networking resources through a web interface to accelerate cloud deployments.

OpenStack is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists with backgrounds in public clouds, high performance computing and Web 2.0. The project aims to deliver components that can be used for implementing private and public clouds, and that are API-compatible with key Infrastructure as a Service cloud services.

Intel has been a major contributor to OpenStack, and in collaboration with us, Tata Communications has chosen OpenStack as the architecture for its IZO Private Cloud. Like Tata Communications’ cloud team, the OpenStack experts at Intel understand enterprise IT managers’ cloud deployment challenges, and we’re committed to addressing them head-on.

Find out more about Tata Communications’ cloud capabilities here.

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Today, ransomware is one of the most popular forms of malware, but this hasn’t always been the case. Malware, like any virus, favours threats that can adapt and evolve to their surroundings. As we become more connected, and our economy gets more digital, we face a growing threat from cyberattack, with ransomware at the heart of the modern cybercriminals’ arsenal.

From cyber vandals to cyber criminals

The origins of ransomware can be traced as far back as 1989, when unsuspecting victims were infected with the ‘AIDS Trojan,’ which was distributed through floppy disks that were sent to victims via the normal postal service. Although the world was unprepared for such an attack, the virus struggled to spread at the time as few people used personal computers, and the internet was still in its very early stages. In addition to this, encryption technology was still limited at the time.

In spite of this early beginning, ransomware wasn’t a popular form of malware in the 90s and early 00s as the main aim was to gain notoriety through cyber pranks and vandalism, with hackers using graphics to communicate the attack to the user. These graphics were sometimes amusing and creative – so much so that some of them have been immortalised in an online ‘Malware Museum,’ where you can interact with viruses of yesteryear – with their malicious elements removed.

These days rather than sending a cheeky update to let you know you’ve been hacked the first most people and organisations hear of a successful attack is when the orchestrator starts asking for bitcoin. Unfortunately, ransomware has thrived in our new digital economy thanks to the emergence of almost impossible to trace crypto currencies. Early examples of ransomware in its modern guise were seen in the form of Cryzip in 2006. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that we saw the poster children for modern ransomware in the form of CryptoLocker and CryptoWall, released four years after Bitcoin was released as an open-source software. These viruses were distributed via a simple attachment and evading usual prevention techniques proceeded to quickly find and encrypt their victim’s data. The next part was simple: pay up or lose your data.

The emergence of a billion dollar industry

Monetisation is the key element that has set ransomware apart from traditional virus models. CryptoLocker and CryptoWall inspired a whole new generation of copy-cat cybercriminals. You only need to look at the figures to figure out why ransomware attacks have rapidly accelerated. Security experts have estimated that $1billion was deposited into Bitcoin wallets associated with ransomware cybercriminals in 2016 alone. This makes it an incredibly lucrative business, and is why criminals are now looking beyond the humble personal computer to more valuable targets like governments, the utilities industry and larger companies. This was the aim of the recent WannaCry and Petya global attacks, which infected major companies and national infrastructure in pursuit of bigger budgets able to pay larger ransom amounts.

This paints a bleak picture, but there is a silver lining. As attacks evolve, cybersecurity efforts are evolving to meet the challenge. WannaCry for example was stopped in its tracks by a security professional who engaged a ‘kill switch’ domain. The increased awareness of cyberattacks is leading to greater investment in preventative technology. Ransomware and other viruses will continue to evolve.

Organisations  who want to protect themselves from a growing threat to their systems and reputation must not wait for an attack to be successful before they invest in their security systems. Protection from the threat of ransomware means acting now, and arming themselves with equally scalable and advanced weapons to combat a complex and evolving threat which shows no sign of slowing down.

Read one of my previous blogs on the new security environment.

The post Ransomware: From hobby hackers to a billion-dollar operation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The breach happened between mid-May and July of this year and Equifax has reported that the stolen records included people’s names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some cases, driver’s license numbers.

How did it happen?

Equifax has confirmed that the cyber criminals behind the attack, “exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files.”[1] The vulnerability was in Apache Struts – a popular Open Source framework for building enterprise-grade web applications in Java. The bug allowed hackers to remotely execute arbitrary commands to gain access into Equifax’s network and scan their database.

It has also been confirmed that Apache issued a patch for this vulnerability on March 7, 2017, the same day it was announced. And the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which regularly releases various alerts and patches for vulnerabilities, announced the patch on March 10, 2017.

Today, effective security for any organisation is a factor of both the security infrastructure and the associated operations processes. Attacks such as the ones we have seen recently can be attributed more to the fear of application downtime or the fear of business impact that prevents organisations from getting to the latest patch level in a timely manner. Other probable reasons for delaying updates may be:

• The lack of ability to filter through the noise of security announcements, updates and alerts
• Gaps in contextualising the security alerts in terms of prioritisation linked to critical assets and business processes
• Ineffective SLAs around vulnerability management and remediation
• Weaknesses in breach detection mechanisms

Protecting your enterprise

The clear call to action for enterprises is to equip themselves to detect and defeat external and internal attackers in real-time with these best practices:

1. Establish a robust vulnerability management process driven by organisational strategy. Quickly roll out a security fix release for your software product once supporting frameworks or libraries need to be updated for security reasons. Think in terms of a number of hours or a few days, not weeks or months.
2. Patch operating systems, software, and firmware on devices. Use a centralised patch-management system for medium to high severity security patches. Keep track of security announcements affecting products and versions.
3. Secure your offline backups. Ensure backups are not connected permanently to the computers and networks they are backing up.
4. Audit firewalls and IPS configurations. Block access to known malicious IP addresses & SMB/WMI ports. Don’t build your security policy on the assumption that supporting software products are flawless, especially in terms of security vulnerabilities.
5. Establish security layers. It is good software engineering practice to have individually secured layers behind a public-facing presentation layer, such as the Apache Struts framework. A breach into the presentation layer should never empower access to significant, or even all, back-end information resources.
6. Test for and identify emerging network vulnerabilities. Prevent external agents from accessing them.

So, looking ahead from the Equifax incident, the focus in the immediate term should be to effectively manage all security systems for potential vulnerabilities and maintain swift remediation practices. Working with a specialised services partner who can prioritise and deliver security patches and build additional safeguards for protection and detection measures in a risk-sensitive manner is the best way to do this.

However, on an ongoing basis, any enterprise needs to evaluate its security posture regularly, and bolster it through effective managed security or specialised services.

Tata Communications offers Managed Security Services that deliver measurable and effective protection against breaches. Speak with an information security expert about strengthening your defences today.

[1] Equifax Announces Cybersecurity Incident Involving Consumer Information

The post Keeping Cyber Attacks At Bay: Lessons Learnt From Equifax appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In my previous blog, I explored some of the common technology pitfalls facing organisations adopting SD-WAN. However, my team and I still witness resistance to change. There seems to be a real fear of adopting something new and untried, with a lack of clarity around what is best for the organisation. Should organisations try and manage it themselves, or should they work with a trusted provider who can manage it all for them?

Look at your organisation’s structure

For many organisations there are separate teams that work across network, security and IT. They all have different skill sets and areas of responsibility. The network team looks after the routers, the security team looks after the firewalls and the IT managers are responsible for the infrastructure.

Introduce SD-WAN, and the physical separation in these functions is removed. You’re now in a position where your network layer may be virtualised, and routing is in the same place as your security – so, who manages it? Who is the decision-maker on the policies for these devices? What you need is one aligned team to manage the distinct functions.

Manage risk and try something new

Unlike traditional MPLS WANs, SD-WAN offers flexibility to try out new configurations and services before you commit and quickly ramp-up proof of concepts. Leading analytical company, Global Data,   that organisations should try low-risk implementations first, and work with Service Provider partners that can provide them with use cases, and customer testimonials to prove success. This will help IT managers build a less risky business case.

The final consideration that needs to be made is whether you go DIY or fully managed. DIY is dependent on a high level of skill within your internal IT department and is more likely to have hidden costs as you come up against things that haven’t been planned.

Opting for a managed SD-WAN solution reduces the hassle and risk, and puts an expert at the helm to fine-tune and maintain the platform within your network. This will ensure your business can take full advantage of all the benefits SD-WAN brings without disruption or unplanned cost.

Read more blogs about networks and services.

The post Are you SD-WAN ready? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In one of my previous blogs, I discussed the idea that while people may think you just have a box that works across the network which will route traffic on the fly, it’s actually far more complicated than that. The starting point is for businesses to understand the common pitfalls.

This three step guide will discuss how businesses can realise the benefits of SD-WAN. These include increased enterprise agility, flexibility, quality of service (QoS), cost reduction and speed to respond.

1. Don’t underestimate the complexity of the network underlay

The postal service has undergone a massive change in recent years because people’s buying habits have changed. They spend less time visiting shops and instead buy online. The customer can get what they want, when they want it, at a competitive price. However, what most consumers don’t consider is the huge amount of ‘logistics’ that happen behind the scenes. Let’s call these logistics, the ’underlay’. A parcel might be delivered by FedEx or the in-country postal service, but this doesn’t’ concern the average consumer. It might go through three distribution centres or 10. Again, they don’t care. They just want their order. But if the underlay doesn’t work and their parcel is delayed, damaged or lost, then the online platform and brand they bought it from starts to lose credibility and value.

This is the same principle with SD-WAN. The network underlay is a key part of the architecture. It’s complex and often underestimated. SD-WAN came about because businesses wanted to make better use of their network resources, and they want the seamless online experience and options. However, they’re not network experts – so they need to work with a partner that can manage the complexity.

2. Make light work of defining the policies for applications

Networks are 10 times more complex than they were 10 years ago. Back then we would have chatted to a customer about QoS over their MPLS network They might not have known all the applications running across their network but it would have typically been around 10 high priority ones as well as anything else on top. Now they have five times the number of applications to consider: some on premise, some in the cloud, some transition between, and many of these are mission-critical. These applications need to be secure and free of congestion or QoS issues.

When you start implementing SD-WAN today, you need to have clear visibility of all applications. You need to think about what should go in which queue and when congestion occurs, what should take priority – and, more importantly, where does the low-priority traffic go during busy periods? This is where the in-depth knowledge of networks and gateways can help you achieve success.

3. Optimising voice for SD-WAN

Architectural underlay is vital for the overlay to work efficiently. This is especially important when you look at unified communications (UC) and want to take advantage of cloud enabled services such as SIP trunking. SIP servicing is a real challenge to achieve alone. Working with a service provider with supportive solutions across overlay and underlay elements directly into its PSTN (public switched telephone network) reduces the headache significantly.

In summary, to see the biggest return on your SD-WAN investment and reap all the benefits it brings, you need to partner with services experts that can manage the entire complexity layer for you, define and roll-out the required policies and work across your organisation to ensure seamless delivery. This will minimise disruption and downtime in the short term and maximise increases in efficiency, productivity and technological capabilities in the long term.

Read more about networks and services, and look out for my next blog on SD-WAN.

The post Managing network underlay: 3 ways you CAN with SD-WAN appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Data breaches are a concern for the general public and businesses alike. Only recently, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) was the target of a sophisticated ransomware attack that ground emergency services at some hospitals to a crawl and genuinely endangered lives as a result.

Hacks can also be reputationally and financially damaging to a business, as it was for Yahoo. When details emerged in 2016 about a 2013 data breach that affected one billion accounts, the company faced harsh criticism for not disclosing the event sooner, and had a considerable financial impact when Verizon announced that the breach would have a ‘material’ effect on their acquisition deal.

In addition, the regulatory implications of large-scale attacks are mounting. Under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for example, which will come into full effect in 2018, organisations may be fined up to 4% of global turnover or €20 million (whichever is greater) following a breach if the regulators decide that the organisation did not take the necessary precautions to protect the data.

