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As a child, I had a small savings account. Going to the bank was intimidating. The teller's window was higher than i could comfortably reach, and I had to stretch to make my little transaction.  But that was Banking.  You went to the bank, stood at the counter and saved your money.  Why complain.  Today, a child can do the same thing from the palm of a hand.  That small change says much more than it first appears to. The counter has disappeared. The ledger has become a digital record. A transaction that once required a visit to a branch can now happen almost anywhere, almost instantly.  And banking is only one part of the story.  The way we buy, sell, pay, travel, farm, trade, access services and move goods has changed with it. Millions of transactions that once left a paper trail now leave behind data.  The economy has begun to move to a different rhythm.  India once planned development in five-year movements. That made sense when informatio...

Indian start-ups are high on SMAC and are brimming with ideas and many are working hard on their ideas in a garage somewhere in Bangalore or yonder;  working day and night to bring out the next big winner in the cloud, but can they hit pay dirt like Hewlett & Packard? Many of these start-ups will be driving SAAS solutions on the cloud and Nasscom has added  momentum by leading the charge with a target of 10,000 start-ups a very modest number, India can  do with a million start-ups'  to service the world  and create economic value for India. The first aspect the start-up needs to get right is the domain name, is it "startup.in" or is it startup.com, starup.biz, starup.net, it is nice to be nationalistic but in the cloud SAAS you are building could be used by anyone in the world and will  need a global address.; also is the start-ups  twitter handles and other social media address available in the proposed name of the start-up? The website ...

It is a long weekend in most parts of India, and we are all back into our Cocoons again. Just like a silk worm we keep weaving away cocoons which finally will get destroyed. We believe we have the finest security barriers to our digital assets, but alas every day is a new beginning. We forget about the last attack Heartbleed which seems like it has been overcome, little do we even ponder the outcome of poor design and its outcome on the end users. Almost everyone's privacy has been compromised, some .organizations put up a banner proudly stating that they were not affected by Heartbleed. Maybe next time around it may be Terminal disruption of the digital eco-system, companies who do not get back to their cocoons will be prepared for the next attack and survive to tell the story. Those who gloat that they were not attacked and become complacent and get back into their cocoons  are doomed to be put down next time, though many may miraculously survive.  Miracles do happe...

In the old days the only professionals who suffered from Ulcer were those who worked in the fast paced real time market of Trading stocks, currency, commodities and more. They had to think on their feet and made or lost millions based on their ability to respond to information and act on it immediately. With the advent of Digital World driven by Social Media in Real time organizations need to get Digital Traders onto the floor who can respond in real time to delight customers and protect your organization from Demise. Can organizations be shaken  from their slumber to respond in real time to social media and infuse the speed required to be on top of your customers needs and suggestions?  The way forward is not throwing in more people with attributes of Traders (and candidates for Ulcer)  but to use technology driven real time analytic solutions to keep listen and respond on the Digital Highway.  Organizations need business value from traffic in the Digital W...

Can  Indian Banks do a Flipkart to Digital Banking Experience Indian Banks struggle to find a toehold in the digital space with reluctance by customers to  accept internet banking, mobile banking and tablet banking. Every bank tries to get the Indian customer on the digital highway but with mixed results, some  have tried using social media with mixed results. What keeps Indian Bank customers away from adopting and converting to Digital Banking? The answer for this problem faced by Indian Bankers may lie with Flipkart who has  conquered the digital space for ecommerce in India, they have succeeded in every digital medium they have chosen and have successfully changed perceptions on how to ride the digital highway in India. Here are some key figures from socialbakers.com the respected portal for social media engagement analytic. The graph below shows the consistent growth of Flipkart month after month in social media. Here are the growth of Fli...

In a recent audit I found that audit logs were not being archived, the team was puzzled on why I was insistence on audit logs.  Here are my thoughts  on the importance of enabling the Audit logs for the various targets in your digital ecosystem, we need the audit logs for your servers, end point devices, applications, databases, network devices, security  tools in your digital ecosystem. Many administrators disable the audit log since because they do not understand that the audit log is one of simplest & effective tools available to keep your environment safe. The audit log tracks every action undertaken in your digital ecosystem by users and unwelcome visitors (read potential hackers), the audit log records the duration of time that an user was logged in, which files were opened, what was changed and if required even the keyboard activity. To run a secure organization we need to constantly assess our vulnerability and the audit log is the key to...

