SUNDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2026
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Editorial
Editor Speak
S. Mohini Ratna Editor, VARINDIA Artificial intelligence is entering a phase where the biggest competitive advantage may no longer come from models alone. Developments across AWS, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anthropic, Tesla and CyrusOne show how the technology race is spreading across compute capacity, custom silicon, open-source models, data centres and capital markets. The common thread is increasingly clear: AI demand is forcing technology companies to rethink the physical and economic infrastructure underneath their products. At AWS, that pressure is becoming visible through compute constraints. The company is reportedly asking engineers to reduce unnecessary CPU consumption as growing AI workloads put pressure on available capacity. This is important because the AI boom is often discussed primarily in terms of GPUs, yet conventional CPUs remain essential for databases, networking, orchestration, storage and many supporting cloud workloads. The emerging challenge is therefore not simply acquiring more accelerators—it is extracting maximum utilization from every layer of the data- centre stack. Microsoft is attacking the same economics from another direction: custom AI silicon. Its next-generation Maia 300 accelerator is reportedly intended to improve Microsoft's ability to run its own AI workloads and OpenAI models more economically. Hyperscalers currently spend enormous amounts purchasing accelerators, particularly from Nvidia. Developing competitive in-house chips could reduce cost, improve supply-chain control and allow Microsoft to optimize hardware specifically around workloads running inside Azure. The battle is consequently shifting from simply buying AI capacity toward vertically integrating it. Nvidia is moving beyond GPUs by developing Nemotron open-source AI models, encouraging wider AI adoption that can ultimately drive demand for its chips and infrastructure. At the same time, Microsoft and AWS are developing custom AI chips to reduce costs and dependence on Nvidia. The result is a vertically integrated AI race—cloud companies want chips, chipmakers want models, and AI companies want infrastructure. Anthropic represents another side of this transformation—the enormous organizational challenge of scaling an AI-native company. Reporting examining CEO Dario Amodei's leadership comes as Anthropic grows into one of the most influential frontier-AI developers. As AI companies expand and potentially move toward public markets, technical leadership alone becomes insufficient. They must develop mature governance, financial discipline, enterprise sales capabilities, security controls and organizational structures capable of managing technologies carrying significant economic and societal consequences. Beyond pure AI companies, Tesla's reported next-generation Roadster demonstrates how software, AI, advanced engineering and hardware innovation are converging. Reports suggest Tesla is approaching the unveiling of a substantially redesigned vehicle, including discussion of a version incorporating SpaceX-derived cold-gas thruster technology. While very different from cloud computing, the project reflects the same broader trend: technology companies increasingly combine capabilities from traditionally separate industries to create differentiated products and ecosystems. Perhaps the strongest evidence of AI's infrastructure impact comes from the data- centre industry. CyrusOne is reportedly preparing groundwork for a potential IPO, joining infrastructure businesses seeking to capitalize on surging investor demand around AI computing. Data centres have moved from being relatively invisible real-estate and IT assets to becoming strategic infrastructure. AI requires extraordinary quantities of electricity, cooling, networking and high-density computing capacity, turning access to land, power and grid connections into competitive advantages. This infrastructure boom also exposes a fundamental constraint: AI growth is ultimately physical. Models may exist as software, but every inference request consumes compute, electricity and network capacity. As agentic AI expands, one user request can trigger numerous model calls and supporting operations. This explains why AWS is focused on CPU efficiency, Microsoft is developing proprietary silicon, Nvidia is expanding its model ecosystem and data-centre operators are attracting enormous investor interest. All are addressing different parts of the same AI consumption curve. The next stage of competition will therefore revolve around total cost per useful AI outcome, rather than simply model intelligence or token pricing. Enterprises will increasingly evaluate how efficiently chips, models, routing software, data centres and energy systems work together. More efficient models can reduce memory and compute requirements; custom accelerators can lower inference costs; intelligent routing can direct simpler tasks toward cheaper models; and optimized infrastructure can extract greater output from constrained electricity and computing resources. The larger transformation is the emergence of an integrated AI industrial economy. The value chain now stretches from semiconductor manufacturing and accelerators through data centres, cloud platforms, foundation models, open-source ecosystems, enterprise applications and autonomous agents. Companies that control strategic layers—or successfully connect several of them—will have an advantage. The AI race is no longer simply about building the smartest model. It is becoming a race to deliver the most intelligence from every chip, watt, dollar and data-centre rack.
