Business ICT

Lanka growing market for data security

Anjana SAMARASINGHE

In this region online transactions are expected to triple during 2007/2008, said Managing Director, India and SAARC Symantec Corporation Vishal Dhupuar.

Nearly 62 percent used credit cards for online transactions and 11 per cent of online users believe credit cards are very secure. Data security has become a very important factor, he said.

Symantec is a global provider of security, storage and systems management solutions for businesses and consumers to secure and manage their information.

“In Sri Lanka the PC market is growing rapidly and broad band penetration is growing fast where it will create more access to the internet. Due to these reasons we have identified Sri Lanka as a growing market in this region. Sri Lanka is an exiting market for Symantec Corporation,” he said.

In Sri Lanka, financial and telecommunication sectors are developing rapidly comparing with other countries in the region where it has created immense market opportunities in the data security segment.

Today 86 per cent of attacks are targeted at home PCs. Web applications and web browsers are also highly targeted. About 60 per cent of all reported vulnerabilities will affect web applications, he said.

Symantec’s Norton product line is designed for today’s increasingly sensitive online transactions, such as financial transactions and instant messaging, safeguarding consumers from malicious threats and crimeware.

CNT international is the authorised distributor for Symantec in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Director General Manager of CNT Sanjaya Padmaperuma said, “today local companies are keen on data security systems and they invest heavily on this. We have noticed that SMEs too give special attention for data protection in Sri Lanka. We expect to focus more on this segment in the future.”

During last year we were able to achieve 40 to 50 per cent growth and this year too we are targeting a similar growth.

In Sri Lanka we have 79 partners and we expect to increase these numbers in near future. Bangladesh is a growing market.

However Sri Lankan market brings large portion of revenue to the country,” he said.

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Sala launches world’s smallest iball capsule speaker

Divoom introduces compact yet powerful mini-speaker suitable for playback from Mobile phones and PDA through their local partners Sala Enterprises.

Managing Director of Sala Enterprises Chinthaka Wijewickrama said this mini speaker is compatible with all leading mobile phones, PDA and MP3 players.

This is also can be connected to Notebooks and desktop PC’s.

Divoom is leading brand in Asia for high quality audio products and has a whole range of audio devices ranging from basic speaker to 5.1 systems. Sala Enterprises who represent most of world renown it brands are sole agent for Divoom range of products in Sri Lanka.

Sala Enterprises was established in 1992. At the inception they were marketing computer peripherals.

Their operations achieved a remarkable success that within a very short period of time.

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ASUS introduces Notebooks with Expresss Gate

ASUS Notebooks instant online access with innovative Express Gate:

With its continuous effort to provide the most advanced technology with the simplest usage experience, ASUS unveils the latest feature, Express Gate on a range of models.

Group Product Manager, Epsi Computers (authorised dealers for ASUS in Sri Lanka) Sankha Jayaratne said that Notebooks have become indispensable both at work and at home as Internet related activities take an increasingly important role in our daily life.

This additional built-in operating system which would be based on specific system configurations enables ultra fast boot up for access to a host of most commonly used features on a range of notebooks based on Intel’s latest platform.

With this instant access to the Internet, users can now send a last-minute email before rushing off to work, browse the Web in between appointments and reach friends and family via instant messenger. Express Gate has also effectively created two computers in one that it is now easier to share the computer.

When under the Express Gate environment, Internet, music and photos can be shared without disturbing the files and setup in the Windows operating system reserved for personal use.

Jayaratne said ASUS saw the year 2007 filled with accolades from across the globe with 2,568 awards.

It was also ranked in Business Week’s “InfoTech 100” for the 10th straight year; and named the “Number One in Quality and Services” by Wall Street Journal Asia.

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Divisional Secretariats to be strengthened with IT

Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) recently concluding a successful pilot project in computerising the operations of three Divisional Secretariats in Colombo district while enabling to serve the general public more efficiently and effectively.

Project Officer of ICTA D. C. Dissanayake, said Hanwella, Moratuwa, and Colombo Divisional Secretariat offices will be fully computerised.

With the new system in place, all documentations and manual filing will be minimised as much as possible while computerising the data and information for easy retrieval.

Initially revenue licenses, rents and taxes, all certifications will be issued using the new system which will be expanded to all operations of the institution.

To take the country forward in information technology, all Divisional Secretariat offices are already networked and linked with the ‘Government- network’ project enabling intercommunication between other State institutions.

In making this pilot project a viable reality, an agreement was also signed by Crimson Logic of Singapore, Chief Executive Officer Lyon Peng Kyon, Director - South Asia Crimson Logic of Singapore Nawnad Chawhan, Acting Chairman ICTA Dr. P. W. Epasinghe and Chief Operating Officer ICTA Reshan Dewapura.

The ICT Agency is the apex body for ICT policy and direction for the nation; it is also the implementing body of the e-Sri Lanka initiative, a project under the World Bank.

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HP No. 1 in Asia/Pacific UNIX Server Revenue

HP announced that it took the No. 1 position in overall UNIX Server revenue in Asia Pacific (inc. Japan) in CYQ1, 2008 according to industry analyst firm IDC (1). HP captured 31.7 per cent revenue market share of the Asia Pacific UNIX Server market in CYQ1, 2008.

UNIX server revenues for HP in Asia Pacific (inc. Japan) grew more than 5 times faster than the overall UNIX server market growth on a Y/Y basis.

The company also held the No. 1 positions in the High-end Enterprise and Midrange Enterprise segments of the UNIX server market in Q1 2008 garnering 41.2 per cent and 34.4 per cent of the market, respectively.

Customers’ requirements in terms of high-availability, security, scalability and virtualisation were the major reasons for the growth of HP-UX in Asia Pacific.

Companies across industries have been deploying business critical applications for core banking, payments, billing, mediation and ERP/SCM on HP Integrity Servers with HP-UX as operating environment.

HP Integrity with HP-UX is also used extensively to power key Business Intelligence infrastructure projects in the region.

Other key drivers for the increase of UNIX Server revenue include a significant growth in migration projects from mainframes to HP Integrity, rapid implementation of blade servers including HP Integrity BL870c, and the adoption of HP Superdome servers.

In the x86 blade server market in Asia Pacific (inc. Japan), HP continued to lead, securing 40.3 percent unit shipments share in Q1 2008.