Over the years I have created a number of  blog sites to address cyber security, banking, cloud computing, financial exchanges, cloud security, new technology and more. I have now brought all these blogs under one umbrella and have all my earlier  blog posts available here for your convenience. Do continue reading and sharing your thoughts on my blog spots, this has been possible because of  your support and encouragement, Thank you. Regards LS Subramanian

Most companies use psychometric testing today as a tool to recruit the right person with the right skills and attitude for the job. The tools used for psychometric testing are reliable, mostly computerized, secure and it is generally not possible to fiddle with them to get a job. The test results are systematically scored against well researched and authenticated models to make sure there is a fool proof testing and assessment.  The psychometric tools available today balance the questions against each other to ensure that the interpretation is accurate in assessing the test takers psychological attributes and personality.  The most popular method is to use two type of questions, the first type measures the candidates characteristics relative to each other while the second type measures the candidates profile in the given business.  In the light of maturity in psychometric assessment the time has come for organizations to also access the candidates attitude to in...

I had a wonderful buffet today and was amazed at the aggressive pricing of the food on offer, after a sumptuous meal my thoughts wandered Cloud Computing.   The Buffet  pricing was based on the philosophy that the customer will pick and choose what they need but overall the price will average out and so will the margins, since no two people have the same appetite or intensity to eat.  More experienced buffet eaters know what to choose and eat and I call them value pickers, if they pay Rs. 300 they will make sure they eat that value of food irrespective of its consequences to their health. The second are the health conscious eaters who will pick healthy food which is valuable in nutrition and good for their health. The last is the one who will eat what they need and leave the rest on the buffet table.  To adopt any one of these strategies one needs to have experience with buffets, I still remember one of my classmates who used to visit a Chinese Buffet on Sundays, on ...

Social Media is here to stay as more companies join the band wagon every day, many companies believe the first step in Social Media is to create their company presence with a  Facebook Page, Twitter Handle, LinkedIn company page, Pinterest presence and finally a Google Plus+ presence and maybe a few more to be safe ! Most companies do not have a social media strategy or a social media management agenda or team, most of the social media management is outsourced to ad agencies or social media specialists. Companies need to understand  they are best equipped to respond and support their customer through social media; customer engagement is too valuable to be outsourced ? Business could use the services of social media strategists who can help them with their campaign and build a road map for their social media presence and  so train their team to handle social media in real time. Companies who do not handle social media in real time are doomed and will stand  out a...

When Bangalore was still a sleepy town surrounded by villages, the villagers would supply the Bangalorean's their household needs. One of them was the Milk man who would brave the cold weather and dew and land with his cow every morning to supply fresh milk for our household. The milkman had  a designated area inside our garden near the gate where he would tether his cow, and if there was a calf it would also accompany its mother. The cow would make itself at home and bless the patch of garden with its ablutions for the day of large quantum of urine and a generous quantum of cow dung. and the area for the cow in the garden used to be quite a mess after the cow and milkman left. The ritual was simple the milk man would start milking the cow after one of us had verified that his milking jar did not contain water, but he had a trick, he would have the water in the jar and while feigning to throw it out he would always retain some water in it. Someone had to keep an eye on the milkman ...

As information technology becomes the core engine for Business the Board needs to review their understanding of the Risks posed by your team members. It is clear today that Snowden though a low ranking officer in the NSA he was able to snoop and access classified data by using free ware tools.  When someone does the same to your organizations digital assets it will have grave repercussions on your business and could make it bankrupt.  In one organization a few employees were monitoring email and were aware of management decisions and thoughts exchanged on email by the leadership of  including internal matters relating to finance, human resources and other confidential information. The leadership was clueless about the risk posed to the organization by this simple act of leakage of email.  Who is the Snowden in this turbaned Group ! Most Boards and leadership teams allow the IT team to sit in an ivory tower little understanding their activities, they consider the IT t...

When Bangalore was still a sleepy town surrounded by  villages, the villagers  would supply the Bangaloreans their household needs. One of them was the Vegetable Vendor - KaiAmma ( Kai - Vegetable,  Amma- Lady) . Kai Amma was a shrewd woman from a village known as Lingarajapuram, today a suburb or Bangalore. She would take the first BTS - Bangalore Transport Service bus and reach the City Market in Town where she would buy the vegetables for the day and fill her round basket made of cane. She would return with a full Basket of Vegetables for sale, normally she used to come to my home during the end of her days efforts and had a great rapport with my mother. My mother would listen to her challenges in managing a brood of kids and as the main bread winner of her family and the mother she was also ambitious for the future of her children and wanted them to be educated and comfortable. Her wish was that her children did not have to carry the heavy basket to earn their daily bread. Kai-Amma...