Editor Speak
S. Mohini Ratna Editor-VARINDIA Artificial intelligence has entered a defining phase. The race has evolved beyond chatbots to autonomous AI agents capable of reasoning, planning, and executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention. Industry leaders such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, Microsoft, NVIDIA, AWS, Meta, Salesforce, IBM, Oracle, SAP, ServiceNow, UiPath, Perplexity AI, xAI, and others are investing billions to lead this transformation. As innovation accelerates, concerns around AI safety, governance, transparency, cybersecurity, ethics, and regulatory compliance are becoming equally critical. Following Google's earnings, investors are now turning their attention to Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and PayPal. Their quarterly results will reveal whether unprecedented AI investments are translating into stronger revenue growth, cloud adoption, enterprise demand, and long-term profitability. Beyond financial performance, management commentary will provide important clues about the future direction of AI commercialization. Meta faces perhaps the greatest pressure. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed enormous resources to AI infrastructure, foundation models, and data centres, yet investors continue to question the path to monetization. Analysts will look for updates on Meta's AI strategy, commercial opportunities, and whether the company plans to generate additional revenue by offering spare computing capacity to external customers. Microsoft will be watched for proof that AI drives enterprise growth, with Azure's cloud growth and Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption as key metrics validating its OpenAI partnership. Amazon faces similar scrutiny, as investors seek evidence that its heavy AI infrastructure spending is accelerating AWS growth with sustainable returns. Apple, taking a more measured AI approach, is benefiting from renewed iPhone demand— though rising memory chip costs and expected hardware price hikes could pressure margins and consumer spending ahead. Beyond earnings, this reporting season highlights a larger shift in the AI industry. Competition is increasingly centered on autonomous AI agents capable of transforming software development, customer service, cybersecurity, business operations, and scientific research. At the same time, responsible AI has become a strategic priority, with enterprises demanding explainable AI, stronger security, privacy protection, regulatory compliance, and trustworthy governance. The companies that successfully balance innovation with responsible AI and strong commercial execution will shape the next era of digital transformation and define the future of the global AI economy. AI's compute demands are the direct engine behind this data center boom. AI didn't just create demand for a new app category — it created demand for a fundamentally different, much more resource-intensive physical infrastructure layer, which is driving this segment's outsized growth. This is 1.7 trillion in Data Center IT spending needed by 2026 to build out AI infrastructure. India's innovation ecosystem is entering a transformative phase, redefining its global technology leadership. From startup-led rocket launches and a 16-year-old capturing striking high-resolution Moon images that drew international attention, to quantum communication networks spanning over 1,000 kilometers with ambitions to reach 20,000, the country is rapidly pushing the frontiers of science and technology. Other major innovations driving India's technology boom include: • Indigenous semiconductor design under Semicon 2.0 • Sovereign AI and large language model (LLM) development • Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and quantum-safe cybersecurity • AI-powered digital public infrastructure and governance • Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission and reusable space technologies • Green hydrogen, battery storage, and clean energy technologies • Precision healthcare, genomics, and AI-driven drug discovery • Advanced defense technologies, including hypersonic and directed-energy systems Together, these innovations are positioning India not merely as a technology adopter, but as a global innovation powerhouse shaping the future of science, AI, quantum computing, space, cybersecurity, and deep-tech industries. Security infrastructure has shifted from an IT necessity to a strategic business enabler as cyber threats grow more sophisticated. Modern enterprises need platforms that combine performance, intelligent automation, and real-time threat detection to protect their expanding digital ecosystems. AI-powered security, cloud-native architectures, zero-trust frameworks, and post-quantum readiness are now redefining how organizations defend critical assets. The ability to detect, analyze, and respond to attacks at machine speed is now essential for maintaining operational resilience and business continuity. Enterprises that invest in scalable, innovative, and resilient security infrastructure will not only reduce cyber risk but also accelerate digital transformation, strengthen customer trust, ensure regulatory compliance, and gain a sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly connected world. Finally, the RBI's Draft Guidance on Data Governance requires Regulated Entities to treat data as a strategic asset by strengthening governance, lifecycle management, security, accountability, resilience, and third-party data oversight for better regulatory compliance.