All of this considered, it’s clear that the landscape of digital threats has seen considerable advancement in recent years but organisations are failing to adapt. Many organisations are using outdated methods of protection that focus too heavily on blocking and prevention mechanisms. These methods are decreasingly effective against the advanced threats from today’s motivated, advanced hackers. There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship, and there is no such thing as impenetrable prevention against attackers.

So how can organisations adapt?

The first step is to accept that at some point, the hackers will breach your preventative security layer. The second is to invest in an adaptive security method that is able to keep up with increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Adaptive security means putting preventative and responsive security processes in place at every step in your system that a threat could break through. Organisations should shift their mind-set from ‘incident response’ to ‘continuous response’. Typically, there are four stages in an adaptive security life cycle: preventative, detective, retrospective and predictive. For organisations to protect themselves, they need to get the right mix.

Preventive security is the first layer of defence. This includes things like firewalls, which are designed to raise the bar against attackers, blocking them and their attack before they affect the business. Most organisations have this in place already, but there is definitely a need for a mind-set change. Rather than seeing preventative security as a way to block attackers completely from getting in, organisations should see it as a barrier that makes it more difficult for an attacker to get through – giving the organisation more time to detect and disable an attack in process.

Detective security detects the attacks within the system that have already breached your walls. The goal of this layer is to reduce the time that attackers spends within the system, limiting the subsequent damage. This layer is critical, as the organisation has already established that attackers will, at some point, encounter a gap in their defences.

Retrospective security is an intelligent layer that turns past attacks into future protection – similar to how a vaccine protects you against diseases. By analysing the vulnerabilities exposed in a previous breach and using forensic analysis and root cause analysis, it recommends new preventative measures for any similar incidents in the future

Predictive security plugs into the external network of threats, periodically monitoring external hacker underground to proactively anticipate new attack types. This is fed back to the preventative layer, putting new protections in place against evolving threats as they’re discovered.

These are the four ingredients you need to secure your business during your digital transformation journey, and they need to be baked in together in order to protect you to their full potential. All elements improve security individually, but together, these four distinct security mechanisms form a comprehensive, constant protection for organisations at every stage in the life cycle of a security threat.

Read Srini’s recent post Petya and WannaCry: a new security environment

The post Enabling a secure digital transformation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Cookie cutter or customised?

If a public cloud is chosen as the best way forward, and if the number of applications and volume of data is small, the process can be simple. But often for medium-sized and large enterprises, cloud migration is a complex process that takes time, so they seek the support of a systems integrator or another type of technology partner. Here, the seamlessness of the migration itself, and especially the on-boarding process that follows, is critical. In fact, the lack of adequate on-boarding, whereby the enterprise is left in its own devices after the migration, can be a major cause of dissatisfaction for CIOs.

For large organisations with operations spread across geographies, hundreds of employees per line of business and rapidly evolving business demands, the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all nature of a public cloud can be too inflexible. While a customised private cloud takes longer to implement, it is an investment that more and more organisations are willing to make, given the scalability benefits it brings and the control it gives to the CIO. By working with the right private cloud partner, the CIO is also able to adopt a step-by-step approach to the cloud migration journey, moving applications and lines of business to the new IT set-up one by one to ensure a smooth migration.

Dealing with disruption in different clouds

Given the way in which cloud applications have permeated all lines of business – finance, CRM, legal, marketing and HR – and the way in which all employees rely on anytime, anywhere access to cloud-based data, any issues can easily snowball into a major disruptive incident if not dealt with in a timely fashion. While different cloud types have a lot in common, arguably they differ the most when it comes to how quickly a disruption in each type of environment is likely to be solved.

With public clouds, the cloud provider is fully in charge of managing all aspects of the infrastructure and ensuring that customers have 24/7 access to applications and data. In most cases these cloud providers have huge resources and teams, all dedicated to sticking to their SLAs, keeping the cloud up and running and safeguarding revenues for the business.

When it comes to internal private clouds, it’s up to the enterprise to fully manage it. So, the organisation’s own IT team is in charge of investigating the causes for any downtime, breaches or other issues and then coming up with a solution – hopefully with minimum negative impact on employees, customers and other stakeholders. However, while a private cloud self-managed by the enterprise gives it complete control over the entire cloud infrastructure, many enterprises don’t have the resources to deal with issues as quickly as needed. In addition, in some cases the internal IT team can be so far down the pecking order that they might not have the impetus to solve problems with the required urgency. They have no SLAs to comply with either, so, depending on the size and expertise of the IT team, it can take some time before the issue is solved and the private cloud is up and running again.

That is why companies opting for a self-managed, internal private cloud should always consider the following questions: how long can our employees and customers we cope with cloud downtime? How long can we afford to wait until any issue is resolved? Do we have the IT staff and budget to ensure quick recovery from any issues that might arise? To ensure that any issues can be resolved before they even lead to downtime, many organisations are now moving to fully-managed private clouds. This gives them access to a public cloud-like army of IT experts 24/7 while ensuring that the CIO maintains maximum control over the IT infrastructure, as well as the security and sovereignty of data and applications.

Cloud migration is a complex issue, especially for those enterprises that want to manage their IT set up as one. Those businesses looking to make the move should consider partnering with a private cloud provider that is able to give them 360-degree visibility and control over this critical infrastructure. However, a successful migration is only the start. With the right partner, the CIO is able to harness the new, hybrid cloud infrastructure for new digital transformation initiatives across the organisation – today and in the future. After all, in today’s digital world fuelled by data, the IT infrastructure is the growth engine of the enterprise.

Read more of Srini’s thoughts on the topic of cloud computing.

The post What’s the best cloud option for your business? (Part 2) appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Choosing the right cloud type takes time, but more and more companies are well on their way. According to a recent global study by McAfee, 93% of organisations use cloud services in some form. Interestingly, over the last year there has been a significant shift in cloud architecture, from private-only or public-only to predominantly hybrid, which increased from 19% to 57%. Looking deeper into cloud adoption, there was a significant reduction in private-only cloud, from 51% in 2016 to 24% in 2017. Public-only architecture also saw a notable drop, from 30% to 19%.

Still, the popularity of certain private, public or hybrid cloud models is not always determined by the cloud type itself, but by the challenges that some organisations face in deploying and managing their cloud infrastructure effectively.

High value of data

Often, the type of cloud that makes sense for a business depends on the size of the organisation, given the resources needed to deploy and manage the new IT set-up. For smaller companies and start-ups, it is often a no-brainer to go with a public cloud to begin with, because they have no, or very little, legacy IT to migrate. Most mid-sized companies on the other hand, tend to have a fair amount of legacy IT that they need to move to the cloud, but often limited IT resources. That is why they tend to opt for ready-made public clouds or fully-managed private clouds, so that they don’t have to invest further into their own infrastructure and grow their own IT team. However, challenges may arise when they choose a public cloud, and then work with a systems integrator to customise it to the needs of the business. This multi-vendor approach can add complexity to IT management.

Yet, regardless of the size of the organisation, the key questions for the IT decision maker are: What type of data do I have? And crucially, what is the value of my data? A public cloud is often not the best home for highly valuable, sensitive, business-critical data – even in small businesses. In spite of this, almost 85% of professionals surveyed by McAfee report they “store some or all of their sensitive data in the public cloud.” However there is a growing awareness of a security skills shortage within organisations, 77% of large organisations admitted that they had a lack of cybersecurity skills. Among these, 39% reported that they have slowed cloud adoption/usage due to the lack of skills.

Security of valuable data

Data security is, and will remain, a major factor in an enterprise’s cloud strategy too. It boils down to making a call between what is an acceptable amount of convenience versus an acceptable amount of risk when it comes to access to applications and data. That is why a highly-secure, fully-managed private cloud that gives the CIO maximum control over applications and data, and the ability to mix the private cloud set-up with public and on-premise systems, is often the best option.

Often the decision between public vs. private is not a black and white one. When making the switch, enterprises need to consider the value of the data being moved to the cloud and the state of their legacy IT. Many businesses migrating to the cloud will find that a hybrid approach that mixes both cloud types and on-premise systems is the most pragmatic and effective solution.

Read Srini’s recent post on Petya and WannaCry: a new security environment, and stay tuned for Part 2 of ‘Public or Private? What’s the best cloud option for your business?’.

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It’s quite incredible to think that these words were uttered by Oracle’s Larry Ellison just nine years ago, as the cloud computing hype was starting to gather pace in the technology industry.

Whenever a new technology emerges that challenges the way people and businesses have been doing things for years or even decades, the initial excitement is soon over-shadowed by uncertainty, anxiety and reluctance to try something new. The CIO, rest of senior management, the IT department and the teams and lines of business who would be impacted by the new technology are all likely to wonder why change is needed, if the current solution is working just fine. We are all creatures of habit after all.

It’s understandable that the CIO and his peers, who are ultimately accountable if the new solution doesn’t live up its promise would be apprehensive about embracing a new, untried and untested technology. But, over time, following much consideration, assessment and consultation with experts, this uncertainty and apprehension tends to subside. In a sense, this pattern could be compared to the Hype Cycles by Gartner: Innovation Triggers (such as brain-computer interfaces), progress to a Peak of Inflated Expectations (autonomous vehicles), and from there to a Trough of Disillusionment (augmented reality) – before emerging in the Slope of Enlightenment (virtual reality) and finally the Plateau of Productivity.

When it comes to enterprise networking, SD-WAN is one technology that has many CIOs on the fence at the moment. Yet, it is expected to reach the Plateau of Productivity in only a few years – which means that forward looking enterprises should start planning their move to this emerging technology now to make sure they won’t be playing catch-up with their more agile competitors later. While it might be tempting to sit tight, early movers in SD-WAN will have the advantage, and any arguments for not taking the plunge with the technology can be easily rebuked.

If it isn’t broken…

As enterprise bandwidth demands continue to grow, it is becoming prohibitively expensive for the CIO to continue adding more and more dedicated network capacity for their private WAN. On the other hand, security and reliability concerns are increasing with the public Internet, which is not fit for purpose when it comes to business-critical applications. As network traffic continues on its upward trajectory, congestion is likely to have a detrimental effect on end-user experience, leading to jitter and lag when accessing cloud-based applications. And, as technologies such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and real-time data analytics become more and more widely adopted, network congestion will worsen. So, simply sticking to the way things have been done for years won’t work in the long term.

Instead, more and more CIOs are realising the benefits of hybrid enterprise networks, which combine the scalability of the public Internet with the reliability and security of a private WAN. These hybrid networks and SD-WAN are a perfect match. One of the benefits of SD-WAN is that it enables users to do more with existing bandwidth by giving the CIO control over how traffic routed – over the Internet or the private network – and how bandwidth is allocated for different applications. This ensures that cloud-based unified communication and collaboration applications, for example, deliver a seamless experience both over low-bandwidth instant messaging and data-hungry video.

I don’t want to be the guinea pig…

Adopting an untried technology takes guts. It can be risky and some CIOs and organisations are more risk-averse than others. Having said that, I actually wouldn’t advise any enterprise with thousands of employees to deploy SD-WAN immediately across all geographies.

The best, least daunting and least risky approach is to start with a small implementation first. And, of course, the CIO should ask their SD-WAN supplier for case studies and customer references to get insights into how the specific solution has performed in the real world to-date, and help avoid potential pitfalls with the deployment.

It becomes clear that SD-WAN can help organisations stay agile, and being well-informed will be key when rolling this technology out. In part two of this blog post, I’ll talk about how to mitigate surprises an organisation may face during deployment.

In the meantime, read a previous blog on the 3 ways you can managing network underlay with SD-WAN.

