May you live long, and prosper

Contents
Snapshot of Indian IT Industry ................................................................................................................ 4
Market Size ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Investments......................................................................................................................................... 4
Road Ahead ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Brief Sector Analysis................................................................................................................................ 9
FMCG Sector ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Human Resource Management ........................................................................................................ 10
Financials........................................................................................................................................... 11
Banking.............................................................................................................................................. 12
Artificial Intelligence in Banking.................................................................................................... 13
Robotics in Banking Operations .................................................................................................... 13
VR/AR in Banking .......................................................................................................................... 14
UPI (Unified Payments Interface) ................................................................................................. 14
Telecom............................................................................................................................................. 15
Network Sharing ........................................................................................................................... 15
IoT ................................................................................................................................................. 15
IT and Telecommunications Convergence .................................................................................... 15
The Rise of the App Economy ....................................................................................................... 15
5G .................................................................................................................................................. 16
Wearables and Smartphones ........................................................................................................ 16
Media/Entertainment trends ............................................................................................................ 16
India .............................................................................................................................................. 16
Global Scenario ............................................................................................................................. 17
Insurance........................................................................................................................................... 18
E-Commerce...................................................................................................................................... 19
Drone Delivery .............................................................................................................................. 19
Droid Delivery ............................................................................................................................... 19
Augmented Reality Technology .................................................................................................... 20
Smart Refrigerators ....................................................................................................................... 20
Connecting with Customers through Social Media is not enough................................................ 21
An Integration of Online and Offline with Beacon Technology .................................................... 21
Huge Images and Videos Deliver Stunning Homepages ............................................................... 21
Virtual Sales Forces Become Highly Implemented ....................................................................... 22
Recent Developments ........................................................................................................................... 23
Tech Acquisitions .............................................................................................................................. 23

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 Tech Trends ....................................................................................................................................... 23
Common Terminologies explained ....................................................................................................... 25
What is Bitcoin? ................................................................................................................................ 25
What makes it different from normal currencies? ....................................................................... 25
Who created it? ............................................................................................................................ 25
Who prints it? ............................................................................................................................... 25
So you cant churn out unlimited bitcoins? .................................................................................. 25
What is bitcoin based on? ............................................................................................................. 25
What are its characteristics?......................................................................................................... 26
Blockchain ......................................................................................................................................... 27
The Problem and the solution ...................................................................................................... 27
Key concepts of blockchain ........................................................................................................... 27
The benefits of blockchain ............................................................................................................ 29
AR V/s VR .......................................................................................................................................... 29
What is Augmented Reality .......................................................................................................... 29
What is Virtual Reality................................................................................................................... 29
Difference and similarities ............................................................................................................ 29
Which technology will succeed? ................................................................................................... 29
Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud ................................................................................................ 30
Social ............................................................................................................................................. 30
Mobility ......................................................................................................................................... 30
Cloud Computing .......................................................................................................................... 30
Types of clouds.............................................................................................................................. 31
Big data and Analytics ....................................................................................................................... 32

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Snapshot of Indian IT Industry

India is the world's largest sourcing destination for the information technology (IT) industry,
accounting for approximately 67 per cent of the US$ 124-130 billion market. The industry employs
about 10 million workforces.

India's cost competitiveness in providing IT services, which is approximately 3-4 times cheaper than
the US, continues to be the mainstay of its Unique Selling Proposition (USP) in the global sourcing
market.

The IT-BPM sector which is currently valued at US$ 143 billion is expected to grow at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.3 per cent year-on-year to US$ 143 billion for 2015-16.

The sector is expected to contribute 9.5 per cent of Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more
than 45 per cent in total services export in 2015-16

BPM accounted for 22.63 per cent of total IT exports during FY16

Market Size
The Indian IT sector is expected to grow at a rate of 12%-14% for FY2016-17 in constant currency
terms. The sector is also expected triple its current annual revenue to reach US$ 350 billion by FY
2025.

India ranks third among global start-up ecosystems with more than 4,200 start-ups.

Approximately 85 per cent of total IT-BPM exports from India is across four sectors: BFSI, telecom,
manufacturing and retail

Indias internet economy is expected to touch Rs 10 trillion (US$ 146.72 billion) by 2018, accounting
for 5 per cent of the countrys GDP. Indias internet user base reached over 400 million by May 2016,
the third largest in the world, while the number of social media users grew to 143 million by April
2015 and smartphones grew to 160 million.

Public cloud services revenue in India is expected to reach US$ 1.26 billion in 2016, growing by 30.4
per cent year-on-year (y-o-y)

The Indian Healthcare Information Technology (IT) market is valued at US$ 1 billion currently and is
expected to grow 1.5 times by 2020

India's business to business (B2B) e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 700 billion by 2020
whereas the business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 102 billion by
2020

Investments
The computer software and hardware sector in India attracted cumulative Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) inflows worth US$ 21.02 billion between April 2000 and March 2016, according to data
released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)

Indian start-ups are estimated to have raised US$ 1.4 billion across 307 deals in quarter ending
March 2016

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Report from market research firm Zinnov highlighted that the small and medium businesses will
present a lucrative opportunity worth US$ 11.6 billion in 2015, which is expected to grow to US$
25.8 billion in 2020

Road Ahead
Cloud represents the largest opportunity under SMAC, increasing at a CAGR of approximately 30 per
cent to around US$ 650-700 billion by 2020

The social media is the second most lucrative segment for IT firms, offering a US$ 250 billion market
opportunity by 2020

An Overview

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Division of Indian IT Sector

Indian IT Sector growth statistics

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Brief Sector Analysis

FMCG Sector

Over the last few years, FMCG companies have leveraged the massive potential of the burgeoning
supply of information about customers behaviours, needs, and wants. The volume of data
emanating from multiple consumer touch points including point of sale, in-store engagement,
mobile platforms, and social media is exploding at an unprecedented level and unleashing value in
ways that go beyond operational efficiency. This is leading to a fundamental change in what
businesses expect from technology. Senior executives across all functions now realize that IT is
capable of game-changing innovation and business transformation that can spur revenue growth,
faster time-to-market, and sometimes generate entirely new business models.

Companies are adopting new IT services at a faster rate in other functions such as in manufacturing
to improve productivity and leveraging labour efficiency levels at the factory shop floor. IT solutions
to track new product formulations, cross functional team working co-ordination are also gaining
acceptance. Logistics solutions which aggregate orders to move stocks efficiently across the country
and track customer orders to achieve higher service levels are also being used across different FMCG
verticals to push for supply chain dominance. They're adapting their traditional customer
relationships as well, by moving away from large scale surveys to focus groups and social media
research - bringing the business closer to their consumers.