Round About
DR. ASOKE K. LAHA Chairman-Emeritus and Founder, InterraIT Let me narrate a story told to me, a sordid but one that can happen to anyone in our country, where people are obsessed with owning a house, an abode over the head. It is a security for several generations starting from the original owner up to generations who will stay in that property. The incident is taking place in Delhi, one of the largest metropolis of India, where millions consider owning house in any part of the still growing city is a boon and a source of immense social security. My friend took a membership in a co- operative society floated in one of the satellite cities of Delhi. To cut down the waiting time and possible inordinate delays involved in construction and later fine tuning of interior of the apartments bereft of furnishing etc, he selected a housing complex which was fully constructed including white washing, landscaping etc. Though he was with a limited means, he managed to pay off to the society the initial amount of Rs, 100,000 by cheque and the membership amount of Rs 110. While handing over the amount, the secretary of the society secretly told him to pay up another Rs 400,000 in liquid cash as admission fee, which is collected from every member, before they become the member. That was a painful surprise to my friend, who had gone under the impression that the total cost of the housing unit would be slightly above Rs 17 lakh, which he was sure to mobilize partly from banks and the deficit either by borrowing from friends and relatives or selling small quantity of gold that his wife owned given by her parents at the time of marriage. An additional Rs 4 lakh was a jolt from blue and he started working back on his finances. It forced him to identify sources from where he could mobilize funds. Yet, the hope of owning a housing unit in a relatively well known area kept him moving despite the vissicitudes. But that hope lasted only for a few days. The secretary of the housing complex laced his second demand by telling him to make sure the payment be made by cash since no receipt will be issued for this amount. How he would mobilize such a large amount of money from informal sources? If he approached any other person from the family to lend money, they have to take loans or liquidate their FDs from bank, which would be bankrolled and accounted. Somehow he managed to mobilize that money and paid to the secretary of the society in time. Meanwhile, he also got the loan applied from a private bank that covered lion’s share of the cost of the flat. My friend was circumspect about the deal and tried to do some due diligence about the housing project, which was monitored by a wing of the Government of NCT. Though he did not get any information or any type of misdeeds involved in the project, he got an assurance informally, the project is genuine and the project was due for clearance for draw of lot. He kept quiet and started focusing on his office works under the bliss that everything went well and soon he would own a flat of his own in a middle class colony which might not be well - connected at that time; but has potential to be one since the Master Plan of Delhi made provisions for Metro and other connectvities. That bliss did not last for long. He never got a call from the Secretary later, which he thought he would for draw of lot. Immediately after the draw of lot, the Secretary called him and issued all relevant documents for occupation of the flat. Upon checking up the documents, he realized that all papers are intact and he took the possession of the flat and started living there with his family, which is a fairly large housing unit, going by urban standards. But that blissful state did not last long. He was informed by other owners of the housing units that document can be complete only when the RCS enters the name of the occupant in its list and forward that to the DDA for regularization. The Management of the Society did not send his name to the RCS and instead sent the name of the earlier person from whom he supposed to have bought the flat. There are certain other details to be explained to throw light on the exact nature of the deal, which I am overlooking since it is not relevant to the present context. Let me also state that it is not the first time such cases happen across Delhi and other places. It is happening every now and then; some of them are reported, others go unheard and unheeded. Yet, these things are happening when we boast ourselves as a country with a high level of digitization. There are some states in India digitization is carried out to some extent about the land rights, tenancy, sale and purchase etc. States like Kerala insists on encumbrance certificate is a must to trace the history of the property. There will be entries about its owners, sale, mortgage etc. for a sufficiently long time say 30 years into the past. That gives the buyer the correct picture of the title of the property in question and can steer away from buying disputed properties. More interesting is that one can retrieve such valuable data about any property provided one knows that title number of the property in question at a very negligible fee. If one is comfortable in navigating the digital journey through net, it can be downloaded, then and there. Otherwise, there are state agencies and digital kiosks that provide such services at a minimal cost. I feel this model is ideally suited to be implemented across the country. It has many spin-offs. Stakeholders of digital economy widens. The common man gets to know the advantages of the digital economy and will start reposing more faith in the system. Two, the model brings more transparency in the system addressing the widespread frauds and manipulations by land mafia and other vested interests. Thirdly, it helps plug the digital divide and can make public direct beneficiary of the digitization. Fourth and more importantly, it can reduce considerably high level pendency of cases in courts since a good number of cases are pertaining to land and related disputes. Yes, right from the time I started writing this column, I have been a votary of digitization and benefits it can give to the society at large. I strongly feel digitization particularly AI in judiciary initially to streamline the procedure and it should be calibrated to expand to other realms including adjudicating the cases within no time to cut short the decades-long wait for justice. It aligns with the basic tenet of jurisprudence that justice delayed is justice denied.
