15th March, Mumbai: Innovation in the technology industry was on display and more than 150 Tech professionals, VARs and vendors exhibited at the 10th edition of Western India Information Technology Fair (WIITF) at Hotel Taj Lands Ends, Mumbai. WIITF 2019 was a unique event where partners, CIOs and vendors conglomerated under one platform to showcase their innovation and expertise. The event witnessed high-profile delegates discuss and debate on various issues related to business, security and the future of Hyper Converged Infrastructure/back-up.

We are in an era of accelerating complexity in design and engineering challenges. To combat this changing landscape, and with the increasing presence of e-commerce companies in the country, it is time for VARS and partners to work more closely so that businesses could turn into greater supply chain collaboration. 80% of the partners in this industry say that active and meaningful engagement with tech vendors is essential for the success and they are bullish on the newer Technologies to scale-up their business. As new technologies emerge, marketers will continue to reach out to new consumers through these new medium.

The focus of this year’s WIITF event was “Ease Of Doing Business”. To complement the event, there were vendors that included ACUUTECH which is into HCI & data back-up; Dell EMC which is into end-to end technology solutions; Savex Technologies which is into Technology distribution space; ESDS which is a Software leader in managed cloud datacenters in India and Innefu, which is an Information Security R&D start-up, providing cutting edge Information Security & Data Analytics solutions. The event offered a 360 degree advantage for the solution partners to scale-up their business.

This year’s event attracted an enviable roster of delegates from across the country. The key-note address was presented by Kersi Tavadia, CIO - BSE India; Prof. Parimal Merchant, Director - Global FMB Program at S. P. Jain School and Advocate Prashant Mali, Expert in Cyber Security in India. There were other prominent speakers from India and overseas including Philip Moss, Chief Product Officer- ACUUTECH; Piyush Somani, Founder & CMD - ESDS Software; Kiran Giri - Pre-sales lead for MDC Solutions – Commercial business - DELL EMC; Jayant Goradia, CEO - Savex Technologies and Bhavesh Mehta, Chief Technology Officer, Acuutech, an industry pioneer from UK with strong edge over HCI and back-up portfolio to his credit.

The event was supported by various IT Associations including FAIITA, TAIT, ISODA, ASIRT and TEKQ Global.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO-VARINDIA welcomed the guests and in his welcome note he addressed, “VARINDIA’s commitment has always been partner focused and is continuing its vision to serve the Partners like a platform. Digital transformation is creating tremendous opportunities for the VAR community too and at the same time they are also facing disruptions from e-commerce companies including Flipkart, Walmart, and now Udaan, Moglix and a few others who had entered earlier in the B2C segment and now have become active in the B2B segment too.

Today’s business climate carries a great deal of uncertainty for companies of all sizes and industries. Unpredictable demand makes it difficult to focus on long-term planning. Instead, companies are looking for more short-term and shifting their investments only into their most compelling projects.”

Dr. Sahu further also spoke on how today's modern workloads demand modern data protection that legacy solutions often aren't able to provide. “We are entering a new world in which data may be more important than software and people who are really serious about software, should make their own hardware,” Dr. Sahu spoke.

There were 7 Partners from Western India who received the coveted awards of the IT industry, who were adjudged for their hard work and commitment towards the ICT industry.

The awards are were given away by Kersi Tavadia, CIO - Bombay Stock Exchange; Champak Raj Gurjar, President - FAIITA; Bhavesh Mehta, Group CTO- Acuutech and Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO- VARINDIA.

The winners were - Bluecom Infotech Pvt Ltd., who received the award for Best VAR, Western India; M Tech Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. for Best VAD, Western India; VDA Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd. for Best Solution Partner, Western India; Pentagon System and Services Pvt. Ltd. for Best System Integrator, Western India; Essen Vision Software Pvt. Ltd.for Best Information Security Partner, Western India; Shivami Cloud Services Pvt. Ltd. for Best Cloud Solution Partner, Western India; and Business Connect Ad Networks for Best Cyber Security Partner, Western India.

There was also a lucky draw session which was sponsored by the house of ESDS Software, and three lucky winners walked away with goodies.

It was an event where the People present had a chance to share their experiences. Overall the event proved to be an interesting day.

PANEL DISCUSSION: “Powering The Digital Economy”

The theme of the Panel Discussion was “Powering The Digital Economy” and the session invited experts to discuss on the topic. The panelists were Shankar Jadav, MD - BSE Investments Ltd.; Purshottam Purswani, CTO - ATOS India; Denis Thomas, Director – Banking & capital market- Capegemini; B R Nath, CTO - Edelweiss; Meheriar Patel, Group CIO - Jeena & company and Lakshmana Vadaga, GM & Head IT - Adlabs Entertainments, and the session was moderated by Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO -VARINDIA.

The focus of the discussion was more into security, which is the forefront in everyone’s mind these days. The security services market in India is to witness a $1 billion in 2019, an increase of 13 per cent in comparison to 2018. Organizations continue to feel the pressure to find the right people with the right skills to grow their security teams, particularly given the 24/7 nature of security operations functions.

The panel also felt that to power the Digital economy, there is an ongoing shortage of skills that are driving demand for security services, particularly security outsourcing, managed security services and security consulting. CIOs and CISOs are under increasing pressure to ensure their organizations do not become victims of external attackers, while simultaneously maintaining compliance with regulations.

The discussion also deliberated on how to compete in the era of digital economy. The panel felt that banks can’t compete with Fintech’s if they do not digitize the digital economies in the current climate of cyber-crime still outpacing cyber-security sophistication.

Lastly, the discussion talked about the use of digital technologies in changing the business models, and driving revenue and value versus digitization - conversion of data to digital formats.