Today’s world runs on rapid, exponential and, above all, perpetual change. The solution is not another industrial revolution, but a wholesale digital transformation in both the things we make and the way we make them. This is the New. This is Industry X.0 and it is beyond Industry 4.0. The need of the hour is to understand on how the customer requires their digital experience to be. As the momentum takes its speed, India is transforming at scale and speed and has the potential to be a $ 6 trillion economy by 2027, with half of the opportunity originating in new digital ecosystem.
 
Every technology movement generates new challenges and the automation of virtually all business processes and the increasing digital connectedness of the entire value chain create agility, at the same time there is increase in the cyber-security risks and threat levels. Everyone must make cyber-security as a top priority. A survey says 69% of organisations don’t believe their antivirus can stop the threats they are seeing. India is among the top 5 countries in the world to be attracted by ransomware and malware, since 90% of organizations are unaware of all devices connected to their networks and 41% of organisations in India have experienced a malicious breach.
 
The technology team in the organisation has to maintain confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data in all these contexts: on premises, in the cloud, and in hybrid environments. Since, the systems are being opened in ways that they weren’t before.
 
The Brand Book is positioned as the ultimate vehicle for the corporates to position their brand and product identity. The 8th edition of the Brand Book is focussed on the feedback from the Vendors as well as the Industry CIOs community. They are constantly on the look-out for futuristic technologies to challenge the status-quo, cut costs, boost revenues, generate process efficiencies and facilitate the development of new products and services by continuing the turn towards digitization and differentiation. We are working toward our goal of achieving a sustainable business module for the vendor and partner eco-system.
 
Technology is a new battleground for CIOs. The industry is going for a Big Switch,the promise could be cloud computing means we would be buying IT like electricity. That didn’t happen nor will it. The reality is cloud is an enabler and it is now enabling the next advancements that include the Internet of Things and edge computing. Both will challenge and push past the cloud in importance.
The biggest challenge for all businesses is both high-tech and otherwise will continue to come from the forces of creative destruction. Now the question is, who will own the Infrastructure-as-a-Service or cloud market over the long term is still up in the air. Another challenge is the hyper-converged infrastructure and software-defined networking are changing the cloud dynamics and legitimizing the argument that on-premises may actually prove to be more cost-effective than pure public cloud deployments.
Secondly, with ever increasing threat, the role of the chief information Security Officer (CISO) is constantly confronted by ever-increasing and sophisticated cyber-attacks. The tech-trend section will give a clear idea on how the technologies are evolving around us. Having seen and learned over the years from the front lines of global concern on cyber security, readers will gain insights on recent threats targeting organizations and learn on how to better protect networks from the market-scape section of the Brand Book.
 
Finally, technology is progressing rapidly, and is changing the way we live, work and play. New inventions are happening, and new paradigms are born almost every day being disrupted by cutting edge technologies.
 
Thank you once again for your active participation and valuable contribution for the Brand Book and we will be looking forward to continue working proactively with you.

 S. Mohini Ratna
Editor - VARINDIA