Round About
DR. ASOKE K. LAHA Chairman-Emeritus and Founder, InterraIT The FIFA Worls Cup had gripped the imagination of billions across the globe. In India too, millions sacrificed sleep to cheer their favourite teams and players. For several weeks, normal routines were disrupted as football fever spread across homes, workplaces, and social media. I could not resist making football the central theme of this month's column. At first glance, readers may wonder what football has to do with a column that usually focuses on information technology and the digital economy. Surprisingly, the connection is deeper than it appears. As I watched match after match—both live broadcasts and highlights—I was struck by how remarkably unchanged the essence of football has remained over the decades. Ever since I began watching and playing the game in my childhood, its fundamental character has stayed intact. Whether played in a grand stadium before eighty thousand spectators or in a small backyard with makeshift goalposts, football remains the same beautiful game. Although the game's essence has remained unchanged, it has evolved in important ways. New rules have been introduced to improve fairness, reduce dangerous play, and protect players from serious injuries. The use of yellow and red cards has significantly discouraged reckless tackles and deliberate fouls. Interpretations of offside, handball, and more recently, technological interventions such as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), have enhanced the accuracy of officiating. Modern tournaments also provide world- class medical facilities and emergency response systems, ensuring injured players receive immediate treatment—something unimaginable in earlier decades. Yet the fundamentals remain constant. A football team still fields eleven players. Victory continues to depend on discipline, teamwork, strategy, stamina, agility, dribbling skills, and finishing ability. Individual brilliance may win admiration, but championships are won by cohesive teams. One weak link in the chain can undermine the collective effort, much like a fragile component disrupting an otherwise efficient business supply chain. History has celebrated extraordinary footballers whose individual genius inspired generations. Pelé transformed football into a global spectacle. Later came Diego Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and many others whose names became synonymous with excellence. However, even these icons depended on teammates. Football remains the ultimate team sport, where collaboration outweighs individual talent. While the game itself has changed little, everything surrounding it has undergone a remarkable transformation. Football today is no longer merely a sport; it is one of the world's largest entertainment industries. Technology has revolutionised how football is produced, consumed, and commercialised. I vividly remember waiting eagerly for the morning newspaper to read match reports or tuning in to All India Radio for live commentary. Those experiences carried their own excitement. Today, the situation is dramatically different. High-definition television, satellite broadcasting, smartphones, streaming platforms, and social media allow fans to watch every match live from virtually anywhere in the world. Instant replays, real- time statistics, multilingual commentary, and interactive fan engagement have transformed viewing into a highly immersive digital experience. This technological revolution has reshaped football's economics. Broadcasting rights, sponsorships, merchandising, advertising, digital subscriptions, and global branding now generate enormous revenues. According to Deloitte's Football Money League reports, Europe's leading clubs earn billions of dollars annually through commercial activities, media rights, and matchday revenues. When one includes clubs across continents, the global football economy comfortably exceeds tens of billions of dollars every year and continues to expand rapidly. Players have benefited enormously from this commercial boom. The world's elite footballers are no longer merely athletes; they are global brands. Endorsement contracts, image rights, business ventures, and investments have created extraordinary wealth. Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, has built a business empire extending well beyond football through sponsorships, hospitality, fashion, and media ventures. The contrast with earlier generations, particularly in India, is striking. Many talented footballers who represented the country with distinction struggled financially after retirement. One poignant example is Olympian Antony, who reportedly spent his later years doing modest jobs to support himself before dying in relative obscurity. Such stories reflect the limited recognition and financial security historically available to Indian footballers, despite their contributions to the sport. Football enjoys passionate support in several parts of India. States such as Kerala and West Bengal have long nurtured vibrant football cultures where the sport rivals, and sometimes surpasses, cricket in popularity. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, and parts of the Northeast also possess strong football traditions. Nevertheless, despite widespread enthusiasm, India has not translated this passion into sustained international success. India's football history contains moments of genuine achievement. The national team participated in the Olympic Games beginning in 1948, famously playing barefoot in some matches. Under the legendary coach Syed Abdul Rahim, India reached the semi-finals of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics—still regarded as one of the country's finest football achievements. However, after the 1960s, Indian football gradually lost its competitive edge and failed to qualify consistently for major international tournaments. This decline invites serious reflection. Why has India excelled in sports such as cricket and made notable recoveries in hockey while football has remained on the margins? Infrastructure, grassroots development, coaching standards, sports administration, and long-term investment all deserve closer examination. The popularity of football among fans has never been in doubt; what remains uncertain is whether institutional commitment has matched public enthusiasm. Football also reveals broader social and political contradictions. Many European nations and the United States, despite celebrating football's diversity, continue to adopt increasingly restrictive immigration policies, particularly towards migrants from poorer African countries. Yet some of their strongest football teams rely heavily on players of African origin or heritage. Their sporting success often reflects the contributions of immigrant communities they otherwise seek to restrict. Football, however, offers a powerful counter-narrative. On the field, talent transcends race, nationality, religion, and economic status. Success is determined by skill, discipline, teamwork, and determination rather than birthplace or social background. In many ways, football represents one of humanity's greatest levellers. The digital revolution has transformed how football is watched, marketed, and monetised, but it has not changed the spirit of the game itself. Teamwork, perseverance, discipline, and collective effort remain as relevant today as they were generations ago.