FMCG companies can make three disruptive moves to win in the digital world:

Shaping digital influence: This entails connecting with the consumers along the purchase
pathway by building brand equity online and creating strong advocates for the brand.
Winning with E-commerce: Creating a profitable e-commerce business entails strategic
choices around the channel - brand.com or/and market places/vertical specialists.
Companies would need to think through operating choices to avoid channel conflict.
Digitising operations: Companies can create substantial value by leveraging digital across the
value chain to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of operations.
To realise these opportunities, some old world capabilities need to be recast, while others
need to be built afresh.
Recasting old world capabilities: Capabilities from the physical world such as product
placement, supply chain, and partnership with retailers need to be recast for the digital
world.
Building new capabilities: Companies would need to build new "fit for purpose" capabilities
to compete in the digital world. These would include analytics based decision making, a
digital ready organisation, and a nimble IT system that allows companies to follow a 'test,
scale and grow' approach in digital.

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Human Resource Management

When it comes to human resource, technology helps in the all process from recruiting to retire
functions and it has greatly changed the way managers and employees gain access to human
resource data. However, it is quite a challenge to use technology as a human resource tool because
of its complex, but if it is well applied, the organization will save time and money during the process.

Recruitment: This has been aided by e-recruitment web portals where employers post
positions and qualifications needed for a specific job. Then the job seeker will select their
field of expertise and apply for that particular position online. Nowadays, these portals have
even made e-recruitment visual, by enabling Job seekers to post videos describing what they
can do as well show case some of their potential. There also other media where these job
postings can be found for example social media sites. Many people have been recruited
through social networks like Facebook. A business simply posts a job position on its
Facebook page and its fans will apply, if any of them qualifies for the position they will get
that job. This process has also made human resource management more social than ever.
Training & development: After the process of recruiting is finished, human resources
manager will have to use technology to train new employees. Even though they qualify for
the position, there are some things which the human resource manager has to clear before
new employees take their positions. Technology will allow the team to access required
documents on every specific position via a decentralized computer Database and they will
read through to understand every aspect. If illustrations are required, the human resource
manager can use a visual illustration to explain some points in details. This saves time and
makes the process easier.
Performance management: Human resource manager can use technology to monitor the
performance of employees. With the help of tools like CPM (Computerized performance
monitoring), the manager can know how much work has been accomplished by each
employee as per a given period of time. Also the same software can help in the flow of
information about employee performance across the organization. At the end of the day
everything is transparent and production is guaranteed because humans once monitored,
they will do their best to look good.
Virtual Manpower: With the help of internet, businesses can recruit people to work from
the comfort of their homes. Telecommunication and service providers have implemented
this module of recruiting and parties are paid per work done. Many Tele-centres and data
entry firms have resorted to this module of human resource recruitment to increase on
output and also increase on their ROI (return on investment). With this system, a business
can hire over 500 employees across the globe to perform a given task, and then they get
paid per task completed. This saves both money and time to the business.

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Financials

1. Asset Management: Advances in the asset management industry include increased access to
alternative investments, improved performance and reporting protocols (e.g. XBRL), and
new products (e.g. crowdsourced ETFs and managed marketplace loans).

2. Bank Technology: Financial institutions are baking and bolting on Omni channel solutions
including intelligent lending, fraud detection, and integrated analytics into their core
systems. Others are rebuilding legacy infrastructure using full stack and white label product
solutions.

3. Crowdfunding: Online platforms now offer accredited investors the option to fund seed and
early stage companies.

4. Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in their nascent stages. Aside from
the upfront benefits of lower transaction costs and increased access to capital markets for
those in technology deserts, the block chain and similar technologies provide the foundation
for revolutionary APIs in biometrics, finance, medicine, and beyond.

5. Information Portals: Big data has created deep demand for analytics and visualization
software in the finance industry as well as increased access to financial information for
consumers. Online platforms allow for collaboration and crowdsourced analyses in real time.

6. Investment Management: Consumers are benefiting from reduced administration and

product fees as well as more streamlined and targeted professional advice. Investment
professionals are empowered by more robust portfolio management software and the
development of new products (e.g. crowdsourced ETFs and managed marketplace loans).

7. Machine Intelligence: With its origins in peer to peer and social lending, marketplace
lending has the potential to provide borrowers with lower rate loans and investors with a
differentiated, higher yield source of fixed income. Interest rate quotes are algorithm-driven
and oftentimes take non-traditional factors such as education and social network into
consideration to construct more holistic credit files.

8. Money Management: Whether simplifying business and personal expense reports,

protecting against consumer credit card fraud, or unlocking biweekly pay checks, money
management firms offer smarter tracking and spending recommendations. Lower overhead
and simpler, lighter-touch software oftentimes mean lower fees and faster processing.

9. Payments: Payments companies are seeking to simplify the process of transferring and
trading money from mobile point-of-sale solutions to remittances to payday loan
alternatives. These firms are developing and rely on new technologies such as the Block
chain to circumvent the traditional ACH network.

10. Private Markets: The availability of information has increased potential for more robust
relationships between advisory services and private companies. Access to capital markets
can occur more efficiently, in more targeted fashion, and with lower service fees.

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 11. Real Estate: Similar to their crowdfunding counterparts, online real estate platforms seek to
connect investors with development projects in more transparent, democratic fashion. By
increasing velocity of and access to investments, real estate platforms seek to mitigate
individual investor risk, increase portfolio diversification, and broaden the project
ecosystem.

12. Trading: Advancements in trading include: Open-access Wall Street analyst estimates,
crowdsourced investment ideas, real-time investment professional tracking, and algorithm-
driven portfolio advice.

Interesting Reads:

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/financial-services/publications/financial-services-
technology-2020-and-beyond-embracing-disruption.html
http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/cutting-through-the-
noise-around-financial-technology
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/06/FinTech-new.pdf

Banking

Digital will be the next frontier for financial services industry to ingrain within itself in order
to remain relevant in an emerging business scenario as fast changing technology offers innumerable
opportunities while also presenting significant threats. The manner in which technology has been
evolving, a conventional retail bank will have to adapt to the digital highway to remain efficient
while also capturing the new business value.

Cisco, the global networking giant in its report titled: A roadmap to digital value in retail banking
estimates that digital innovation in retail banking will drive $405 billion in digital value at stake from
2015 to 2017.