The post Why does new technology fill CIOs with anxiety and uncertainty? Part 1 appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

What happened?

The ransomware spread rapidly across entire organisations, taking over computers by exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Once machines were infected, users were faced with messages demanding $300 of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as ransom. The attack comes soon after WannaCry, another widespread ransomware attack that had a similarly devastating impact on businesses and organisations around the world, including on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

Why is this kind of attack so successful?

The security updates and patches that are used to protect business IT systems can often have an impact on the applications they are designed to protect. So, while most businesses are aware and have up to date information on the latest patches through their security service providers, they can sometimes take the conscious decision not to update to the latest patches for fear of critical application downtime, and the inevitable negative impact on the business of this downtime.

By willingly delaying updates, they become a potential victim of an attack. However, the effects of a large scale attack like Petya are patently far worse than any productivity loss caused by installing updates and patches. Following the previous WannaCry attack, we found that only about 10-15% of businesses worldwide were well prepared with the right security and latest patches and updates. The other 80-85% of businesses did not and should have undergone urgent, emergency patching. Petya exploited the same vulnerability on Windows systems as WannaCry did, meaning that organisations that updated patches for this vulnerability last time were unlikely to have been affected by this attack.

What can businesses do about ransomware attacks?

Clearly, security updates are key. However, some updates may need elaborate testing – so it may not be possible to apply patches right after they are released. This is where service providers like Tata Communications step in, to help customers in deciding how they can go about this process. Businesses that have a process of sustained monitoring of such alerts and a process for patch updates would be completely protected in such situations. They would have an inventory of what patch levels they are at and which versions require an update. In most of these situations, having the right information in terms of where vulnerabilities exist makes a world of difference in coming out of such attacks unharmed.

Additionally, a strong security infrastructure is not just about a secure network, as investments need to be made in detection and predictive tools and services. Many organisations are using outdated methods of protection that focus too heavily on blocking and prevention mechanisms. These methods are decreasingly effective against the advanced threats from today’s motivated, advanced hackers. There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship, and there is no such thing as impenetrable prevention against attackers.

Experienced personnel should also constantly be on standby to identify any weaknesses quickly. It’s crucial that victims look towards the expertise and support of security partners like a managed security services provider (MSSP) or an internal cybersecurity team to respond appropriately to the security incident. The response to an incident like this has to be swift and decisive, with the immediate focus on the isolation of infected systems and networks. In the immediate aftermath, communication within the organisation is also critical – periodic updates to the user base will help in clarifying incident response actions and keep staff and colleagues in the loop and fully onside when it comes to dealing with the incident.

Digital transformation: opportunity not a threat

As a result of their unprecedented size and scale, these recent cyber-attacks have transcended the business and security worlds and have broken through to the wider public consciousness. The effect of WannaCry on the NHS, for example, was particularly newsworthy in the UK. Clearly, we are living in a new security environment. At the same time, the business world is undergoing rapid change as new technologies like 5G, automation and AI start to take effect.

Many organisations are grasping the potential of these new technologies to undergo their own digital transformation. However, there is a common misconception that security hinders innovation, and limits the rate at which organisations can harness digital transformation. In reality, failing to factor in security at the outset of a digital journey can increase the risk from outside threats. Digital transformation is a must if businesses wish to harness these powerful new technologies – as is remaining protected in this increasingly uncertain and dangerous security environment. Periods of digital transformation are in fact opportunities to strengthen security in parallel with transforming businesses.

Read Srini’s recent post on how to get a grip of cloud security 

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This does not necessarily mean that a private cloud is always more secure than a public cloud. Whether public or private, you need to choose carefully who you work with. Crucially, enterprises should first look into which cloud model best fits their needs. In doing so, the question of public, private or hybrid cloud is in large part determined by the desired level of control and reliability – which in turn impacts on the level of security of their cloud environment too.

Data sovereignty – do you know where your data lives?

In today’s data-powered economy, enterprises worry about data residency and sovereignty due to regulatory demands. In the public cloud, any of your data could live in any country or geography where that cloud provider has data centres – and in many instances it is against the law for a company to let data or even metadata about customers to move across borders in this way.

While a private cloud solution hosted in the local market is part of the solution to ensure data sovereignty and regulatory compliance, enterprises with global operations should choose a private cloud that gives them additional flexibility through a granular data centre approach. This enables them to store their data in multiple different geographies (when laws allow them to do so) to ensure that employees in Singapore, for example, are able to access applications and data as quickly and efficiently as possible via a Singapore data centre.

DDoS and DD4BC: security threats facing clouds  

One of the major benefits of cloud is that it allows enterprises to use a scalable and cost-effective combination of the public Internet and private networks. With this cloud-friendly hybrid networking approach, you are able to dictate which applications can be accessed over the Internet, and which business-critical applications require the additional security and availability offered by a private network.

However, issues arise when enterprises choose to rely on the public Internet alone for all their cloud applications. They risk opening themselves up for attacks such as DDoS, and increasingly incidents where the perpetrators use the threat of DDoS to extort businesses unless they pay a ransom with Bitcoins (DD4BC). Financial services, media and entertainment, and online gaming businesses have become popular targets for DD4BC, but these attacks are rapidly spreading to other sectors too.  The threat is also exacerbated by the growth in popularity of IoT applications, some of which can be prone to hacking.

Given the way in which many cloud applications rely on the public Internet, it is crucial that enterprises are able to safeguard and maintain constant control over their various connected assets, and use private networks for business-critical cloud-based applications.

Private cloud – a more secure way forward

All cloud models have their pros and cons, but for enterprises hesitant about security, control and reliability issues, a private cloud solution is the best way to start their cloud journey. Compared with public cloud solutions, private clouds give enterprises a lot more control over all applications, complete visibility over where data lives, as well as the liberty to implement controls over the entire cloud estate depending on changing business demands.

Amidst the growing threat of cyber-attacks and increasing compliance pressures brought on by new digital rules such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, it might be tempting for enterprises to steer clear of the cloud altogether. However, the benefits far outweigh the risks. So, do take the plunge, but choose your cloud model carefully and work with a partner that can support the migration to the new IT estate.

Read Srini’s recent post Three security lessons on the WannaCry ransomware attack. 

The post Getting a grip on cloud security appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Working closely with a multitude of businesses large and small, we’ve had a unique insight into the real-world impact of WannaCry here at Tata Communications. Here are three key learnings from the incident to help protect your organisation.

Update, update, update

In theory, the impact of the WannaCry ransomware should have been minimal because Microsoft rolled out a patch for the vulnerability on 14^th March 2017. But internal estimates at Tata Communications suggest that, in reality, only 10 to 15 per cent of businesses around the world had implemented the critical update. The majority of businesses were unprotected and had to firefight the attack with emergency patching.

This brings us to our first important lesson, which is that business leaders need to appreciate the importance of security updates. All too often we see IT departments needing to wait for approval from divisions higher up in the hierarchy before they can issue critical patches. For example, CFOs may be unwilling to sign off on updates because it risks application downtime during critical periods such as the end of a financial quarter when every sale counts. Delaying a security update may provide a short-term benefit but as WannaCry dramatically showed, doing so can leave you vulnerable in the long-term.

Evolve your security mindset

Today, we’re seeing SMEs and large corporations adapting their business models to re-invent themselves during the era of digital disruption. This same principle needs to be applied to the way they handle security internally.

Investing in the best infrastructure is the foundation of any security strategy. However, just because you have a secure network on day one, it doesn’t mean you can be complacent. Once infrastructure is put in place, many organisations fall back into the outdated practice of ‘incident response’. This spells disaster in the digital era where issues can arise and snowball on a minute-by-minute basis.

So what’s the strategy going forward? The answer is to move towards a ‘continuous response’ mind-set. This can be achieved by investing in detection and predictive tools and services to gain a 360 degree overview of your defences and address any weaknesses as soon as possible. The digital transformation that many organisations are undergoing currently represents an opportunity to only harness new digital technology

It’s difficult to stress how important it is to be adaptable for this strategy to work. You need to have the most up-to-date information on vulnerabilities at your fingertips, which will allow you to make informed decisions and increase overall security.

Trust the experts

With security exploits emerging at unprecedented rates, it’s almost impossible for businesses today to navigate the security minefield alone. With that in mind, it’s become essential to seek out the expertise of a managed security services provider (MSSP) for two reasons.

Working with a security provider can help you to develop a solid preventative strategy. Tata Communications, for example, provides sustained monitoring solutions as well as advice on how and when to release the latest patches into systems to ensure optimal protection and minimise downtime. Secondly, an MSSP can also provide invaluable support during times of crisis. As soon as word of WannaCry spread, we set up an emergency help desk and proactively reached out to our customers to help patch their antivirus systems, servers and desktops. This went a long way towards mitigating any follow up attacks and we will no doubt be ready to do this again in the future.

Remember, security is not a perfect science. You won’t be able to thwart every cyber-attack ahead of time but much like the game of chess, implementing a good strategy will always swing the odds in your favour.

Want to learn more about the challenges of network security? Read John Hayduk’s blog on the challenges of securing a global network.

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Thanks to advancements in data analysis, AI and natural language processing (NLP) are improving the call centre experience – which is often a cause of complaint for customers. Unlike a human, an AI can review thousands of hours of recorded conversations, or live conversations in real-time, and in moments see what excites and annoys callers. This analysis can then be used by humans to improve customer service in all kinds of ways, including giving upset customers the attention they need before it’s too late, or predicting and addressing issues that upset them in the first place. This also means that companies are now in a much better position to get valuable insights on their customers.

We’re really just starting to scratch the surface of how AI systems can be used to re-design sales and support processes for an improved customer experience.

NLP is redefining the digital call centre experience via bots that have the ability to authenticate and serve, and now even understand more unstructured data in the form of conversational-style speech – almost as well as a human. Speech bots also act as an intermediary channel for the AI back-end, and in return, the AI improves the accuracy and spontaneity of the response by the bot.  We’ll also see bots leveraged in omni-channel contact centres, where customers can effectively and seamlessly be served through video, chat, content sharing, co-browsing and other tools.

While all this means that a lot of mundane tasks will be automated, it also means that other, more valuable jobs will be created.  Ensuring that workers are capable of doing these jobs will be key to a company, industry and even countries’ competitiveness.

In the industrial revolution workers had to be re-skilled for work in factories, and as developed economies throughout the world made the transition to service economies, their work force had to evolve further. Currently technology is evolving too fast for most countries and companies to keep up. Many individuals who have been doing low-skilled jobs in all industries, including contact centres, will find themselves similarly challenged. This will result in job losses for some individuals, countries and companies, and job creation for others, as work migrates to where the most capable – not necessarily the lowest cost – workforce can be found.

It is certain there will be winners and losers in this transition, but I think it is too early to say who they will be.  But if I had to bet, I’d put my money on the individuals, companies, and countries that are most aggressively looking at how they can leverage these new AI technologies and re-skill their workforce for this new environment.

The post The future calls: AI in the contact centre appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Just under 50% of enterprises around the world have deployed UCC with an additional 33% expected to start within the next three years, according to a Tata Communications’ Partner Survey 2016. That means half of enterprises haven’t experienced the benefits of UCC and seen how it can drive productivity and efficiency in a business environment.

The 33% of enterprises that will be making the move to UCC over the next three years will make this transition because the solutions and the market are changing. I see barriers to adoption being removed and simpler, more powerful solutions becoming available to an even wider range of customers. To me that will unlock the potential of UCC in more businesses and more markets around the world.

