Quintiles Named a "Best Place to Work in IT" by Computerworld for Fifth Time

Quintiles (NYSE: Q) has been named to IDG’s Computerworld “100 Best Places to Work in IT” list for the fifth time.

Computerworld has recognized the top 100 companies for information technology professionals since 1994 based on criteria such as diversity, career development, training and retention.

“We are extremely honored that the Quintiles organization has been recognized by Computerworld once again,” said Quintiles Chief Information Officer Richard Thomas. “Quintiles works with leading biopharma and healthcare companies around the world, supporting them in their mission to improve health. We have been working over the years to create an environmenttop technology talent has the opportunity to develop professionally and make a difference in the lives of patients around the world.”

In late 2012, Thomas was named a Computerworld “Premier IT Leader,” further indication of Quintiles’ position as the biopharma services industry’s information technology leader. Quintiles was ranked sixth in the 2012 InformationWeek 500, an annual list of the top technology innovators in the United States, evidence that great workplaces can translate to innovative products and services.

'We applaud the organizations on the Best Places to Work in IT list for creating and sustaining dynamic IT work environments,' said Scot Finnie, editor in chief of Computerworld. “It's clear that the best IT workplaces are constantly raising the bar with great benefits, new learning opportunities, access to cutting-edge technologies and challenging business-critical projects.'

About Quintiles

Quintiles (NYSE: Q) is the world’s largest provider of biopharmaceutical development and commercial outsourcing services with a network of more than 27,000 employees conducting business in approximately 100 countries. We have helped develop or commercializeof the top-50 best-selling drugs on the market. Quintiles applies the breadth and depth of our service offerings along with extensive therapeutic, scientific and analytics expertise to help our customers navigate an increasingly complex healthcare environment as they seek to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of better healthcare outcomes.

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Huawei: No plans to buy Nokia

NEW YORK: Chinese network equipment and cellphone maker Huawei Technologies said it "has no plans to acquire Nokia," responding to a Financial Times report that it would consider buying the Finish phone maker. 

The denial came Huawei's vice president for external affairs, Bill Plummer. 

The story on the FT website on Tuesday had quoted the head of Huawei's consumer business, Richard Yu, as saying: "We are considering these sorts of acquisitions; maybe the combination has some synergies but depends on the willingness of Nokia. We are open-minded." 

Nokia declined comment. 

Nokia's US shares closed up 17 cents or more than 4% at $3.86 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock had risen as high as $4.12 after the report.

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Experts work on making cybersecurity impenetrable

MELBOURNE: Australian scientists are working on Quantum mechanics which is being applied to computing in order to develop most powerful and impenetrable cybersecurity method ever conceived. 

The team behind the new technology has been tasked with creating an impenetrable network for the Australian government, according to a Australian Broadcasting Corporation report. The technique pioneered by a team of scientists in Sydney, is called quantum cryptography. 

"One of the things you can do with the quantum computing is to expand the data security capabilities a country has," said Morello University of New South Wales. 

Traditionally, cryptography involves three main parties — a sender, the recipient and the eavesdropper or hacker. Hackers at present are able to intercept communications without the sender or recipient knowing, Morello added. 

But quantum cryptography will be able to prevent access by detecting hackers and destroying or altering messages as hackers try to obtain them. "Anyone who attempts to eavesdrop the connection and essentially tap the data would destroy the data on the spot," he said. The problem however is actually in making the computer, he said adding that to make a quantum chip a single phosphorous atom is introduced into a regular silicon chip. The atom's magnetic core — its nucleus is completely isolated the outside world because it so minute. 

"What we have shown is that we can write and read quantum information in the magnetic orientation of the nucleus," said Morello. To give an idea of scale, a computer with 300 quantum bits is thought to be able to contain a level of classical information equivalent tothe elementary particles of the universe. 

"What we are reliant on at the moment is the fact that it's just too hard to decrypt," said Vikram Sharma, the chief of QuintessenceLabs. He added that in future through thingsquantum computers these codes could be broken.

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Nasscom: Big gap between hiring and deployment

Nasscom president Som Mittal speaks to TOI about non-linear growth in the IT industry...

There have been many issues related to on-boarding of students especially in HCL Techstudents protested in front of their offices. What is your view on this?

Educational institutions should work with the industry and see that recruitment period is closer to passing out. In today's world of uncertainty , it is difficult to estimate requirements. There is a big gap between hiring and deployment. If we give letter say this July, a student will pass out 12 months now and then he will go another 18 weeks of training. Companies can't do training for so many students together so for many years companies have been giving joining dates spread over three quarters.

That's why we pushed for 8th semester hiring but then the educational institutions also pushed us back to 7th semester. While this year we have agreed on September for recruitment to begin, the ideal situation would be to recruit post passing out. IIMs don't allow hiring before so why are engineering colleges doing that. Gone are the daysvisibility was higher and we had fast growth on a smaller base.

What is the status of on-boarding of candidates hired last year?