The key focus areas of the Indian fintech companies are in payment processing (that include
transaction gateways and platforms, online/mobile wallet, ATM & POS services, remittance and cash
cards) and trading. According to Morgan Stanley, the global mobile payments could increase from
$175 billion to $250 billion in coming years. This will include $45 billion in developed markets and
$30 billion in emerging markets, especially considering the ongoing penetration of increasingly
less expensive smartphones.

Digitization can create many opportunities to transform sales and services in retail banking. This
includes everything from shortening queues to offering timely insights and anywhere, anytime
advice. The new bank-customer relationship can be built on personalized assistance through a
variety of channels, along with products that reflect a deep understanding of consumer behaviours.

With the demonetization in place mobile wallets are also becoming an increasing choice of people to
carry out their payments.

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Artificial Intelligence in Banking
AI and machine learning can process a multitude of information about customers, do comparison
analysis, and find suitable product/ services that the customers need. This essentially means finding
what's right for your customers and complete set-up steps based upon customers consent.

Safer Banking- Leading banks are investing millions of dollars in AI integration to offer
security against fraud and theft in order to build a sustained and honest relationship with
their customers. Several popular banks already depend on AI to prioritize and prevent
cyberattacks. Thought leaders in the industry are now investing heavily on AI research for
developing advance solutions to tackle several issues, including cybercrimes.

Earning customer loyalty -The rise of digital first banks has changed customer expectations.
The complex banking model is under threat, yet complexities in the system are ever
increasing. AI can be the answer to stay competitive in this cutthroat environment. From
using robots to greet customers, to providing voice banking or selfie-pay, to deploying robo-
advisors, there is immense scope for AI to drive customer loyalty for banks. Large financial
service organizations are already using AI to deliver personalized advice to its wealthy clients
and several others have invested in AI technology to answer complex financial questions
posed by customers. Organizations are depending on machines to replicate human decision-
making, in areas such as financial service regulation and ticketing of IT issues.

More productive workforce AI is helping in freeing employees from mundane tasks and
helping them focus on more productive work. Right from customer service, collaboration, to
being an effective digital assistant AI further augments employee performance.

Robotics in Banking Operations

ICICI Bank, Indias largest private sector bank, has recently deployed Software Robotics in over 200
business processes across various functions of the bank. The bank is the first in the country and
among few, globally, to deploy Software Robotics that emulates human actions to automate and
perform repetitive, high volume and time consuming business tasks cutting across multiple
applications.

At ICICI Bank, software robots have reduced the response time to customers by up to 60% and
increased accuracy to 100% thereby sharply improving the banks productivity and efficiency. It has
also enabled the banks employees to focus more on value-added and customer-related functions.
The software robots now perform over 10 lakh banking transactions every working day.

The bank has implemented the Software Robotics platform mostly in-house, leveraging recent
advancements in artificial intelligence such as facial and voice recognition, natural language
processing, machine learning and bots among others.

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VR/AR in Banking
Goldman Sachs Group believes that virtual and augmented reality will make up an $80 billion market
by 2025. Furthermore, in the case of an accelerated uptake, the market will hit as much as $182
billion, says Goldman.

Customer Relations - Several banks have created AR apps to help consumers find the
nearest branches and ATMs. While navigating through the city and looking at their phone
screen, a user can see real-time information on the nearing location, including the distance
and additional details, and book an appointment.
Trading - Citibank traders have been testing Microsoft HoloLens as a virtual workstation that
combines 2D and 3D to complement the banks existing devices and workflows, including
proprietary trading software, news terminals, and more. With a colourful bubble-map of the
market in front of them, traders can detect holistic patterns in the trading environment at a
glance.
Wealth Management - Fidelity Investments have come up with StockCity for Oculus Rift, a
tool that applies virtual reality and data visualization to help investors manage their
finances. It turns a portfolio into a virtual city where each stock is a building with the height
and footprint representing the price, trading volume and outstanding shares.
Recruitment and Training - VR can also be used by banks and financial organizations as a
recruitment and internal training tool. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has built a VR
application to attract technical talent by showing them through Google cardboard goggles
how innovative and agile the bank is in addressing customer and employee needs. In this
virtual journey, users are invited to join a project team creating an app for one of the banks
business customers. EON Reality, a 3D software provider, has taken recruitment a step
further with a virtual job interview simulator, where real candidates face several avatars
controlled by a single, real recruiter or department representative. Here, in an immersive
environment, everything seems real the life-size and multi-dimensional jury ask questions
based on the candidates answers.

UPI (Unified Payments Interface)

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts (of participating
banks), several banking services features like fund transfer (P2P), and merchant payments in a single
mobile application. UPI was launched by National Payments Corporation of India with Reserve Bank
of India's (RBI) vision of migrating towards a 'less-cash' and more digital society. UPI has built on
the Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) platform.

UPI platform can be used for:

Immediate money transfer through mobile device round the clock 24*7 and 365 days.
Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts
Single Click 2 Factor Authentication.
Virtual address of the customer for Pull & Push provides for incremental security with the
customer not required to enter the details such as Card no, Account number; IFSC etc.
Bill Sharing with friends.
Merchant Payment with Single Application or In-App Payments.
Scheduling PUSH and PULL Payments for various purposes.
Utility Bill Payments, Over the Counter Payments, Barcode (Scan and Pay) based payments.
Donations, Collections, Disbursements Scalable.
Raising Complaint from Mobile App directly.

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Telecom

Network Sharing

When network coverage becomes less of a competitive differentiator, operators may need
to consolidate networks (through network sharing) as a means of moving away from
infrastructure investment and towards developing innovative services.
Governments currently allocate spectrum mainly on a dedicated basis. New dynamic
spectrum access (DSA) technologies allow devices to use spectrum where it is not being used
in a particular geographic area, or at a particular time.
Network sharing can have many benefits but is not without risks, which can include:
reduction in competitive intensity; potential for collusive dealing and information sharing;
and reduced options for services-based competitors.

IoT

The mobile industry association GSMA predicts between 1 - 2 billion M2M connections by
2020. Some experts believe that the market for IoT devices will grow exponentially, resulting
in over USD 1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy by 2019
The simplest IoT technology -- passive RFID tagging -- is already widespread in retail, transit
ticketing and access control. Near-Field Communication (NFC) is now included in newer
smart phones, enabling applications such as contactless payments.