Here are the five factors that I see driving today’s enterprise adoption and reshaping the UCC market:

1. Simplify deployments – Deployment models are simpler than they have ever been. The trend away from on-premise self-managed models mean that more enterprises can access UCC and deploy it without adding complexity to their operations. On-premise managed UCC, hosted managed UCC and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) are all set to grow over the next three years, according to the Partner survey.
2.  Embracing the cloud – UCaaS is reshaping how business collaboration is deployed and managed, making it easy to adopt and scale UCC within an enterprise. It removes the friction from adopting and managing UCC and moves it from a capex to a purely opex-based model. That makes it easier for enterprises to manage costs while scaling up and down new services.

3. Create new agility with Global SIP – Global SIP is delivering scalability, reliability and the flexibility to support multi-site multinational UCC deployments. It enables enterprises to efficiently connect UCC services with consistent Quality of Service and Experience. That drives usage and enables the rapid delivery of global UCC platforms. SIP also provides a way to layer on additional services outside of the typical UCC stack – services like contact center-as-a-service can bring new levels of sophistication to customer engagement – all via SIP.

4. New Partnerships Creating Stronger Services – Across the UCC value chain partnerships are bringing different companies together to create dynamic UCC solutions. Tata Communications and West have partnered to combine a global leader in UCC with one of the world’s largest communications providers to give enterprises rapid access to UCC platforms and the connectivity and reach to deliver them. That makes it easier to adopt and deploy UCC.

5. Service Providers are Focusing on Unmet Demands – Across the UCC value chain partnerships are bringing different companies together to create dynamic UCC solutions. Tata Communications and West have partnered to combine a global leader in UCC with one of the world’s largest communications providers to give enterprises rapid access to UCC platforms and the connectivity and reach to deliver them. That makes it easier to adopt and deploy UCC.

Each of these factors makes adopting UCC simple, fast, and efficient. They ensure the success of UCC deployments while making the business case for enterprises easier to develop.

The risks and barriers are being reduced and ultimately this will be mean that the 33% of enterprises adopting UCC over the next 3 years will have access to better services with greater benefits. The market is evolving with greater speed and that will drive enterprise adoption.

Are you attending Enterprise Connect this week? Meet Tata Communications at booth 1627.

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However, the fact is, the term describes something very real that goes on in the industry and in our day to day lives – and that’s all about the way we work and how we manage our day. These phenomena are changing and so is UC.

We’re actually at a once-in-a-generation inflection point when all the traditional silos of enterprise communication – audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing, telephony, messaging – really everything, is being disrupted, and organisations have an opportunity to bring these disparate strands together in ways that save money, improve productivity, and deliver a better user experience for their people. This disruption is coming, in large part, from consumer-facing, mobile applications that have not only revolutionised the workplace, but also wider society and our lives more generally.

We’re living in a world of BYOD and shadow IT, where users are adopting these consumer apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, and taking the decision to implement their own enterprise apps without even speaking to their IT department. The new generation of people coming into the workforce demand usability and speed above all else, and unintuitive enterprise apps don’t cut it.

However, while this can work with small teams but can spell trouble for a larger organisation in which everyone needs to work together, or where security, retention of records, and regulatory compliance are important.

The good news is that through this process the applications and features users really like have become much clearer, and we are seeing enterprise vendors like Cisco and Microsoft buying or adopting the best of them. Major vendors and service providers are also adopting cloud or as-a-service delivery models that have been honed in the consumer space, making a transition to new platforms and technologies easier than ever. These services combine the best of both worlds, with users able to experience the intuitive ‘look and feel’ of a consumer app, while the business is able to ensure security and compliance.

UC services can now also be offered Multi-Modal SIP Trunking services, which allow an organisation to send all its UCC traffic – voice, video, IM, and content – to the cloud for immediate global reach, scalability security and performance.

The applications supporting enterprise UCC have got a lot better as a result. For example, this is obvious when you compare today’s Skype for Business to the early generations of Lync. Obviously one reason for is that, as with any technical solution, every generation gets better. However, the other reason it is that organisations have a lot more experience on which to draw – through case studies, consultants and – crucially – employees.

The step change that we’re seeing in UCC applications means that we’re seeing businesses across all sectors exploring these new technologies. The banking and finance industries are the furthest ahead, with some sophisticated uses of this technology. For example, some are employing UCC functionality to differentiate customer-facing applications and services. Tata Communications recently helped the State Bank of India deploy a wealth management solution facilitating video, chat, voice and authentication between wealth managers and their clients – some of the bank’s most valuable customers.

Enterprises are at a tipping point when it comes to UC. The rapid adoption by employees and constant improvement of cloud-based consumer apps means they’re becoming ubiquitous in the work place. However, this is also driving enterprise UC applications which combine the best of both worlds – the great usability of a mobile messaging app, with worldwide deployment, better security and compliance with key data regulation.

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“If the Internet could dream, would it dream of itself?”

– Werner Herzog

 You may not have seen Lo and Behold, Werner Herzog’s new film about the Internet. But I believe the chances are that you’re already living it.

Thanks to the Internet, businesses and consumers are getting closer all the time. New approaches and platform models are proving to be a fertile ground for delivering cloud, applications and benefits. The result – a heady mix of chaos, disruption and excitement.

There couldn’t be a better subject for Herzog. Nor could there be a more appropriate person to make a film about it, even though he’s avidly anti-technology. After all, just as cloud is disrupting traditional business models, his films have always disrupted traditional film-making. He has hypnotised his casts; deliberately worked with violent actors or with non-actors; and avoided using storyboards. So, when he talks about the innovative role of the internet in areas such as AI, IoT and robotics, he’s worth listening to. Except for one thing. What he predicts may happen… already has happened.

“Everything goes into him. If it comes out, it comes out transformed.”

Elizabeth Herzog (née Stipetić)

 We’re seeing companies partnering and innovating with APIs. Connected devices, as Herzog mentions, have become one of the major trends. Big data, analytics and cognitive computing are starting to make their mark, but above all, the need to compete is continuing to have an effect.

Competition – the driver of hybrid cloud?

It may be a volatile and complex market, but enterprises are determined to retain or grow market share. According to research, 75% of them have already implemented some kind of hybrid cloud environment. In this happy world where private cloud, public cloud and legacy systems all happily coexist, XaaS would blend with applications and data in the cloud and they’d all work seamlessly with resources that reside on legacy systems for legal, administrative or other reasons.

Unfortunately, implementing it isn’t the same as successfully managing it. And managing it is a challenge that’s more and more frequent; disruption and new business platforms aren’t the only reasons for wanting a hybrid cloud.

CX – reality vs. perception

There’s a big divide between what companies believe and what customers perceive. 80% of companies think they deliver a good customer experience (CX). But just 20% of customers agree, and that creates a problem, since 75% of millennials will leave after just one bad experience. This puts a real emphasis on delivering great CX. The need for omnichannel, however, makes matters even more complicated. Customers can use between 8 and 10 channels when they interact with companies. If there’s any kind of hybrid cloud involved, it’s likely to be nearly impossible to manage – but it needs doing if you’re to satisfy customers.

Mobile – managing the ultimate mix

The mobile workforce is a key part of IDC’s third platform model. By the time you consider COPE, CYOD, BYOD and corporate-issued devices – 29% of companies use a combination of BYOD and corporate-issued devices – even the brightest of us could be forgiven for having problems in managing such a complex mix.

Other typical reasons for hybrid

Disaster recovery: A large enterprise wants to protect itself against disaster. It securely replicates its data from its private cloud into the public cloud and also keeps a silent set of applications (i.e. applications which are present but non-operational) there as well. When problems occur, it “switches on” the applications and accesses the data for seamless recovery.

Seasonal spikes: For 80% of the year, a clothing chain’s turnover remains steady and predictable. However, a couple of times a year, it rises significantly as customers shop for summer clothes or for winter outfits. The business gets round the problem of investing in more resources by driving the extra traffic to applications in the cloud.

An environment in harmony

As digital transformation and the move to cloud take place, CIOs start to face new challenges: data loss, shadow IT and unpredictable performance of apps, for example. It means ensuring that vectors such as infrastructure, security and cloud-ready WAN are harmonised. The problem is, the more complex the environment, the harder it is to see what’s going on. Without that information, you can’t control it. You need the right network, the right skillset and the right toolkit.

If you’re considering – or are already running – a hybrid cloud strategy, it’s worth your while finding out your best approach to getting on top of it, and the key factors and issues that you need to consider – issues such as these:

• What goes where? Some applications – and some data – may need to stay on legacy systems. Others can happily live in the cloud. But how should you distribute them?
• In this multi-layered environment, how can you make the most of hybrid IT, without losing out on value in other places?
• Can you achieve the right balance between the internet and MPLS – and can you implement a unified WAN?
• Have you tested applications and resource allocation across all environments? If so, will they work everywhere you need them to work?

Read more about the transforming power of the cloud here.

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By identifying the areas in which enterprise demands remain unmet, service providers can prioritise the services that are being under-delivered. In 2016, Tata Communications commissioned a global survey of enterprises and service providers that revealed a gap between enterprise demands and service provider offerings – so what better time to look at the opportunities this void holds for service providers this year?

Filling the gaps

Our survey found that a third of enterprises have unmet demands across a range of services, with 37% saying that they could not get vertical industry offerings which are aligned with evolving business needs and market dynamics. These dynamics can be fundamental shifts in business models, delivery technologies or customer relationship management. The same percentage said their main service provider could not deliver the consulting and professional services they want, highlighting further the need for service providers to understand that their lack of action and evolution can have a negative impact on their customers.

Around the world, unmet demand varies between regions but there are a few common threads. For example, 53% of African enterprises say that their needs for vertical industry offerings are not being met by their main service providers, the largest of any region. Vertical industry offerings are among the top three concerns in Europe (38%) and MENA (28%).

There is an opportunity for service providers globally to build out their services to capture new revenue from existing customers while attracting new ones. Vertical industry offerings, for example, can drive growth in new markets where specific industries thrive. These solutions are evolving rapidly with new business models being introduced to rapidly undercut the existing modus operandi. Rolls-Royce is selling aircraft engine-time as a service rather than just shipping the engines and components. Service providers that cater to evolving business needs and move to subscription-based business models have an opportunity to play a key role as a vertical expert and long-term consultant.

Changing perceptions

The challenge for many service providers will be to overcome their own perceptions of customer needs and priorities. Recognising that a gap exists is the first step in tapping into new opportunities.

Although 65% of service providers see managed services as the strongest aspect of their service portfolio, only 30% of enterprises see it the same way. This gap shows that service providers have work to do in delivering managed services that enterprises really want. On the other hand, 47% of service providers believe unified communications and collaboration (UCC) is a strength while 31% of enterprises say they cannot get satisfactory UCC solutions from service providers. Therefore, service providers need to re-evaluate and reshape their managed services and UCC offerings to better match enterprise expectations. Providing examples of customer case studies, quantifiable ROI and an assessment of how specific business challenges can be overcome is a must.

On the other side of this are services that enterprises want but are not strengths for service providers. Around a third (30%) of enterprises say their primary service providers cannot deliver hybrid networks, while only 6% of service providers see the area as a strength. Service providers that can demonstrate expertise in hybrid or its advanced cousin, agile networks, and accelerate delivery to illustrate real savings and solution flexibility for customers will be ahead of a large majority of their competitors.

Taking action

These unmet demands should drive service providers to act because, as our survey shows, they risk missing out in 2017 if they simply maintain the status quo. Rather than standing still, service providers must begin to develop services to meet the more complex and changing enterprise needs. However, to avoid falling further behind demand for newer services, they need a faster time-to-market and a more efficient way to deploy new services. It’s not just about technology introduction but aligning this with a changing business environment that enable customers to remain successful and competitive.