I have spoken to the larger recruiters in the industry and they said that the majority of onboarding of people who were hired in June last year should be completed by this June. There can be minor differences but overall it should be complete by this time.

What is the estimate for hiring next year, which begins this September?

We don't have a cumulative figure but it is going to be less than last year.

What do you think about companies giving letters of intent? In HCL's case, students were told that they will have to join a different division of the firm than the one written in the letter if they wanted to join immediately. If these contracts are not certain, how can students trust these offers?

I think in today's world it cannot be very deterministic . To say that I want this role when we don't even know, one year now, which area is work going to be is not correct. I don't know the specifics of the case but I don't think anyone can guarantee that you are going to have this role 18 months now.

The new model is the way forward. It says that part of the hiring should be done on campus this year — the number that you are sure of on-boarding and the other part must be done same time next year when freshers can be hired off-campus .

Regarding Nasscom's entrepreneurship initiative, do you have any special focus towards social entrepreneurship? Will you be actively supporting such ventures?

We are not working on one sector. We are just promoting entrepreneurship. A large number of new entrepreneurs are looking at the opportunity in Indian market and their services/ products would be addressing this. We won't be actively supporting one kind of companies over another but our efforts to increase digital literacy should help these entrepreneurs.

Is Nasscom considering setting up a fund for very early stage ideas which have been received in significant numbers in the application process?

We ourselves debated this but it will create conflicts with our partners which we don't want. Also, we as Nasscom do not have the capability to asses and disburse funds. However, we have tied up with Angel networks, companiesMicrosoft and Google, SIDBI for loans and incubators and accelerators, some of which do funding.

A fund also got created called Indian Innovation Fund under the department of science and technology (DST) of Indian government and this is available to incubators, mainly in educational space.

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Bharti Airtel slashes 2G data rates by 90%

CHANDIGARH: Triggering competition, Bharti Airtel slashed data usageges by 90 per cent for pre-paid subscribers in Punjab and Haryana, a day after Vodafone lowered datages by 80 per cent for its pre-paid and post-paid customers in three circles. 

Airtel said that the Volume Basedges (VBC) on its recharge vouchers for 2G data usage of three denominations have been reduced to 1 paisa per 10 KB 10 paisa per 10 KB making internet usage affordable for its subscribers. 

The recharge vouchers of Rs 22, Rs 25 and Rs 125 carry a free download limit of 125 MB for five days, 150 MB for seven days and 1 GB for 28 days. 

After the free download, the customers were presentlyged at 10 paisa per 10 KB which have been reduced to 1 paisa per 10 KB with immediate effect, Airtel said in its release. 

The release said that the validity of the Rs 22 and Rs 25 recharge vouchers has been increased to 30 days and that of Rs 125 recharge vouchers increased to 90 days. 

"Looking at the increasing number of mobile internet users in both urban and rural areas, the reduction in rates is further going to boost the usage of mobile internet," the release said adding the benefit, however, would be available only to prepaid customers. 

Vodafone had yesterday reduced the price 10 paisa per 10 KB to 2 paisa per 10KB for Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh circles for both pre-paid and post-paid customers using the 2G network. 

"These rates are currently applicable in Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh circles and will be rolled out nationally in a phased manner," Vodafone had said. 

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Infoblox Speeds Up Cloud Deployments with New IPAM Plug-In Integration with VMware vCloud Automation Center

Infoblox Inc., the automated network control company, today announced that the Infoblox IP Address Management (IPAM) Plug-in for VMware is now integrated with VMware vCloud Automation Center. As part of the VMware vCloud Suite, the VMware vCloudAutomation Center is designed to enable rapid deployment and provisioning of cloud services across private and public clouds, physical infrastructures, hypervisors and public cloud providers. The plug-in is designed to deliver cloud infrastructure resources on-demand to provide maximum business agility.

While virtual machines can now be dynamically provisioned, migrated and shut down by an administrator in minutes, the necessary network services to support this virtual environment, such as IP address assignment and management, are still performed largely with manual tools and processes, such as spreadsheets shuffled between various enterprise departments. This can result in days of s for something as simple as assigning an IP address to a virtual machine.

The integration of the Infoblox IPAM plug-in with VMware vCloud Automation Center provides a highly scalable and reliable IPAM solution to address this problem. The plug-in is designed to deliver accelerated private and public cloud deployment by automating IP address allocation/de-allocation along with the creation/deletion of DNS host records directly to virtual machines (VMs) in a matter of minutes.

“Incorporating the Infoblox IPAM plug-in with VMware vCloud® Automation Center™ will allow businesses to gain greater flexibility and accelerated time to value in automated cloud environments,” said Rob Smoot, Senior Director, Cloud Management Marketing, VMware. “With the help of automated IP address allocation, including DNS management and DNS record updates, enterprise IT departments are provided with the capability of full control for high-quality IP address management.”