IT and Telecommunications Convergence

In telecommunications, convergence describes the way distinct services are merged into
single networks and devices and fuelled by the Internet, such as smartphones that offer
voice calls, web access, video, productivity applications and more. This makes Internet
Protocol (IP) the way information is relayed across networksand the cloud storage and
computing services the massive deluge of data have spawned, foundational for businesses
today

The Rise of the App Economy

In 2015, an estimated 180 billion applications were downloaded globally, notes Wired.
Business intelligence (BI) applications delivered through telecom systems, such as video
conferencing and unified communications, help employees work collaboratively, increase

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 their efficiency and optimize overall business processes. Using collaboration tools
can improve business performance by 72%

5G

The next generation of wireless technology has moved past the vision stage and into the
development and standardization phase, with emerging early products and trials coming up
in 2017 and 2018, according to Matt Branda, director of technical marketing at Qualcomm
China Mobile, the worlds largest mobile operator with 850m subscribers, aims to set up 5G
sites in 20 cities in 2018. The general industry consensus is to bring 5G in the market by 2020

Wearables and Smartphones

A Deloitte survey indicates that wearables are beginning to gain real traction in the
marketplacewith ownership rates doubling over the prior year, but still at relatively small
levels (10 percent and under) indicating significant potential for growth. According to the
research, those that do own wearables are actively using them74 percent of consumers
use a smartwatch on a weekly basis, and 66 percent of consumers use a fitness band weekly.
Massive data consumption will continue to grow with the expansion of IoT and more
streaming of contentespecially video.

Media/Entertainment trends

India

The Indian media & entertainment sector is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate
(CAGR) of 14.3 per cent to touch Rs 2.26 trillion (US$ 33.7 billion) by 2020, while revenues from
advertising is expected to grow at 15.9 per cent to Rs 99,400 crore (US$ 14.82 billion).

Over FY 2015-20, radio will likely grow at a CAGR of 16.9 per cent, while digital advertising will grow
at 33.5 per cent. The largest segment, Indias television industry, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15
per cent, while print media is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 per cent.

India is one of the highest spending and fastest growing advertising market globally. The countrys
expenditure on advertising is expected to grow more than 12 per cent in 2016, and accelerate to
13.9 per cent in 2017, based on various media events like T20 Cricket World Cup, the Indian Premier
League (IPL) and State elections. Television segment, which continues to hold highest share of
spending, is expected to grow by 12.3 per cent in 2016 and 12.5 per cent in 2017, led by increased
spending by packaged consumer goods brands and e-commerce companies.

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) sector
(including Print Media) in the period April 2000 March 2016 stood at US$ 4.98 billion, as per data
released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).

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Global Scenario
As media evolves to a direct-to-consumer world, nowhere is the competition fiercer than in
television. Video commands the most revenue of any E&M sector: about US$420 billion globally in
subscriptions and advertising in 2015. Around the world, more people are choosing to stream video
through over-the-top (OTT) services, that is, services that deliver film and television content via the
Internet, without the need for traditional cable or satellite TV subscriptions. Today, 78 percent of
U.S. consumers subscribe to at least one OTT service.

Until recently, there was a clear recipe for success in media and entertainment: multiple revenue
streams, scarce distribution outlets, and distinct exploitation windows. To thrive in todays (and
tomorrows) environment, however, companies need to drive both innovation and efficiency,
embracing new approaches to content development, distribution, operations, technology, and
monetization. In short, they need to adapt their strategies, capabilities, and operating models to
address several key imperatives:

Significant reductions to cost structures for content: Consumer time and spending are
shifting to digital, but media companies ability to monetize consumer engagement in the
digital arena is well below what it is in analogue media. As a result, media companies need
to fundamentally reduce the cost of their content. Key levers include introducing more
variable cost by maintaining fewer staff editors and content producers and instead
managing networks of external contributors; developing greater scale and consistency in
approaches to content production and technology; and attacking fixed costs through
centralization, outsourcing, offshoring, and portfolio rationalization.
More accountability, relevance and interactivity for advertisers: Spending on traditional paid
media is coming under growing pressure as advertisers devote more resources to digital,
database marketing, event marketing, place-based media and even loyalty programs. This
shift requires media companies to increase their focus on innovation and ROI as they craft
advertising solutions. It is also creating opportunities to build new businesses around lead
generation, custom media, and marketing services.
Adapt content to newer avenues brought forth by technological shifts: Increasing amount of
time is spent on mobile with an average person spending 23 days a year on his/her phone.
Capitalizing this would mean having more mobile friendly apps and content delivery
systems, many existing companies which are not solely in Media/Entertainment space have
capitalized on this such as social media with streaming capabilities which are being used by
both brands as well as famous personalities to provide content to their followers.
Positions in emerging markets have become key to long-term growth: Global media and
entertainment industry growth will be fed primarily from the emerging markets of Latin
America, Asia, Russia and the Middle East. Across these regions, the multimedia landscape is
developing rapidly; and, in many cases, traditional barriers associated with distribution and
regulation are no longer that significant.

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Insurance

Insurance agents and brokers are experiencing a major shift in what their customers and clients have
come to expect. By 2017, digital natives will dominate the workplace, which has huge implications
for agents and brokers looking to engage with customers and grow their businesses. As the
millennial generation matures and enters into its peak buying power, digital and more-automated
ways of doing business will become a fundamental part of day-to-day workflows. Following image
shows the adoption of various new technologies, their adoption time and the state of their lifecycle.

Even in the Indian Insurance market, firms have turned their focus towards technology in 2016 and it
has been estimated that INR 14,000 crores were spent on IT which is a 9.6 percent increase from
2015. Indian insurers are prioritizing their technology investments for 2016 into digitalization, and
particularly analytics capabilities which are in the improving phase as highlighted above. In todays
economic environment, there often is increasing pressure to increase efficiency and control costs. As
insurers focus in 2016 on the cost of technological initiatives required versus the expected return, it
may be prudent to keep in mind that some technologies spending, especially that directed at
automating processes may enable other capabilities or help drive growth in the future even if it is
harder to assess benefits in the short term.

Some technologies may have dramatic repercussions that are as yet unknown. One obvious example
is blockchain technology. While the short term uses for insurers might be unclear what is clear is that
there are ramifications that must be considered. That ability to enable trust while decentralizing
across a group of any size, for instance may allow for the mutualisation of risks with minimum
friction on a scale not possible now. Blockchain technology being complete and verifiable could be
used to verify identity, auto insurance coverage, health status or to settle claims expeditiously.
Walking into an airport could trigger travel insurance, taking a transportation network company
vehicle would add another type of coverage for the duration of the rider the possibilities are
endless and will only become apparent as the technology is better understood. However the
potential for significant transformation of insurance space over medium to long term is already
obvious.