For these reasons, partnering will be crucial for service providers looking to capture new revenue streams in 2017. A strong partnership strategy, driven with collaboration with customers, will eliminate gaps in service portfolios and business models. Partnerships enable service providers to reduce the time between recognising opportunities and having services live and ready. It means they can look find partners to support them across a global ecosystem of technology services that enterprises want but aren’t yet getting. It is the smartest and simplest way to capture new growth in 2017.

How can service providers discover new revenue streams from global unified communications? Read Conor’s answer in a recent post. 

This article originally appeared in Vanilla Plus. 

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The need for this change in approach becomes obvious when we look at some recent research findings. For example, Gartner reveals that up to 70% of mobile professionals expect to be conducting all their work on smart mobile devices by 2018.

CIOs are moving beyond mobile device and application management through an intermediate ‘Mobile first’ phase, towards a broader mobile platform approach. The issue is whether this goal might be restricted, not so much by technical limitations such as spectrum availability, but by the commercial models that have been used for the past two decades to manage and provide mobile services.

The future business transformation journey among enterprises leads us in the direction of a mobile digital platform economy. This is equivalent to the shared economy models associated with organisations such as Amazon, eBay, Uber or AirBnB. With a rapidly mobilising workforce, the CIO’s mobile transformation journey should be focused on a mobile platform approach, where a multitude of corporate applications can be accessed in real-time, via mobile, regardless of location or network.

Digital innovation is constantly transforming our mobile experience and what we expect from the way we interact with each other via mobile – Social networks, proximity and location services, instant messaging, presence, rich media, authentication services, payments and mobile apps. These services help define our digital identities. Mobile experience is equally applicable to enterprise mobility and Gartner’s stats are proof of the growing expectations for a fully networked mobile enabled organisation.

CIOs need to look at mobility in the same way they look at worldwide web and Cloud infrastructure. It is about the platform and with this insight, they will be able to realise the full potential of the mobile platform economy. It is a shift in thinking, but one that will streamline their journey to being a fully mobile-enabled enterprise.

It means being able to access apps, content and related services via mobile regardless of national borders or commercial access restrictions without the high cost of data roaming and within a secure and transparent connectivity environment.

The enterprise CIO mobile digital transformation journey might have started with a need for control over device usage and cost, but this focus has evolved towards a need to introduce policies for a ‘Mobile First’ approach for enterprises. To enable the CIO’s journey in mobile requires support for programmable, borderless mobile services, without the cost, security, regulatory or access restrictions that exist today. This is the premise of the mobile communications platform of the future and it can be a powerful new revenue stream for MNOs and provide an innovation engine for the next-generation of mobile services.

The post Mobilising the Platform Economy Mobility for Digital Transformation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Any new, connected, data-powered technology, including the latest virtual reality (VR) applications, come with security risks. Known methods of attack such as DDoS are given a new platform in the virtual world, so any organisations looking to entice its customers with new VR-enabled experiences needs to ensure that it doesn’t inadvertently open itself up to cyber-attacks.

Imagine this: you are sitting in the corner of a cosy café chatting with your friend, catching up and just relaxing and having a good time. All of a sudden everyone around you starts moving strangely, jittering, before finally freezing on the spot. What on earth just happened?

Well, it is 2018 and your VR application has just been subject to a DDoS attack while you were using a VR chat application.

This is not science fiction: as demonstrated by the emergence of a number of VR headsets and VR-enabled games and other apps in the market recently, virtual technologies are on the rise. Analysts at Gartner predict that it only needs five to ten years until truly mainstream adoption.

Despite headset advances by the likes of Microsoft, Samsung and Oculus, the VR software market will grow even faster than the hardware market. Yet, the more content such as games, films and apps we will see dedicated for VR, the more people will embrace these technologies – and the more attractive they will become for cyber-attackers too.

Connected technology under threat

VR applications face similar security threats as any other connected technology. Unlike other forms of media consumption such as streaming standard video, immersive experiences such as those enabled by VR, may have more noticeable physical and mental effects when disrupted. If you are streaming a film and your Internet connection drops for an instant, you might see jitter or reduction in the video resolution, but you may still be able to continue to watching the film. For VR, jitter is unacceptable: the quality of an online VR experience relies entirely on a low-latency and high-speed connection.

So, as long as it is possible to attack a smartphone or server, it is hypothetically possible to attack and disrupt a VR experience. This could mean destroying the simulation by overloading it with information through a DDoS attack – like in my example above – or taking control of the simulation and changing the ‘reality’ which the consumer is experiencing. That is why part of maintaining the levels of connectivity required for a truly immersive experience is maintaining network security, so that it cannot be undermined by malicious threats.

Impact on the brand

Staging a successful attack on a VR platform at a crucial time when your business simply cannot afford for its networks to fall over gives attackers far more leverage. Soon, sports like football could be offered as a VR experience, transporting fans from anywhere in the world to the middle of the action on the pitch thousands of miles away. Imagine the impact to sponsors and broadcasting rights holders if the match in the virtual world was brought to a standstill due a DDoS attack.

There have already been examples of companies effectively being held to ransom under the threat of a DDoS attack in exchange for sums of bitcoin and other forms of extortion. So, as VR platforms become more widespread, we are likely to see cyber-criminals threaten more and more organisations with large-scale DDoS attacks in the virtual realm too.

The best form of defence is attack

DDoS attacks are increasing in volume and frequency, while also becoming more sophisticated. They are exposing vulnerabilities in networks and exploiting these vulnerabilities by infecting any IP-enabled devices such as VR applications to rapidly form botnet armies which grind networks to a standstill. These attacks can also be used by cyber-criminals as a distraction, with the aim of penetrating other parts of an enterprise’s IT set-up while the IT team is busy trying to restore networks.

Given the sophisticated and global nature of DDoS attacks, the best form of defence is attack. Rather than waiting for attacks to hit your network and relying on the ability of your security systems to stand up to them, you need to anticipate them, and deal with them in real-time. This process is known as scrubbing. Designated scrubbing centres mitigate and break up attacks, ensuring that the network acts as the first line of defence. This approach means that legitimate traffic always gets through, and malicious traffic is mitigated at the source, so it does not choke bandwidth.

Network security is a continuous state of evolution. As new connected technology innovations such as VR emerge, the greatest challenge for organisations looking to capitalise on the opportunities that they offer is to stay one step ahead of malicious threats.

Want to learn more about the challenges of network security? Read John Hayduk’s blog on the challenges of securing a global network.

The post Challenges of network security in the virtual world appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Cloud is probably the biggest disruptive force for service providers today. It has matured to the point where even some of the largest Fortune 100 companies are taking a cloud-first or even cloud-only approach to their IT. Cloud is impacting on all business applications that enterprises rely on day-to-day, including Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC). But how can service providers capitalise on this trend?

Enterprises’ biggest headaches

Enterprises are realising that being nimble and flexible in their business approach is critical for success. With an increasingly mobile workforce, knowledge sharing, virtual teams, near-real-time collaboration, and faster feedback loops are crucial. The strategic imperatives driving enterprises to look increasingly at cloud-based collaboration include the need to improve productivity, shift costs from CAPEX to OPEX, reduce complexity and unifying siloed systems across the business through standardised solutions.

With billions of employees distributed across the globe, and with disparate telephony, conferencing and collaboration solutions, more and more large companies are now realising the need to revisit their UCC strategy to be able serve both their internal and external stakeholders more effectively. And, as cloud adoption surges, leveraging Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform solutions such as Microsoft Skype for Business and Cisco Spark offers enterprises an easier path to increasing employee productivity and organisational agility.

What’s in it for service providers?

For service providers, there is an opportunity to harness these global platforms to capture larger, global UCC contracts and offer another business-critical cloud service to their customers. Yet, the challenge is to deliver a consistent Quality of Service (QoS) and Experience (QoE) around the world. This is where partnering can be extremely valuable.

A consistent cloud communications experience can be delivered in London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong but when it comes to smaller local or regional hubs performance needs to be consistent too. A global UCC partner can extend reach while also guaranteeing performance.

In contrast, with local or regional UCC deployments, levels of service vary. This jeopardises service providers’ ability to match the expectations that enterprises have for their cloud services for an always-available, seamless user experience.

Creating ultra-customised UCC experiences

A fairly new, but quickly growing strategy by enterprises, is APIs. In an effort to have tools that fit their needs perfectly, enterprises are disrupting the UCC market by leveraging APIs to create their own user experiences through unique combinations of applications and functionality. This is set to include both internal and external facing tools, which could feature integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, for example, and a whole range of real-time communications solutions.

APIs are also making waves when it comes to how service providers and enterprises interact with each other and with their customers, creating more efficient and customised user experiences. The quote-to-cash time in some areas of UCC has gone down from months to hours and even to an instant. For instance, we are working with several of our partners to help them procure and implement global access numbers in a matter of minutes. By comparison, this can take weeks for many other providers in the market.

With APIs, service providers operating in a market of any size, can leapfrog their competition and redefine their UCC proposition independent of the infrastructure directly owned by them. That is why in order not to miss out on the revenue opportunities that UCC brings, service providers need to explore migrating away from delivering traditional, local, premise-based UCC solutions and instead adding value through cloud and API-enabled integration and customisation.

The power of the right partnerships

Forging the right partnerships empowers even the smallest service providers to offer truly differentiated solutions to their enterprise customers, connecting with API-ready service platforms like ours and supercharging their apps and customer tools with real-time communication applications. It not only ensures a differentiated experience for customers, but also creates a potential source of extra revenue across the entire customer spectrum.

By working with the right UCC partner, service providers are able to address enterprises’ growing needs for secure, borderless collaboration and communication, facilitating digital transformation on a global scale.

How do you see enterprises capitalising on the UCC transformation? Let us know in the comments below.

The post How service providers can discover new revenue streams appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Enterprises’ concerns with UCaaS

Leading players in the cloud communications space, such as Microsoft, Cisco and Google, are all investing in this nascent but rapidly growing market to accelerate UCaaS take-up globally. Despite the industry-wide push, many enterprises are still to embark on their UCaaS journey. Common questions they have include:

• Will UCaaS applications be reliable and secure enough?
• Will they really deliver a seamless, high-quality user experience?
• Will the old systems work with the new UCaaS platform? Will UCaaS adoption mean that all equipment and applications need to be replaced? What about the significant investments that have been made to systems previously?
• Can UCaaS be truly global?

In my conversations with CIOs about the UCaaS adoption barriers they face, many have also mentioned the need for a reliable, secure network, the right monitoring tools and metrics, end-user buy-in, and regulatory compliance. There is also a misconception that a big bang deployment is the only way to adopt UCaaS – however this can be risky and hugely disruptive to the business.

A step-by-step approach starting with SIP Trunking

The best way forward for most enterprises is to take a modular approach to UCaaS. They should start where they can make the biggest impact and transform how employees are able to work together. This step-by-step approach also enables enterprises to ‘sweat’ their existing assets for maximum ROI, instead of replacing all existing tools with new ones. Each part has to deliver tangible benefits in terms of productivity gains and user experience, and be future proofed for the continued evolution of the enterprise’s UCaaS journey.

When starting to think about UCaaS, the first decisions that enterprises need to make include choosing the platform (e.g., Microsoft, Cisco), the medium (e.g., cloud or on-premise) and the connectivity (e.g., regional best of breed or global one stop shop).

The connectivity component is crucial because it determines whether the enterprise WAN infrastructure is able to support the UCaaS deployments globally. So, it is often prioritized over the decisions around the medium and the platform. Most enterprises tend to opt for centralised data centres as aggregation or policy enforcement points on their global backbone for their WAN infrastructure. This then dove tails well with a strategy to also deploy SIP Trunking and associated enterprise voice capabilities at these locations.

