<div>As the world goes increasingly mobile, the needs of corporations are also changing. In the coming years as mobile data services increase, the focus will shift to machine to machine (M2M) operations. However, in such a situation, the focus will be on data security. That’s what US-based Verizon Enterprise Solutions is offering to a wide swathe of Indian industry. <strong>Robert Le Busque, </strong>area vice president, Strategy and Enterprise Development, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Asia Pacific, spoke to BW|Businessworld's <strong>Anup Jayaram </strong>on data security and the solutions that companies are seeking for in today’s networked world.<br /><br /><strong>How do you see Verizon catering to the needs of companies in India?</strong><br />There are three key things we would like to identify in driving the Indian market. First is the maturing of 4G, LTE (long term evolution) networks in India. This will create a significant change not only in the consumer space but also at the enterprise level too. The best way to describe this would be to imagine a scenario, where an enterprise extends its private IP networks to the private MPLS networks through a mobile network or a mobile device in a secure manner, rather than building fixed infrastructure. This, one change will deliver tremendous benefits.<br /><br />The second is around cloud technology. When we talk about cloud, we actually determine a hybrid technology — a blend of public as well as private technology — that will end up being a dominant player particularly in the enterprise market. It will be like that because enterprises will ultimately look at more agile, low cost based offerings.<br /><br />The third is the growing awareness and requirement around data security. We would specifically identify security in terms of identity management, managing and verifying online identity and being able to manage them for an enterprise as well as consumers.<br /><br /><strong>You are talking about maturing of 4G; we are still in an early state of 3G here. When do you see 4G happening?</strong><br />Well, it is really about the confidence emerging. The maturing of the market depends upon thinking, and that is when you will start seeing change in the Indian market. Moreover, we are confident because we have seen that part of change in strategy.<br /><br /><strong>You are bullish on telematics. How does it play out in India? And how is it compared to the rest of the world?</strong><br />We are moving very aggressively into this space. We are looking at various opportunities and are optimistic about the opportunity it provides. If you look at the Indian market, the first thing you would find is the increasing rate of mobility and increasing penetration of mobile infrastructure. That is the key to implement telematics or M2M. <br /><br />But there is one thing you cannot deny and that is the world of connected machines. There will be more than 60 billion devices connected in some way or form with the network by the end of the decade. Therefore, this is significant market and opportunity for enterprise to provide value to the customers. We are again at a developing state of this technology and India is no different from any other developed nations that are benefiting in terms of these technologies.<br /><br /><strong>So M2M will be the way forward?</strong><br />M2M will not be the only way forward. There are other technologies which are important. But, the one thing that remains the same is the requirement to protect information and data both from a corporate perspective as well as the regulatory and legal perspective will always be there and will always be a very important part.<br /><br /><strong>What kind of solutions do Indian companies seek from you in the cloud computing?</strong><br />When we talk about cloud computing the underlying trend is to remove capital out of the IP infrastructure and the kinds of solutions we are seeing whether it is Indian companies or other foreign companies it is pretty much the same. They are looking for agility and flexibility in cloud computing provides but at the same time they are looking at a model that allows them an element of control of their data and information and at the same time they will be able to control the security and access control over the information. So the key demands with regards to the private cloud, public cloud or the blend of the both. The demand is straightforward; agility, control of the data and security.<br /><br /><strong>How have the demands from Indian industry changed over the past couple of years? What can you read from this?</strong><br />The demand has been changing and in the past it was more network-centric. The demand in some cases has been for unmanaged network services. When I say unmanaged services, it is the services that did not provide management tools. We are now seeing a change, the demand for service based model appearing very rapidly with the Indian customers.<br /><br />In the past the customers were saying that give me the technology and I will manage it, run it in a way it will perpetrate the business. But now they are saying that we want the technology but we also want your expertise to run and manage it. So I would like to say that I said in the start that there is a change in the demand we are seeing in the network based services, application based services, cloud technology, managed services, security is really and are the result for the change in demand.<br /> </div><div>anupjayaram (at) gmail (dot) com<br /> </div>