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E-Commerce

Drone Delivery
The growing popularity and availability of drone delivery is expected to be one of the most
innovative technologies in the retail industry over the next decade. Though regulations (primarily
concerning airspace governance) have yet to be established in some parts of the world and are
therefore delaying the widespread use of drones, the new delivery system has already played a big
role in delivering products to aid disaster relief efforts. The existing delivery technology for these
efforts easily translates to the online retail industry, with major retail and delivery companies
exploring how they can incorporate drone technology and future e-commerce solutions. Most
drones have a cruising altitude of 400 feet and can fly at roughly 60 miles per hour. Radius distances
vary from 10 to 15 miles away depending on the prototype, and drones can generally carry packages
up to 5 pounds. Alongside e-commerce giants who want to deploy the technology, start-ups like
Flirtey, a U.S. company specializing in the delivery of medical supplies, have achieved ground-
breaking developments like making the first FAA approved doorstep delivery drone. Australia Post is
currently testing drones to commercially deliver parcels to civilian addresses, and sites in the U.S.
and Europe have been quick to build airports specifically for drones (internally referred to as drone
ports). In time, drones could enable some companies to offer same-day shipping, or even same-
hour delivery in highly populous areas. These faster delivery times along with a growing number of
online shoppers worldwide will likely encourage more online purchases in the future.

Droid Delivery
A more grounded solution, droid delivery is slowly gaining attention as well. Droids are little robots,
typically built with six wagon wheels that travel along sidewalks at a pedestrian pace (usually about
four miles per hour, though most are capable of speeds more than twice as fast). The most popular
delivery droid so far has been created by Starship Technologies, a start-up assembled by the
founding engineers of Skype. This particular droid weighs between 20 and 30 pounds, is capable of
transporting roughly 20 pounds of goods in 30 minutes or less, and is designed to complete the final
mile of a delivery. They can climb small sets of stairs, are equipped with nine cameras to stream live
video back to their base, a microphone for two-way communication with customers, GPS tracking
(for both their base and shoppers), and censors that help it navigate any obstacles or foot traffic on
sidewalks. Environmentalists like these little delivery droids because they use less energy than most
lightbulbs and because they not only reduce vehicle emissions but are also generally quicker to
deliver products. In fact, nearly 30% of transportation costs are incurred during the last mile, when
delivery drivers must search for a parking space and leave their car idling while they make the last
few steps of the trip walking to the customers front door. Delivery droids will make the whole
process less expensive and will therefore appeal to retailers and fulfilment companies looking to cut
cost and delivery times. Though droids are not yet utilized within the U.S., several companies plan to
deploy testing this summer in southern states and on the West Coast. Around the world, luxury
hotels have implemented delivery droids to boost their hospitality capabilities. For example, hotel
droids are able to bring necessities like extra towels, soaps, and even room service meals. In
Australia, Dominos Pizza introduced its own robot to deliver pizzas quickly to customers, avoiding
traffic and parking problems.

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Augmented Reality Technology
In terms of discovering products, retailers have implemented the use of augmented reality to
increase online sales. In-home augmented or virtual reality technology comes in the form of
headsets or goggles that create an interactive, 3-D shopping experience for the user. It provides
retailers an in-home extension of their physical stores and can potentially increase sales with
simplistic user experiences and built-in upselling features. Goggle technologies or virtual reality
headsets (such as Microsoft HoloLens, Sony Smart Eyeglass, and Oculus Rift) are growing in
popularity due to their multi-use properties in terms of retail marketing. With goggles, shoppers can
look into their mirror at home and transform it into an interactive dressing room. The goggles can
then help the shopper choose correct clothing sizes with a virtual view of how the garments will fit
as well as suggest matching accessories. By utilizing this technology to accurately choose garment
sizes, the percentage of online return shipments may also decrease.

Home design will also be transformed with the use of goggle technologies. Leading furniture
companies will be able to display what their products will look like within a shoppers home and
allow the shopper to interact with the furniture in order to choose what styles they like best. For
example, a customer will be able to select and visualize a couch, moving it to different sides of the
room to see how they like it or even try a different size to make sure it fits in a specific space.

Smart Refrigerators
Gone are the days of putting little Dannys artwork on the fridge. With todays new smart
refrigerators, users can display photos, update digital calendars, watch TV, see the weather forecast,
play music, compile recipes, receive voice instructions for cooking, and leave notes for others. More
importantly, shoppers can access camera views of their refrigerators contents on their smartphones
and even order groceries and kitchen essentials straight from their refrigerator door. Several
prototype refrigerators can even suggest groceries that are running low or notify the user when
foods expire and can generate online shopping lists to be purchased and delivered at a chosen time.
Shoppers can also order necessities from favourite recipes theyve saved without the hassle of going
to the grocery store, with the refrigerator first taking inventory of the supplies already present and
only ordering the necessary ingredients.

With the nearing arrival and growing popularity of these technological advances, the e-commerce
industry will likely adjust to leverage new capabilities. With drone and droid delivery technology,
fulfilment will have lower long-term costs and faster delivery rates. Augmented reality will provide
an in-home shopping experience to customers and will likely decrease return rates with more
accurate sizing abilities. Specialty retailers will also get a new opportunity to sell unique pieces
online as customers will be able to visualize these products in their homes. Appliance technologies
like the smart refrigerator will capitalize on recurring kitchen purchases and will simplify ordering
online with delivery options. In the future, retailers can utilize these and additional new technologies
to align forward-thinking business strategies so they can possibly obtain an advantage over their
direct competition.

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Ah yes, the end of 2015 is approaching and so is the speculation about what the ecommerce world
has in-store for us in the future.

As with just about every industry, trends change (see our 2015 trends roundup!), making it
necessary to catch up and follow along in order to keep your business relevant. Heck, ten years ago
social selling and digital receipt upsells were far less common if not impossible.

As the 2016 year comes barrelling towards us, its essential to look back at what youve done with
your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire
ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are
not always what they once were.

Yes, the New Year is a time for re-evaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that.
Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and
beyond.