That is why a global, modular platform offered under one service level agreement from a global network service provider can make a huge different to the success of an enterprise’s UCaaS journey. Industry analysts at Ovum Research echo this view: “SIP trunking has become one of the major ingredients for multinational corporations who are consolidating and centralizing their global voice and IP Telephony assets and moving towards unified communications.”

SIP trunking is therefore an enabler for UCaaS – be it in the cloud, hosted, on premise or in a hybrid environment. Its benefits are clear:

• SIP trunking enables enterprises to get immediate savings from on-net audio, and quickly reap benefits from unified conferencing and eventually from unified communications too, paving the way for significant productivity and efficiency gains
• It ensures a great end-user experience globally
• SIP trunking with multi-modal features such as video enables people to collaborate across platforms and geographies more seamlessly than before
• SIP trunking and associated voice and PSTN access is vendor, platform and technology agnostic

As the fast pace of technology innovation continues to shape how businesses operate and people collaborate, even just by dipping their toe in UCaaS enables enterprises to boost their productivity and agility in the global, digital marketplace. It all starts with SIP trunking.

What benefits do you see the next generation of UCaaS bringing to enterprises? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The first step to successful UCaaS adoption appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

 We should not be surprised by this: we know that most successful companies of tomorrow will be those that build a culture of collaboration, which transforms their business.

In the years that I have worked in UC&C, it has been a continual process of evolution and  advancement, beginning with the streamlining of email, voicemail, faxes all into a single mailbox. The new world is now about taking these siloed applications and integrating them into one single interface, then shifting it all from the desktop to the smart phone. There has been lots happening in the world of UC&C, but the real driver to revisit them is the fact that enterprise tools are becoming unwieldy, at the same time, social tools such as WhatsApp are becoming more attractive to workers.

Enterprises are feeling the pain and are looking for services and expertise to help guide them through.

Move beyond a siloed UC&C ecosystem

In my experience, businesses fall somewhere on the continuum of “silo’d” UC&C ecosystem, all the way to ’transformed’. One thing is for sure – all businesses want to transform, but the journey is not simple. They need to assess their options, figure out the migration path and then take the leap to transition. But if every business unit has its own unique collaboration ecosystem and a mixed, underpinning communications platform – then it’s not easy.

 So how do you navigate this complex path and reach your destination? In my view, the most important consideration is to work with a services team who can help you to start to think firstly about how you could get the most out of existing investments, then at that point consider how to make the most of new best-in-breed technology. Don’t go for big bang – start in the place where you get the best ROI and then work your way to a unified platform.

For true UC&C transformation – adoption is key

Even with a comprehensive solution in place, the question remains: how do you drive adoption? If people are opting for easier-to-use social tools, you need to work really hard to get them to adopt the chosen corporate platform. We’ve all tried to access a conferencing platform and if it doesn’t work after two or three attempts, we give in and use an alternative. With the number of employees that work remotely expected to grow to 63 million this year (Forrester), it’s essential for employees within the digital workplace to be able to collaborate efficiently.

You need expertise that can help you think about the design and ensure you have the right communications platform that can support your demanding users across contact centres, video conferencing, telephony, messaging, and beyond. You need an adoption team that will do whatever it takes to help you get the benefits from the technology.

Move beyond your organisation

The future is about going beyond your own organisation and extending collaboration into your ecosystem of customers, partners and suppliers, not forgetting that robotics and AI will also have a more important role. This all needs to be factored into your chosen services platform.

The days are gone when you take a UC&C product off the shelf. You need expertise to help you collaborate across the ecosystem, expertise that can help in getting these channels interact seamlessly, expertise that makes sure you can connect when you want to.

It is time to revisit UC&C, but it should be approached in a way that assesses transition and migration from legacy to ‘transformed’. This helps companies measure their collaboration return on investment across three distinct areas namely – productivity, operational and strategic – creating the market advantage.

The goal should be to build a UC&C plaform that users will adopt and which builds for the future digital workplace.

How do you see UC&C changing as workers’ priorities shift? Let us know in the comments below.

The post How well can your services capabilities navigate the path to transformational unified communications appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

This digital transformation lets you move from simply delivering a customer experience to delighting the customer. Ultimately, your success depends on it. Many of your competitors are already doing it: half of all enterprises are expected to introduce advanced digital transformation initiatives by 2020. They are responding to the consumers who are going digital. More than 60 per cent of customers interact through multiple channels, blending the world of digital channels, such as mobile, social and kiosks, with traditional routes.

The next-generation contact centre will not just be a gateway to the organisation. In the future, 72 per cent of contact centres are looking to leverage advanced intelligence from reporting and analytics to improve customer satisfaction and operational productivity. It’s a big leap forward for many companies, putting a new focus on both current and future systems.

Mobile first

Approximately half of all inbound calls now come from mobile devices. Social media is now the preferred channel for one-in-three users, with almost all of those interactions taking place on the mobile. For the first time, several channels sit together on the same device – the mobile. How then can you make sure that you provide the same, great customer experience across any mobile device or channel? As with the growing demand for self-service support it requires greater integration between back- and front-end systems.

People first, Artificial Intelligence second

There are increasing moves towards automated interactions and sometimes virtual contact centre agents. Where does that leave the human touch? The idea is that technology can make us more efficient, taking over more mundane tasks so that we humans can deal with more complex, creative or specialist work. For example, one leading bank is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to review trading activities for risk assessment.

In the contact centre, AI can add value, reviewing conversation transcripts to see what excites and annoys callers in order to improve customer service. The aim is not to put the human in the machine, but to make the machine help the human.

Personalisation first

Beyond AI, challenger companies are also looking at new ways to interact with customers for greater engagement – combining IoT information with new ways of communicating from video to collaboration technologies and real-time speech-to-speech language translation. The rewards are great, but how can you be sure that you have invested in the best way to interact with your consumers, especially when each customer has their own preferred ways of communicating?

The key is personalisation, understanding the level of service and type of interaction each customer needs. This requires one omni-channel solution, a solution that integrates many digital technologies and traditional techniques to provide a truly personalised experience, anywhere and everywhere. And if that solution comes from one provider, even better: one capable of delivering and supporting a global platform in the cloud.

In my next blog I’ll look at how you can be a digital disruptor and lead the digital transformation in the contact centre.

To find out how to deliver and benefit from your global contact centre in the cloud, with a unique end-to-end guaranteed SLA, visit the InstaCC Global page here.

The post Go digital or go nowhere: the changing contact centre appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

There are four key areas that have to be tackled: meet the 4Cs of the contact centre.

1) Consistent customer experience

Increasing customer satisfaction levels is the number one priority for enterprise contact centre decision makers, according to Ovum – even ahead of increased revenues and cutting costs. That makes more sense, as most consumers say that they will judge a company by their interactions with the contact centre..

Thanks to social media, an unhappy customer is now likely to broadcast all your failings, virtually instantly. Whilst a good experience may not always deliver a loyal customer for life, a bad experience will certainly lose you a customer, and has the potential to damage your reputation online.

Research indicates that more than 50 percent of in-house customer relationship managers find it a challenge to consistently provide a winning customer experience, across all channels, especially with budgets becoming flat or shrinking.

The solution? An industry-wide move to the flexibility, cost-efficiency and global reach of cloud-based contact centres.

In India, the largest public sector bank, State Bank of India, has invested in an omni-channel contact centre for its wealth management services. This enables its high net worth individual (HNI) customers to remotely connect with their Relationship Manager by voice, video, IM and co-browsing, to seek expert advice anytime, anywhere and any channel.

2) Customer segmentation

For increased customer satisfaction firms need to know their users. Different customers have different needs and establishing those needs to segment customers is not done by passing them around as many agents in the call centre as possible: according to Tata Communications research, 73 per cent of users said they were unlikely to return if passed between multiple contact centre agents.

What’s needed is help to develop an accurate profile of individual customers across all channels, analysing trends in order to identify specific revenue opportunities. This involves integrating CRM or database systems with details of transaction history for automatic filtering, prioritisation and forwarding to the best suited, available agent to serve.

3) Consolidation

The thought of setting up a new contact centre is daunting. How do you manage multiple vendors, with varying levels of service? How can you shorten lead times? How can you provide a follow-the-sun service while meeting demands to cut customer service budgets through consolidation? The answer is to give someone else the challenge and go with one global service provider offering end-to-end accountability.

4) Control

Traditionally, to have control of contact centres, companies opted for on premise systems. Perversely, that often meant a lack of control: As there was no overall visibility, it was not possible to optimise performance, such as knowing when and where to direct calls.

Today, with increased outsourcing, it’s even more important to have the flexibility and visibility to manage workloads across in house and outsourced delivery centres.

Get it right — By integrated its private cloud client solutions with unified reporting and management portals, one major insurance company was able streamline this control. This provided a single view across all digital communications, enabling them to retain control without compromising security.

So how do you get it right? The easiest way to meet the 4Cs is by using cloud. With a Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) you will have global reach and assured service levels.

As you’ll see in the next blog this is part of a transformation to all things digital.

For more information about deploying your contact centre in the cloud, visit: www.tatacommunications.com

The post Get it right first: the 4Cs that your customers expect appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

I see this in my own life. Basic conferencing services limit where I can do business – instead, I want conferencing services that adapt to wherever I am, and whatever device I’m using. I want the option of using video calling when I have a critical call and I want to ensure my colleagues or my partners are all on the same page.

Consumers have come to expect these capabilities and they want them in their business communications. The challenge for service providers is to be competitive in a crowded market. While the barriers to entering the conferencing space have been removed, service providers face a challenging landscape that includes their traditional competitors as well as the likes of Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Skype and Skype for Business. That is why they need to rethink how they can effectively grow their conferencing business and differentiate their offering. One of the big issues is that they have relied on revenue streams from legacy services while competitors from other spheres have been able to get ahead of them.

In this highly competitive market, video represents the biggest growth opportunity for service providers. Audio might be the foundation for conferencing, but video is the future. Service providers should therefore ensure that they are able to deliver the performance required to offer high quality video communications for their customers.

Additionally, the move to video should be coupled with value-added services delivered via the cloud. Cloud models support growing customisation for enterprises and end users. When conferencing is decoupled from legacy hardware, service providers can easily offer new services and scale them up or down depending on customer demand. Things as basic as operator-assistance or webcasting can be offered to enterprises with new choice and customisation as differentiators.

To make it easier for service providers to monetise new conferencing services, they can take services offered by a global partner and customise them for local enterprises. This approach enables service providers to deliver differentiated, customised solutions to their customers cost-effectively, while increasing customer satisfaction.

I hate to say it, but it really is a case of ‘adapt or die’ in the conferencing market. The market is just too competitive. Service providers that want to be successful should look at how partnerships can help them to transform their service offering in this space – before disruption puts them out of business.

How do you see service providers adapting to new technologies and market pressures? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Adapt and grow: new ways for service providers to compete in the audio conferencing market appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Why traditional WAN deployments cause headaches for CIOs

MPLS VPNs are the dominant type of WAN service used by enterprises that need to connect their distributed enterprises globally. MPLS connections are private networks that never touch the Internet, and offer a high level of reliability and performance, as they enable traffic prioritisation using the class of service (CoS) feature.

However, a MPLS-based WAN architecture is static in nature, as the network is configured using dedicated proprietary hardware, i.e. routers and switches, at all the sites that need to be on the WAN. This static nature of the architecture adds to lengthy circuit provisioning times and complexity in configuring and managing connections across thousands of enterprise sites worldwide. MPLS circuits are also expensive, as the cost involves a proprietary router at each site, along with the cost for access circuits, bandwidth, and the associated CoS fee.