Available as a no-charge extension to the Infoblox DNS, DHCP, IP Address Management (DDI) product, the solution is designed to assist organizations with large VMware virtualized networks, automating traditionally manual functions such as the assignment of an IP address to a VM, creating or deleting a collection of VMs and gathering information about the VMs. The Tolly Group, a provider of information technology research and product evaluations, recently certified that manual setup and provisioning of IP addresses for virtual machines can take up to 300% more time vs. performing the same tasks with Infoblox IP address management (IPAM) solution for VMware.

“For organizations looking to automate public and private cloud deployments, it is imperative to take a proactive, automated approach to network services,” said David Gee, EVP of Marketing at Infoblox. “We’re excited to provide a highly scalable solution to improve business efficiency, allowing enterprise IT teams to streamline their private and public cloud deployments.”

About Infoblox

Infoblox (NYSE:BLOX) delivers Automated Network Control solutions, the fundamental technology that connects end users, devices and networks. These solutions enable more than 6,500 enterprises and service providers to transform and scale complex networks. Infoblox helps take the burden of complex network control out of human hands, reduce costs, and increase accuracy and uptime. Infoblox is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has operations in 25 countries.

Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements – Infoblox

Certain statements in this release concerning virtualization and private clouds, and the benefits to enterprises the use of Infoblox’s Infoblox IP Address Management (IPAM) Plug-in for VMware are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially those in such forward-looking statements. As such, this release is subject to the safe harbors created by U.S. Federal Securities Laws. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties design flaws in the company’s products, shifts in customer demand and the IT services market in general, shifts in strategic relationships, s in the ability to deliver products, or announcements by competitors. These and other risks may be detailed time to time in Infoblox’s periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be obtained www.sec.gov. Infoblox is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made time to time by us or on our behalf.

VMware, VMware vCloud, vCloud Automation Center and VMware vCloud Suite are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. Infoblox is a registered trademark of Infoblox, Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions.other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word 'partner' or 'partnership' does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

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Aadhaar opens new revenue streams for Indian IT

MUMBAI: Information technology companies are tapping into a lucrative opportunity opened up by the government's vote-catching scheme to transfer cash directly to beneficiaries. With the Aadhaar unique identity number at its core, the scheme is heavily dependent on banks, which in turn are relying on technology firms to implement the programme. 

More than half of India's rural population still has little or limited access to banking services, even though the government has been pushing banks to expand beyond cities and towns since 2006. Part of the problem was that banks found it financially unsustainable to set up accounts for rural citizens because of the limited transactions and money in such accounts. But the direct transfer scheme now addresses some of those concerns. 

"With direct benefit transfer, there will be a float, there will be transactions and possible products will take off. It is beginning to start happening," said HCL Infosystems chief executive officer Harsh Chitale. He estimated his revenues projects related to financial inclusion were currently between Rs 25 and 30 crore, but expects the transaction fees paid out on direct transfer to create a multi-thousand-crore banking processing market. 

The Indian market with opportunitiese-governance, financial inclusion and the plan to connectIndian villages to a broadband network is creating more opportunities for IT firms, currently struggling with weak demand in its main markets and the increasing probability of restrictive visa laws in the US. 

HCL Infosystems is gunning for a share of the financial inclusion-related business and has tied up with 26 banks to provide technology such as handheld devices that banking representatives will carry to ensure last-mile connectivity in villages. Wipro, India's third largest IT services provider, is working with banks to implement core banking solutions and creating software interfaces to manage such handheld devices, said Anuj Vaid of Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East arm.

Technology market researcher Gartner estimated that Indian financial services companies will spend approximately Rs 42,200 crore on IT products and services this year, a 13% increase over 2012. Gartner attributed part of the rise to the Reserve Bank of India's push for financial inclusion. "We do see this as the biggest opportunity for us," said Rajashekara Maiya, who is the lead product manager for Infosys' banking platform Finacle. "Not just in India because the potential for these services is there in some countries in southeast Asia and Africa." 

Maiya said Infosys' technology is being used by more than half the regional rural banks in the country. The company is also working with India Post to connect and manage more than 1,30,000 handheld devices used by rural postal workers for distribution of benefits under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and to process money orders. 

Software services companies are also making it easier for banks by offering flexible payment models. Infosys, for instance, lets banks pay for its software based on the number of branches, number of customers, number of accounts or number of transactions and allows banks to buy some features as a utility, and paid for on the basis of usage. HCL Infosystems is also offering similar flexible payment options. 

Smaller companies are also increasingly targeting this space. Prepaid payment card processor ElectraCard Services said it already working with 'several' banks to provide prepaid cards tied to the accounts which can be used at micro-ATMs. Atos India, the Indian unit of a French IT solutions provider, is pitching its 'voice biometric' solution to help banks easily validate the authentication of new customers through voice. Atos is in early talks with five banks, India CEO Milind Kamat told ET. But as with any new market, there are significant challenges for technology providers. 

"If you look at it a technology perspective, it is important to emphasise that this is not just about software. The technology and service providers will have to design products scratch. If they just tweak existing products to fit this market, they will fail," said Piyush Singh, managing director of Accenture's Financial Services Group.

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