Connecting with Customers through Social Media is not enough

In the past, social media was primarily to connect with customers and get them to like or comment
on your content. This stirred up buzz whenever you launched a new product, and it would even send
people to your product or blog pages when linked. Now the social ecommerce landscape is changing,
considering so many of the social networks have opened up their systems for selling. For example,
both Pinterest and Twitter have announced buttons that companies can use to post and sell their
items directly through the social networks. The same goes for Facebook. In fact, some platforms like
Shopify and Big commerce have Facebook selling built-in.

An Integration of Online and Offline with Beacon Technology

Offline and online technologies are coming together more than ever, and with the advent of
something called beacon technology, companies are beginning to offer mobile deals and greetings
when someone walks into the store. The technology works when your phone or tablet keeps
searching for a beacon. Physical stores can implement physical beacons in the shops, so once
someone walks in, their phone accepts the signal and provides something like a promotion.

Huge Images and Videos Deliver Stunning Homepages

As 2015 progressed, many ecommerce designers started putting a focus on large images and videos,
many of which would take up the entire screen.

These designs have delivered beautiful introductions for companies, since ecommerce businesses
can quickly explain the purpose of the site in a few minute video, or a stunning image.

Huge media modules also help out the consumer, since most of the clutter is pushed to secondary
pages, resulting in one or two paths for the customers to go. Its all much simpler.

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Virtual Sales Forces Become Highly Implemented
In the past, online support teams mainly sat around to wait for a customer to send in a question.
This often resulted after the buy, or to inquire about some specs before buying.

A huge shift is coming in the ecommerce industry, since many companies are beginning to treat
online employees like they would brick and mortar sales people. Instead of waiting for customers to
buy, ecommerce sites are using popups, chat modules and other tools for sales people to convince
customers to buy before they make a decision.

Latest News

1. Credit Card Company MasterCard is introducing artificial intelligence (AI) into its global network
to provide more effective transaction approval. The company has introduced Decision
Intelligence, a service that uses artificial intelligence to learn from every transaction it monitors.
Decision Intelligence will replace the systems that focus on risk assessment based on pre-defined
rules.
MasterCard wants to reduce the number of transactions wrongly declined while retaining high
security.

2. Derivatives trading company CME Group and The Royal Mint are planning to use blockchain
technology in gold trading to cut the cost and increase the security. This is the latest use case for
blockchain in the financial services sector, where the technology is best known for underpinning
the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. In 2017, the two organisations will introduce Royal Mint Gold (RMG),
which will be issued as a digital record of ownership of the gold it stores. CMG will operate the
24-hour trading platform for the RMG, each of which will be worth one ounce of spot gold,
which is the current value.

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Recent Developments

Tech Acquisitions
1. Dell buys EMC for $67 billion
2. Avago Technologies buys Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion in 2016
3. Microsoft buys LinkedIn ($26 Bn, 2016)
4. Softbank buys ARM ($32.3 Bn, 2016)

Tech Trends
1. Live streaming: Live streaming technology like Twitch, Facebook Live, Periscope, and other
similar apps, is developing at a faster rate due to factors like the practicality of mobile
devices, better Internet connections, and a greater expectation to be in the moment in a
social media context. As a result, live streaming technologies are coming to a more diverse
range of platformsincluding social media platformsand are becoming more efficient,
with fewer interruptions and greater accessibility
2. Virtual and augmented reality: Major players Oculus, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR,
PlayStation VR
3. Automation, machine learning, and AI: Digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, which
were mocked just a few years ago, now have a stunning ability to recognize and decipher
human speech, and Google updates like RankBrain are now able to update themselves,
learning from complex user inputs and making automated adjustments.
About Google RankBrain - http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/11/12/what-
is-google-rankbrain-and-why-does-it-matter/#4f92698a301a

4. The Internet-of-Things (IoT): Refrigerators and televisionsare now becoming capable of

accessing the Internet, or even enjoying smart technology. Groups of these appliances and
devices could be linked together on a single network, resulting in a smart home that can
be controlled independently by a single user on a single system. This technology could soon
revolutionize the way we engage with our environments and interact with each other
5. Big data and visualization: Enter the era of data visualization, where advanced software
programs and analytics platforms are able to automatically gather and project big data in
meaningful ways, helping users form accurate, actionable conclusions
6. App streaming: App streaming is one of the most interesting developments in the field of
online search and mobile user experiences. Google has been pushing the visibility and

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 functionality of apps in its search engine for the past few years, but its recent push to
streaming apps in search results for users is an insightful indication of where things might
develop from here. App streaming allows users to access content to apps they havent even
downloaded yet, opening a potential door to the eventuality of apps replacing traditional
websites as the central medium to gather new information
7. Blockchain: A distributed public ledger which offers extremely high-degree of security and
low-cost which enables companies to carry out micro-transactions. Areas to be impacted: e-
Commerce, Banking, Voting. ICICI Bank carried out two transaction over Blockchain last
month
8. Advertising inside the headphone: An automaker, for example, could create a Minecraft
setting in which consumers design their own cars (complete with fun added elements, such
as cats or celebrities) or virtually experience cars built by other users. In a game setting like
this, advertisers could potentially construct a brand experience and present it to prospective
customers whose game-playing preferences make them likely sales targets
9. The end of recruiting from campuses: Although Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
have been around for more than a decade, they continue to gain momentum as an
alternative to the pricier and more time-consuming coursework of traditional education.
Goldman Sachs, for example, has partnered with MOOC provider Udemy to train and bring
on board new hires

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Common Terminologies explained

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins
arent printed, like dollars or euros theyre produced by people, and increasingly businesses,
running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.

Its the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency.

What makes it different from normal currencies?

Bitcoin can be used to buy things electronically. In that sense, its like conventional dollars, euros, or
yen, which are also traded digitally.

However, bitcoins most important characteristic, and the thing that makes it different to
conventional money, is that it is decentralized. No single institution controls the bitcoin network.
This puts some people at ease, because it means that a large bank cant control their money.

Who created it?

A software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto proposed bitcoin, which was an electronic payment
system based on mathematical proof. The idea was to produce a currency independent of any
central authority, transferable electronically, more or less instantly, with very low transaction fees.

Who prints it?

No one. This currency isnt physically printed in the shadows by a central bank, unaccountable to the
population, and making its own rules. Those banks can simply produce more money to cover the
national debt, thus devaluing their currency.

Instead, bitcoin is created digitally, by a community of people that anyone can join. Bitcoins are
mined, using computing power in a distributed network.

This network also processes transactions made with the virtual currency, effectively making bitcoin
its own payment network.

So you cant churn out unlimited bitcoins?