Recently I visited the Back Office of a Bank and it was quite different from the Corporate Office. There was not enough place to be seated, and there were many people floating around the place and the seats taken at the reception of the bank's back office included vendors of various hues. The corporate office was all glitzy and nice and had the trappings of  power and confidence, but the Back Office had a different story to tell. At the Back Office there was no effort made to be customer friendly, since most visitors were vendors of the bank who came here to provide the bank services. Somehow I believe the way a banks treats its vendors will be the way it will treat its customers. If you treat vendors well and with respect you will carry the same attitude to your customers else the crack will show sooner of later. You cannot have a colored view of the world, with one set of rules for vendors and another for customers, the code of conduct and etiquette need to be consistent across t...

Technology Product Rating for Software Companies As Indian software companies gear up to making technology products for the world as the next growth engine it is important for them to get their products Rated by an independent assessor who understands Technology, Risk and Business. Technology Products need to Blend Business and Technology for their success and product rating needs to be done at the Beta Testing stage or after a few trial runs  rather than after time and effort has been expedited in acquiring customers to use the product.   Rating gives confidence to investors, customers and users of the products and will form an important feature in product selection in the next phase of growth of Indian software companies . A Technology Product could be rated by using rating symbols given in the table below, where AAA is the highest rating for a Technology product and D is the lowest where the product cannot be assessed since it is still in development. Refer to the Technolog...

AS North America gets snowed down the digital connectivity with family and friends gives us an insight into their lives on a frozen day.  We see their postings of shoveling the snow in the  driveway  and can feel the infinite silence in the photos of a snowed out landscape As they struggle to find meaning to life cuddled in their heated homes nowhere to go the schools and offices are closed and have been ordered to stay at home. Well maybe a nice day for lots of hot food and nourishment but no one likes to be caged at home including the animals in our zoological parks. The free chat rooms and voice telephony allow them to make calls made thousands of miles back home to connect and hear real voices who are in are in a more comfortable environment and must be heart warming for the frozen in the biting cold.  Digital connectivity today has become the drug for the masses who want to live in a world of make believe and many have been frozen in a digital world of utopia which is causing dist...

As the cost of operations and compliance keep heading North Banks across the world will have to merge to optimize operational and compliance cost. We will see a momentum in mergers of even large banks who will be force to come together to beat operational and compliance cost. What does this mean for bankers, for one the reduction of jobs will be the first of these optimization initiatives, but more importantly Banks will  work towards bringing in outsourced services in-house to help retain their employees. There will be blood on the Streets and Bankers will have a rocky year but merged banks means fewer Banks for customers to choose. Banks of Different Shades Will be Forced to Merge ! The Customer will be affected when banks become larger and lose the personal touch which customers enjoy today , customers in the digital world are already transaction driven and do not bother about the human interface in banking anymore. Unfortunately digital adoption in retail banking has been slow ...

Love, Share and Trust are needed in abundance in the New Year to make our lives meaningful. Love is described in the thefreedictionary.com as " A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness". The key message here is of underlying oneness, the belief that we are all same in the eyes of the Lord irrespective of our position in Life. Hence loving your family, friends, neighbours and even strangers will make the world a much better and rewarding place for all of us to live happily. Share is described in the thefreedictionary.com as - A part or portion belonging to, distributed to, contributed by, or owed by a person or group. The key message here is sharing your time, knowledge, wealth, joy with others by selflessly giving whatever you can in time, kind or money or even volunteering to make our world a happier place. Trust is described in the t...

As Cloud Computing goes mainstream and drives the collaboration , commerce, cohesion and social mores in the World, the cloud skies are history and let us ring in 2014 as the Year for Clear Skies for Cloud Computing. Here are 14 thoughts for 2014 - 2014 will be the year where if you are not in the cloud your IT strategy maybe suspect.  2014 will be the year when cloud computing will be referred to as computing and be the technology for business and individuals. 2014 will be the year when your health parameters and personal life will be logged in the cloud through the internet of things.  2014 will be the year when mobility will be pass, phablets will rule the end point device market. 2014 will be when cloud security will not longer a concern, rather the cloud will be engine to secure the digital world. 2014 will be the year when SMAC will be an utility for the CMO. 2014 will be the year when Community Clouds will take center stage.  2014 will be the year when cloud evange...