Furthermore, an MPLS WAN architecture assumes that all business-critical applications reside in enterprise datacentres, which branches connect to a private WAN. While MPLS networks are typically architected in a fully meshed model, branch network traffic is still routed via a headquarter or hub location to ensure data security and compliance, which adds delays. The increased enterprise use of cloud and mobility applications means that this model is not fit for purpose anymore, as the majority of traffic is no longer exchanged within the private datacentres of the enterprise. Cloud applications are often accessed over Internet links; and the number of mobile users connecting over the Internet to enterprise applications has grown significantly. Hence, the “hairpin” model of traffic being routed via the enterprise datacentre no longer applies.

Why SD-WAN?

An SD-WAN architecture automates the process of network selection so that both private WAN and public Internet can be utilised efficiently. While MPLS VPNs are provider-managed – meaning the CIO and network administrators have little control over the management of the network – SD-WAN puts the control back in their hands, while enabling the enterprise to use a combination of private and public networks. This results in a better total cost of ownership (TCO). Lower costs and the ability to ensure optimal application performance through greater control of branch sites remotely has attracted significant interest from enterprises, especially from verticals with distributed branch locations, such as retail, banking, financial services, manufacturing and logistics.

Business benefits of SD-WAN

• Cost savings: SD-WAN enables efficient use of aggregated, inexpensive Internet links to achieve high-speed bandwidth at branch locations, which helps enterprises eliminate the costs associated with expensive MPLS circuits.
• Agility: With SD-WAN solutions, transport routing changes can be made in real-time, as the control plane (software-based) is separate from the data plane. The underlying transport infrastructure is abstracted, pooled and assigned to applications, based on software-defined policies. For example, a branch site can decide to use a high capacity Internet link as a primary circuit, and a low speed MPLS circuit as backup.
• Speed-to-market: The zero-touch provisioning feature enables the device, once plugged into the network, to automatically connect to the controller, and self-configure. New branch locations can deploy SD-WAN equipment, and start with readily available wireless LTE service, while waiting for a network service provider to provision wired Internet or MPLS services.
• Improved application performance: SD-WAN solutions leverage real-time performance monitoring of the transport networks included in the SD WAN, to make application-aware, policy-based network selections. The controller defines the network policies for applications on branch routers, and chooses a path that best suits the application traffic. Real-time monitoring of traffic paths ensures that problems related to availability, such as insufficient bandwidth, or reliability, such as latency, jitter, and packet loss, are sensed before they affect end users, and traffic is moved to a different path.

What is next in SD-WAN?

In a recent Frost & Sullivan end-user survey, 18% of the respondents said they are already using SD-WAN, and 25% of them indicated they will deploy SD-WAN in the next 12-24 months. Among the respondents planning to deploy SD-WAN in the next 12-24 months, a whopping 57% said they would replace 50% of their MPLS connected sites with SD-WAN.

Figures like this highlight that enterprises already have aggressive deployment plans for a solution that is less than two years old. In tandem, SD-WAN vendors and network service providers are gearing up – forging strategic partnerships and building internal expertise to deploy and manage SD-WAN solutions – to fulfil the growing demand for SD-WAN.

How do you see SD-WAN transforming IT in global organisations? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The meteoric rise of SD-WAN: what is driving market demand? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

In recent years, the wind of change has switched direction. Instead of increased globalisation, digital disruption is the major talking point. According to IDC, we’ll see break-in competitors causing disruption in 50% of all industries by 2018.

However, disruption isn’t something we should talk about, then park and worry about at some point in the future. If you’re the CIO of one of the incumbents, it’s a clear and present danger. Right now, for instance, Accenture considers that 32% of bank revenues are at risk from disruption. The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) has levelled the playing field; now the sector is rife with disruption as threats come from fintechs, tech companies and challenger banks.

What constitutes disruption?

A recent report by Harvard Business Review suggests that there are three distinct types of disruption: High-end disruption, low-end disruption and new-market disruption.

High-end disruption means that, like Stories from Instagram (and its eponymous rival from Snapchat), you’ve entered the market with a proposition superior to what incumbents offer.

Low-end disruption is typical of cheaper and simpler service businesses (think Jive and its social networking, for example) but can also include offerings such as those from mattress manufacturer and vendor Purple, who disrupted the market by selling online. This model makes the offering more affordable and simpler to use.

Finally, there are new-market disruptions, such as Netflix. These both create new categories and give a whole new range of companies the chance to profit.

However, in practice, these divisions are somewhat artificial. Just as one man’s meat is another man’s poison, one person’s high-end disruption is a new-market disruption. Spotify, for instance is a service (low-end) – but is it also a better version of radio (high-end) and/or a whole new category (new-market)?

Hunt around (or indeed open the pages of any paper, any day) and you’ll find countless examples of companies that fall into one or more of these categories: YouTube, Amazon, Next Label, the Apple Store and Philips HealthSuite, for example. Some, such as Amazon with its reported $107bn turnover, have become digital gorillas in their sectors. Others carve out a highly profitable niche. But what do these disruptors have in common? Two things. They’re all successful businesses. And, what’s more, they’ve all got where they are through business models based on the clever use of platforms.

Platform business models – the way ahead?

According to Jo Caudron and Dado Van Peteghem’s book Digital Transformation, there are at least ten discrete platform-based business models at the heart of digital disruption and seven strategies that help address its challenges. But what is the essence of a platform business model – and what makes it tick?

A platform business model isn’t about technology. It’s a way of bringing consumers and producers together – and it’s not a new idea. Platform business models have been around for years, using bricks and mortar as the place where business exchanges happen. July 2016’s MIT Platform Summit defined the model as “an infrastructure on top of which external producers can come and create value, and on top of which consumers can come in and consume the value”.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” Henry Ford’s comment has a point. If you’re going to be different, it’s time to start thinking platform, not product. And that means it’s time to come to terms with the way in which the internet has changed the rules of business.

The dominant business model used to be “create, push, sell” – in other words, produce the products, push them out and sell them to customers. But now the internet has allowed us to switch from “pipe” to “platform”, where users add value and then consume it themselves. TV is a pipe, that simply issues content. YouTube, on the other hand, is a platform model. And make no mistake, business platform models are the business of the future: as Marshall Alstyne of MIT said in Platform Strategy & Open Business Models, “Platforms beat products every time.”

Start your planning now

Over the next few weeks, this series of blogs will look in more detail at platform business models. We’ll assess the key ingredients that combine to create one, why it’s particularly relevant to CIOs, how to start, and the nine key areas that you need to consider. By 2018, according to IDC, >50% of large enterprises – and more than 80% of enterprises with advanced digital transformation strategies – that will have a platform business model in place. With our help, you could be ready to join them.

Watch out for the next in this series, where we’ll cast an eye over the elements that you’ll need to put in place.

How can businesses stay ahead of the curve on platformisation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

The post Platform-based business models – face-to-face with disruption? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

I was attending a conference recently when the CIO of a major online dating service gave me a sobering reminder of the crucial role that his IT infrastructure plays in his business. In his case, the infrastructure is his business. If due to a cloud service or network outage his customers were unable to access the site, his business would practically seize to exist.

An online dating service is an extreme example of a business that relies on a digital infrastructure for revenues – but in fact almost all businesses today across industries have an online presence and require a range of different cloud and Internet-powered enterprise applications to collaborate and communicate both internally and with their customers. To put this into perspective: imagine global Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, who offer services like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), workflow systems and other applications in the cloud. They are the backbone for multiple enterprises globally. For companies like these, even 15 minutes of downtime due to a natural disaster, human error or power outage could lead to a domino effect, resulting in non-availability of services, huge disruption to their customers and eventually millions in compensation claims.

Therefore in today’s digital economy, a company’s ability to recover from these events has become critical. It’s been estimated that just one hour of infrastructure failure costs a Fortune 1000 company $100,000 – which balloons to $1 million if a business-critical application suffers an outage.

The Price Of Non-Conformance, or PONC for short, can be massive if a network or application fails to respond even for just a matter of seconds. In online retail, for example, a slow or unresponsive page can easily lead to basket abandonment by millions of shoppers. PONC also extends beyond the actual downtime, as restoring systems from an outage can take several days, resulting in lost productivity as IT teams try desperately to recover any data lost during the outage.

Despite businesses’ increasing dependence on reliable, superfast networks and 24/7 access to applications and data in the cloud, it’s surprising to see that the lynchpin of some organisations’ disaster recovery (DR) strategy still seems to be to cross their fingers and hope for the best. Many have focused their IT budgets and resources on their primary data centre, cloud infrastructure and network so that they are set up as effectively, reliably and securely as possible, and ensuring regulatory compliance and withstanding scrutiny by auditors. Their secondary site might or might not be built to the same standards. Their data might be housed in a cloud service provider’s facility in a different geography and connectivity to that site might suffer from latency, resulting in poor application performance and a slow user experience. It’s not until something goes wrong and the weaknesses of the secondary infrastructure are inevitably exposed, when many organisations realise how crippling the lack of a watertight DR set-up can be for the business both operationally and financially.

To address our customers’ DR needs on a global scale, we have strengthened our IZO Private Cloud with a new DR functionality. It gives our customers complete visibility over their IT infrastructure in real-time, and enables them to segregate availability for different kinds of applications, depending on how critical they are for their business.  Almost all cloud service providers offer a DR service, but where many of these fail is that the DR zone for Singapore, for example, might be as far as China or India, causing latency and jeopardising data sovereignty. What makes DR with IZO Private Cloud different is that it is underpinned by our global network (the largest and the most advanced of its kind in the world) and our cloud availability zone footprint – ensuring the sovereignty of our customers’ data, and application recovery without latency. We are also continually expanding our IZO Private Cloud to offer our customers maximum flexibility in choosing the most suitable availability zone for their business.

Before the Internet and cloud computing became so crucial for all businesses, a couple of hours of downtime might have been manageable. But in today’s world where data is the new currency, organisations need to be certain that their infrastructure will never let them down.

Learn more about how you can you protect your business against every eventuality with IZO Private Cloud’s new DR functionality.

How do you see the cloud adapting to keep data secure in moments of crisis? Let us know in the comments below

The post How much does one hour of downtime cost your business? appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

The cost of compute and storage is not the cost of the box – it’s the cost of managing the compute and storage.  It’s the cost of managing the security, availability, performance and change of the compute and storage. A rule of thumb for estimating the annual cost of managing compute and storage is to multiply the purchase price of the compute and storage box by four.  This means in 48-months you’ll spend 16x the purchase price of the hardware to manage it. So the hardware could be free and it would make little difference to the true cost of computing. It’s not about capex versus opex.

So, why does it cost so much?  Actually, it doesn’t have to cost so much.  During the 48 months, apply no security patches, no updates to any of the operating system software or storage management software and just keep the computers plugged in.  Furthermore, if you don’t want expensive compute and storage don’t spend any money on staff to manage the performance or availability and of course don’t purchase any performance or availability management software. In reality, though, whether you’re using VMware, OpenStack, Postgres, Oracle, Cisco or your favourite SDN software there will always be a constant barrage of patches.  Some of those might be security patches.  In one particular enterprise application we studied there were 137 security patches released from just four suppliers in a 12-month period. If you’re the CIO, CISO or Director of IT, pick one of your enterprise applications and see how many patches your suppliers issued last year.  You might be surprised.

Remember, in traditional IT shops you’ve employed people to hopefully study each of these patches, decide which ones to apply, apply the patches, test the application, roll it into production with a plan to rollback the change should it not work in the production system. The source of the 4x costs is people cost, and while we can move management to low cost labour markets, with no standardisation and no automation there will be a floor in both cost and reliability, as the single largest source of systems failure is human error.