Thats right. The bitcoin protocol the rules that make bitcoin work say that only 21 million
bitcoins can ever be created by miners. However, these coins can be divided into smaller parts (the
smallest divisible amount is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin and is called a Satoshi, after
the founder of bitcoin).

What is bitcoin based on?

Conventional currency has been based on gold or silver. Theoretically, you knew that if you handed
over a dollar at the bank, you could get some gold back (although this didnt actually work in
practice). But bitcoin isnt based on gold; its based on mathematics.

Around the world, people are using software programs that follow a mathematical formula to
produce bitcoins. The mathematical formula is freely available, so that anyone can check it.

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The software is also open source, meaning that anyone can look at it to make sure that it does what
it is supposed to.

What are its characteristics?

Bitcoin has several important features that set it apart from government-backed currencies.

1. Its decentralized

The bitcoin network isnt controlled by one central authority. Every machine that mines bitcoin and
processes transactions makes up a part of the network, and the machines work together. That
means that, in theory, one central authority cant tinker with monetary policy and cause a meltdown
or simply decide to take peoples bitcoins away from them, as the Central European Bank decided
to do in Cyprus in early 2013. And if some part of the network goes offline for some reason, the
money keeps on flowing.

2. its easy to set up

Conventional banks make you jump through hoops simply to open a bank account. Setting up
merchant accounts for payment is another Kafkaesque task, beset by bureaucracy. However, you
can set up a bitcoin address in seconds, no questions asked, and with no fees payable.

3. Its anonymous

Well, kind of. Users can hold multiple bitcoin addresses, and they arent linked to names, addresses,
or other personally identifying information. However

4. its completely transparent

Bitcoin stores details of every single transaction that ever happened in the network in a huge version
of a general ledger, called the blockchain. The blockchain tells all.

If you have a publicly used bitcoin address, anyone can tell how many bitcoins are stored at that
address. They just dont know that its yours.

There are measures that people can take to make their activities more opaque on the bitcoin
network, though, such as not using the same bitcoin addresses consistently, and not transferring lots
of bitcoin to a single address.

5. Transaction fees are miniscule

Your bank may charge you a 10 fee for international transfers. Bitcoin doesnt.

6. Its fast

You can send money anywhere and it will arrive minutes later, as soon as the bitcoin network
processes the payment.

7. its non-repudiable

When your bitcoins are sent, theres no getting them back, unless the recipient returns them to you.
Theyre gone forever.

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Blockchain
Blockchain is a technology for a new generation of transactional applications that establishes trust,
accountability and transparency while streamlining business processes. It is a design pattern made
famous by bitcoin, but its uses go far beyond. With it, we can re-imagine the world's most
fundamental business interactions and open the door to invent new styles of digital interactions. It
has the potential to vastly reduce the cost and complexity of cross-enterprise business processes.
The distributed ledger makes it easier to create cost-efficient business networks where virtually
anything of value can be tracked and tradedwithout requiring a central point of control.

The application of this emerging technology is showing great promise across a broad range of
business applications.

For example, blockchain allows securities to be settled in minutes instead of days. It can also be used
to help companies manage the flow of goods and related payments, or enable manufacturers to
share production logs with OEMs and regulators to reduce product recalls.

The Problem and the solution

Before

Asset ownership and transfer between businesses is currently inefficient, slow, costly and vulnerable
to manipulation. Everyone has their own ledger where discrepancies between business parties can
increase settlement times.

A new way is needed for Internet-age market enablement.

After

Blockchain technologies can be used to share a ledger across the business network. The network will
be private to the parties concerned, permissioned so only authorized parties are allowed to join, and
secure using cryptographic technology to ensure that participants only see what they are allowed to
see.

The shared ledger will be more robust, since it is replicated and distributed. All transactions against
the ledger will require consensus across the network, where provenance of information is clear and
transparent. Transactions will be immutable (unchangeable) and final.

The business network participants will be the same - disintermediation is not a natural consequence
of blockchain usage.

Goods and services are provided more efficiently, with the potential to lower costs on all levels.

Key concepts of blockchain

A blockchain has two main concepts. A business network, in which members exchange items of
value through a ledger, which each member possesses and whose content is always in sync with the
others.

A business network

A decentralized peer-to-peer architecture with nodes consisting of market participants (such

as banks and securities firms).
Protocol peers validate and commit transactions in order to reach consensus.

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Shared ledger

It can act as a source of truth for businesses doing transactions on a blockchain:

Records all transactions across the business network

Is shared among participants
Is replicated so each participant has their own copy
Is permissioned, so participants see only appropriate transactions
Often, companies have multiple ledgers for multiple business networks in which they
participate. It can be used for recording and totalling financial transactions.

Smart contracts

A smart contract can include a digital asset which is anything that has an owner and can be
converted into value. Digital assets can be tangible or intangible. A smart contract can also include a
digital representation of a set of business rules:

Is embedded in the blockchain

Is executed in a transaction
Is verifiable, signed, and encoded in a programming language
For example, it defines conditions under which corporate bond transfer occurs

Consensus

Entries in the ledger are synchronized to all ledgers in the network. Consensus ensures that these
shared ledgers are exact copies, and lowers the risk of fraudulent transactions since tampering
would have to occur across many places at the exact same time.

All parties agree to the transaction and validate it via the peer network.
Rules can also be established to validate transactions.
This trusted and trustless participation makes commitment possible at a low cost.
IBM Blockchain uses a pluggable consensus system to meet the needs of different industry
segments.

Privacy and confidentiality

Ability to protect records with a personal digital signature the blockchain generates a private and
public key to seal that record.

It is encrypted, hashed, and sent to the network of validating nodes

Unique IDs for customer, invoice and reference numbers
Although the ledger is shared, sometimes participants require:
Private transactions
Identities that cannot be linked to specific transactions
Transactions need to be authenticated, and cryptography is central to these processes.

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The benefits of blockchain
Blockchain can help radically improve industries, beginning with banking and insurance. However
the opportunities for blockchain go far beyond this. We predict that this technology will be used to
create smart(er), more efficient systems for supply chains, Internet of Things networks, gaming,
multi-media rights management, car rental, Government proof of identity (or license) creation and
insurance record management.

More efficient
Less risky
More cost-effective
Legal contracts
Corporate treasury, accounts payable and receivable
Trade finance, letters of credit
Smart Property
International payments
Internal cash management

AR V/s VR

What is Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is the blending of virtual reality and real life, as developers can create images
within applications that blend in with contents in the real world. With AR, users are able to interact
with virtual contents in the real world, and are able to distinguish between the two.