So what’s the answer to reducing cost, true cost, and improving both security, performance and availability?  Compute and storage cloud computing.  Cloud computing is not about the location or ownership of the data centre, or even whose control a computer is under, rather it’s about the standardisation and automation of security, performance, availability and change management of the compute and storage.  A high quality cloud service provider will standardise these processes within a standard environment and as a result deliver you not only a significantly lower cost compute & storage infrastructure, but also a better one.

For more information, check out book 1 of Timothy Chou’s cloud computing trilogy.

What opportunities do you see in  changes to cloud computing? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Cloud computing: it’s not about Capex appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

For many of these businesses, the answer to ensuring better customer engagement and experience for people on-the-go is global application to person (A2P) messaging.

Through A2P messaging, mobile network operators (MNOs) can help my travel agent or my bank text me while I’m on the road and keep me connected and up-to-date – for example, to prompt me that online check-in for my return flight is now available, or to tell me the local currency exchange rate. The beauty of A2P messaging is that it is personal, because it is delivered on a mobile device and – as it’s a simple SMS – it doesn’t interrupt what I am doing. I can deal with it at any time, and because it is right there on my mobile and not buried in an email inbox, I’m more likely to engage with it.

Yet, the challenge for the travel company or a bank, or the so-called message originator that creates and sends the message, is to ensure that I can receive my text message wherever I am. This requires a local MNO to deliver, or terminate, my message at its endpoint – my mobile phone. Originating a mobile message without a termination agreement that covers the location you are sending it to, is the equivalent of sending a letter to someone in an area with no postal service. It’s a lovely thought, but it won’t reach its recipient.

That is why organisations that want to be successful in serving their customers with A2P messaging should consider three things when developing their strategy for rolling out new services:

1. Global relationships – The organisation that sends or originates the A2P messages must have global relationships with local MNOs that enable them to terminate messages reliably all around the world and ensure they reach their intended recipient.

2. Great user experience – The popularity of A2P messaging amongst mobile users, and therefore the effectiveness of A2P messaging as a customer service and engagement medium, will depend on the quality of service that it offers to users.

3. Efficiency – In order to monetise A2P messaging, originators must find the most efficient and reliable way of delivering messages globally.

To tick all three boxes, an A2P messaging originator can try to establish direct SMS termination agreements with multiple MNOs globally. However, that is costly and resource intensive. It also means that they need to build trust with many new MNO partners and manage multiple relationships around the world.

The fastest and most effective way to gain global A2P messaging reach is to partner with a specialist A2P messaging hub provider, which combines the convenience of a P2P messaging hub with the reliability and trust of direct MNO relationships. With this model, a message originator or aggregator only needs to work with a single, trusted hub partner without having to develop its own, direct A2P relationships.

Ultimately, this approach ensures that companies across industries, including travel and financial services, are able to engage with users more effectively, building customer loyalty and boosting revenues – while travellers like me will always have the information they need at their fingertips.

To learn more, download our whitepaper Mobile Messaging on Your Terms

How do you see mobile messaging changing in the future? Let us know in the comments below.

The post SMS – the unsung hero of great customer service appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

Diamond’s book is a 496-page answer to this question, and begins with the proposition that human civilization took an enormous leap forward when it moved from a hunter-gatherer culture to an agricultural one. Once humans could farm, they could settle down in one spot instead of following their food as it migrated from place to place. And once people could stay in one place, they began to specialize. One group would build shelters, while another would grow food. One group would forge weapons and still another group would make clothing.

Fast forward to the 21st century.  If our tribe had just 100 people, then each of us would have to be a generalist as there are so many jobs that need to be done. But in a world of seven billion increasingly interconnected people, the specialists will be valued over the generalists. What this mean in the context of cloud computing?

Last year the industry sold about 8,000,000 servers and 28,000,000 terabytes of storage. Now if all of this had been sold as a cloud service it would have been worth $231B per year.  And assuming flat demand, the total market would be $462B next year and over $600B the year after. Amazon has reported over $6B in revenue and is well on their way to hitting $10B.  So, as you can see we are at the very early days of compute and storage cloud service adoption.

Will there be just a couple of suppliers, with a few products? Just like we had a number of compute and storage on premises suppliers, my theory is we’re going to end up with a number of specialized compute and storage cloud services.  These could be specialized by location, performance, security and business models. After the Edward Snowden revelations, no government is interested in keeping all of their data in the United States.  And perhaps equally importantly, without low cost high performance networks throughout the globe, we’re going to have to locate compute and storage closer to the users of the service.  As a result at the very least, we’ll have compute and storage cloud services in all of the G20 countries.

It’s likely that compute and storage cloud services will also be specialized by performance.  Today, the absolute performance of single core computer can vary by 615% between cloud service providers. According to a recent report by Burstorm and Rice University, the Microsoft Cloud G5 compute cloud service is the fastest, followed by Amazon’s m4.10xlarge and c3.8xlarge. It’s surprising that compute cloud service performance can vary by over 6x. That’s more than the performance difference between a Porsche 918 sprinting to 60mph in 2.2 seconds versus the Ford Transit 350HD van getting to the same speed in 12.5 seconds.

Of course absolute performance isn’t everything – after all a Ford Transit 350HD costs about $50,000 and a Porsche 918 is over 15 times more expensive. Amazingly, when you factor in price, the price performance for a 4-core compute cloud service can also vary by 15x. According to the report the top three price-performance winners were Linode-4GB, Digital Ocean’s 8GB instance and Rackspace’s General 1-4.

The cloud services of the future will also be specialized by security features.  Today you can think of that as specialization by compliance features such as PCI or HIPPA, but tomorrow there will be specialization by hardening, identity and access management, auditing and security testing features. Finally, while AWS has created innovative business models, including on-demand, reserved instance as well as spot instance pricing, this will not be the end.  We’ve already seen some innovative new business models from Google.

So as a consumer of compute and storage cloud services you’re going to see even greater number of cloud services, some specialized by location, others by performance or security features and still others by new business models.  In less than ten years the idea that a server arrives at your loading dock will be as quaint as a floppy disk.

For more information, check out Timothy’s series of books on cloud computing, available from CrowdStory.

Do you think cloud providers will focus on specialized services? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Cloud computing: specialisation not generalisation appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

One industry in which mobile technology has sparked major change is retail banking. Mobile banking applications have changed the way people manage their accounts, check their balance and pay for goods. But, perhaps surprisingly, despite many banks investing heavily in the development of innovative, feature-rich mobile apps – the most effective way to engage with retail bankers is SMS banking –  application-to-person (A2P) SMS. Or in plain English: text messages.

Upd8s str8 2 ur phone

SMS banking is a value-add service for mobile banking customers. Banks can send push and pull messages to their customers: push messages advertising new savings opportunities and balance alerts, and pull messages that respond to requests for information or to perform a transaction.

While traditional media — TV, radio and print — broadcasts the same message to a mass audience, A2P messaging gives businesses the power to precisely target messages. Additionally, the open rate of SMS is 98% compared with 22% for emails, and nearly 66% of consumers subscribed to mobile marketing say they’ve made a purchase as a result of receiving a highly relevant mobile message. The difference is not in the content, but in the medium itself.

Its proven effectiveness is why the use of messaging is increasing rapidly. The volume of messages is projected to reach 28.2 trillion worldwide by the end of 2017 — nearly double from 14.7 trillion in 2012 – and a recent study by Juniper Research forecasts that A2P messaging will surpass P2P (Person-to-Person) messaging by 2016.

“Just send me a text”

Understandably, scepticism exists around the security of SMS banking. SMS encryption is often easy to replicate, meaning consumers may receive text messages that claim to be from their bank requesting sensitive information. Most banks make a point of assuring customers that they will not request high-risk information or encourage high-value transactions via SMS. Furthermore, SMS gateway providers must ensure that they provide a high quality of service and security when it comes to SMS banking services.

Tata Communications, with the help of strategic partnerships, is working to ensure that this much-needed security and reliability is iron-clad. With A2P messaging firm Anam, we are building an end-to-end solution that helps mobile network operators globally to tackle A2P SMS spam, fraud and ‘grey route’ messaging traffic – where message aggregators take advantage of non-contracted routes to send large volumes of A2P SMS messages. A2P SMS presents an opportunity for mobile network operators to tap into a market that is estimated to reach almost $60 billion by 2018, but only if consumers can trust the mobile messages they receive.

While the humble SMS seems like yesterday’s news with technological advancement now enabling mobile contactless payments using smartphones and smartwatches, its success as a direct engagement medium means it remains a key part of any bank’s mobile strategy.

How do you see A2P messaging transforming how customers connect? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Banking on SMS to drive customer engagement appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

What many might not realise is that there is a huge, sophisticated fibre infrastructure that underpins connectivity globally – and at Tata Communications, we look after the infrastructure that keeps the Internet going. The backbone on which it is all delivered is based on a network of subsea cables, laid on the seabed, transporting data packets at breakneck speeds across international waters.

To illustrate, the TGN-Atlantic (TGN-A) is Tata Communications’ subsea cable system connecting the UK and the US, powering cloud services, collaboration and communications for hundreds of millions of people. Part of the Tata Global Network (TGN), it transmits data across 6,800 kilometres of ocean at a rate of around 8 terabits per second (TB/s). If we convert bits into bytes, a more familiar unit of storage, that equals 1 terabyte per second. Put in another way, if the average mobile data plan is 500MB per month, that amounts to 2,097 monthly mobile data plans – or 512 full, free Dropbox accounts – being sent across the Atlantic every second.

It’s not only about equipping a cable with enough bandwidth, however. To launch that amount of data at such high speed requires a vast amount of electricity too. So, given the length of the TGN-A – which equates to 136,000 Olympic-length swimming pools – the cable needs to be resupplied with power by amplifiers at 60 kilometre intervals throughout its journey across the bottom of the ocean.  To do this, the 148 amplifiers are supplied with power by our landing stations at each end in the UK and US.

It probably comes as no surprise then building a new cable system requires an enormous amount of work, including physically laying the cable on the seabed. It might sound simple, but in the case of the TGN-A for example, it involved overcoming obstacles such as the Puerto Rico trench, the Atlantic Ocean’s deepest point. At just 200m shy of the size of Mount Everest, the trench lies at 8,648m below sea level. Building a new cable system is therefore a process that takes months, even years, depending on factors such as the depth and breadth of the sea it will cover, as well as more unpredictable factors such as weather conditions. When building a new subsea cable system for the TGN, we work closely with our partners specialising in the engineering of subsea cable systems who build, ship and lay the cable, amplifiers and other hardware.

Once completed, if anything was to go wrong and the cable had to be accessed by engineers, it would be a huge undertaking. That is why the subsea infrastructure is designed to require zero maintenance for a period of around 25 years.

To ensure that our customers and partners never lose the superfast connectivity which – much like electricity – powers their operations worldwide, our field operations teams in our landing stations monitor the network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

To learn more about how the Internet works and the role that Tata Communications plays at the heart of it, read Bob Dormon’s deep dive article from ARS Technica.  

The post Powering people’s connected lives appeared first on Tata Communications New World.

I travel for work almost every week, and I often wonder if I should accept paying high roaming costs, use over-the-top (OTT) applications or simply turn off my phone. It isn’t a simple decision.  I have to think about how important my calls are and who I need to contact. I’m just as (if not more) concerned when I travel for leisure and often simply turn off my phone to avoid high roaming costs.

Each option has some drawbacks and can limit how you communicate when travelling. Therefore, it’s not surprising that more and more business and leisure travellers are struggling to choose the best way to use their mobile while abroad. In fact, according to Ericsson ConsumerLab, almost a quarter of business and leisure travellers either keep their smartphone in airplane mode or simply switch it off for their entire trip. Half of all business travellers also admit that they have to monitor costs and cut down on personal calls while abroad.