What is Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is all about the creation of a virtual world that users can interact with. This virtual
world should be designed in such a way that users would find it difficult to tell the difference from
what is real and what is not. Furthermore, VR is usually achieved by the wearing of a VR helmet or
goggles similar to the Oculus Rift.

Difference and similarities

Both virtual reality and augmented reality are similar in the goal of immersing the user, though both
systems to this in different ways. With AR, users continue to be in touch with the real world while
interacting with virtual objects around them. With VR, the user is isolated from the real world while
immersed in a world that is completely fabricated. As it stands, VR might work better for video
games and social networking in a virtual environment, such as Second Life, or even PlayStation
Home.

Which technology will succeed?

As it stands, augmented reality is ahead of virtual reality, as there are several products already on
the market. We are witnessing the rise of AR hardware devices from Google in the form of Glass, and
also plans from Microsoft to launch something similar with its $150 million purchase for wearable
computing assets.

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On the matter of VR, the technology is just stepping up to the plate. It's still far away from being this
great thing for social encounters in a virtual world, but with the rise of the Oculus Rift, it is getting
there.

Its believed both AR and VR will succeed; however, AR might have more commercial success
though, because it does not completely take people out of the real world.

Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud

SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is the concept that four technologies are currently
driving business innovation.

Social
"Social" refers to the area of social media, and thus the associated social software. It includes not
only the typical advertising-sponsored offers of social platforms for private users, but also the
interaction of companies via these communication media, as well as the use of the provided
functions within companies. Social media has provided businesses with new ways to reach and
interact with customers, while mobile technologies have changed the way people communicate,
shop and work.

Mobility
Mobility is the trend toward a shift in work habits, with more employees working out of the office
and using mobile devices and cloud services to perform business tasks.

The term refers not only to mobile workers and mobile devices, but also to the mobility of corporate
data. An employee may upload a corporate presentation from his or her desktop PC to a cloud
storage service, then access it from a personal iPad to show at a client site, for example.

Enterprise mobility can improve employee productivity, but it also creates security risks. Enterprise
mobility management products, such as data loss prevention technologies, are available to help IT
departments address these risks. A strong acceptable use policy for employees can also contribute
to a successful enterprise mobility strategy.

Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources rather than
having local servers or personal devices to handle applications. The word cloud (also phrased as "the
cloud") is used as a metaphor for "the Internet," so the phrase cloud computing means "a type of
Internet-based computing," where different services such as servers, storage and applications
are delivered to an organization's computers and devices through the Internet.

Cloud computing applies traditional supercomputing, or high-performance computing power,

normally used by military and research facilities, to perform tens of trillions of computations per
second. In consumer-oriented applications such as financial portfolios, to deliver personalized
information, to provide data storage or to power large, immersive online computer games.

To do this, cloud computing uses networks of large groups of servers typically running low-cost
consumer PC technology with specialized connections to spread data-processing chores across them.
This shared IT infrastructure contains large pools of systems that are linked together.
Often, virtualization techniques are used to maximize the power of cloud computing.

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Types of clouds
1. Public
2. Private
3. Hybrid

Public Cloud

A public cloud is basically the internet. Service providers use the internet to make resources, such as
applications (also known as Software-as-a-service) and storage, available to the general public, or on
a public cloud. Examples of public clouds include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBMs Blue
Cloud, Sun Cloud, Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform.

For users, these types of clouds will provide the best economies of scale, are inexpensive to set-up
because hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the provider. Its a pay-per-
usage model and the only costs incurred are based on the capacity that is used.

There are some limitations, however; the public cloud may not be the right fit for every
organization. The model can limit configuration, security, and SLA specificity, making it less-than-
ideal for services using sensitive data that is subject to compliancy regulations.

Private Clouds

Private clouds are data center architectures owned by a single company that provides flexibility,
scalability, provisioning, automation and monitoring. The goal of a private cloud is not sell as-a-
service offerings to external customers but instead to gain the benefits of cloud architecture
without giving up the control of maintaining your own data center.

Private clouds can be expensive with typically modest economies of scale. This is usually not an
option for the average Small-to-Medium sized business and is most typically put to use by large
enterprises. Private clouds are driven by concerns around security and compliance, and keeping
assets within the firewall.

Hybrid Clouds

By using a Hybrid approach, companies can maintain control of an internally managed private cloud
while relying on the public cloud as needed. For instance during peak periods individual
applications, or portions of applications can be migrated to the Public Cloud. This will also be
beneficial during predictable outages: hurricane warnings, scheduled maintenance windows, rolling
brown/blackouts.

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The ability to maintain an off-premise disaster recovery site for most organizations is impossible due
to cost. While there are lower cost solutions and alternatives the lower down the spectrum an
organization gets, the capability to recover data quickly reduces. Cloud based Disaster Recovery
(DR)/Business Continuity (BC) services allow organizations to contract failover out to a Managed
Services Provider that maintains multi-tenant infrastructure for DR/BC, and specializes in getting
business back online quickly.

Big data and Analytics

All technology giants are now moving towards Artificial Intelligence based Data analytics (Big Data)
to get a deeper understanding on the immense unstructured data available. They are looking at
various sources to look out for data, classify it and get better understanding on their consumers,
their behaviour and market dynamics. It is this analysis that is helping organizations to take more
informed decisions.

Just to iterate some of the advancements with some real corporate examples, Cisco, the world
leader in Technology has come up with a really innovative way to use big data to their advantage.
They came up with an advertising web banner, connected with a High Definition Camera for face
recognition and backed by AI based analytics tool. The camera through the facial recognition,
identifies the age of individuals passing through that street and feeds that data to the back end
analytics tool. It then analyses the data and comes with an advertisement which satisfies the need of
that age group.

For example, in the morning, a lot of elderly people go for morning walks. So it displays an
advertisement which showcases the need of elderly people.

Similarly, during afternoon, a lot of school goers move on that street because of school break. Thus it
analyses that and shows different add pertaining to needs of that segment. In the evening, young
adults and youths are the major public passing the street and so a different add is popped up on the
screen.

Social Media, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud are changing the media landscape and type of Marketing
Communication strategy organizations use. The organizations could actually save a lot of hard
earned money on marketing spend and yet add really significant values to the lives of customers
through these technologies.

The decision making process nowadays solely depend on the insights generated through data
analytics and not just through assumptions. In other words, the decisions are made through data
insights and data insights come through technologies advancements.

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