New Arrival
The new Infinix smartphone combines a colour-changing design, Active Matrix Cube, Dimensity 7100 5G chipset, 6000mAh battery and Android 16 with features aimed at performance, entertainment and personalisation. Infinix has launched the HOT 70 Pro in India, targeting young consumers with a smartphone that combines an expressive design with performance-focused hardware and interactive features. The device introduces the company’s Dynamic Shine Design alongside an Active Matrix Cube on the rear panel. The HOT 70 Pro comes with a 144Hz FHD+ display, 50MP Sony IMX882 camera system, MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G processor, IP68 protection and a 6000mAh battery with 45W FastCharge. It runs on Android 16 and is offered with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Commenting on the launch, Miraj Gupta, CMO, Infinix India, said: “Smartphones keep getting smarter. At Infinix, we think they can have more personality too. HOT 70 Pro brings performance and personality together - technology that reacts, transforms and isn’t afraid to stand out. Sounds a lot like our users.” Dynamic design and interactive rear panel The HOT 70 Pro introduces Dynamic Shine Design, which uses different finishes to make the phone’s appearance more interactive. The smartphone is available in Thermo Orange, Mirage Green, Silk Glow Purple and Dive Blue. Thermo Orange uses a thermochromic finish that changes colour with temperature, while Mirage Green responds to UV light and glows in the dark. Silk Glow Purple features a texture that changes with viewing angles, and Dive Blue comes with a matte finish. The device measures up to 7.85mm in thickness. A key feature is the Active Matrix Cube (AMC) on the rear. Beyond conventional notification indicators, the system provides lighting effects for activities including startup, music playback and gaming. It also supports interactive games such as Lucky Wheel and Lucky Numbers. The AMC can display alerts for calls, messages, charging, low battery, camera and video activity, countdowns and weather. Through Matrix Studio, users can create customised patterns and emojis, with creations also shareable between HOT 70 Pro devices. 144Hz display and Sony camera The smartphone features a 6.76-inch FHD+ Punch Hole display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling and peak brightness of up to 910 nits HBM. The display offers a screen-to-body ratio of up to 91.86%, aiming to provide a more immersive viewing experience for gaming and content consumption. For photography, the HOT 70 Pro gets a 50MP Sony IMX882 camera system with features including Live Photo Mode and AI Eraser. The latter enables users to remove unwanted objects or people from images. An 8MP front camera handles selfies and video calls. Dimensity 7100 5G and 6000mAh battery Performance is handled by the MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G platform, paired with an octa-core CPU and Mali-G57 GPU. Infinix says the phone can support gaming at up to 90fps in popular titles, while UFS 2.2 storage is designed to improve everyday responsiveness. The device houses a 6000mAh battery and supports 45W FastCharge. According to the company, the battery can reach 50% capacity in around 25 minutes and a full charge in approximately 63 minutes under stated testing conditions. Super Fast Charging and Smart Charging modes are also included. The HOT 70 Pro additionally features a One-Tap AI Button, which can be configured for quick access to more than 50 applications. Users can assign Gemini to the button, while the Power button also provides direct access to Gemini. Running Android 16, the smartphone is promised three major OS updates and five years of security patches. NFC support is also included. Price and availability The Infinix HOT 70 Pro starts at ₹22,999 under the Day 1 offer, inclusive of applicable bank offers. It will be available in 6GB+128GB and 8GB+128GB configurations across Silk Glow Purple, Dive Blue, Thermo Orange and Mirage Green. The smartphone will be sold through Flipkart and retail stores across India, with No Cost EMI options available for three, six and nine months.
New Arrival
The new lineup is aimed at organisations seeking greater flexibility in running AI workloads, combining on-device intelligence, high-performance computing, stronger security and enterprise-grade control across diverse business environments. Dell Technologies has strengthened its commercial technology portfolio in India with a new lineup of AI-ready computing devices, professional workstations, displays and peripherals. The company unveiled the portfolio at Dell Technologies Forum 2026 in Mumbai on September 2, targeting organisations that are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence into employee workflows and business applications. The new portfolio reflects the growing emphasis on running AI workloads across different layers of enterprise infrastructure. Rather than relying entirely on centralised computing resources, Dell is positioning its latest devices to support workloads directly at the endpoint, while its workstation offerings address more demanding applications such as AI development, simulation and rendering. Indrajit Belgundi, senior director and general manager, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies India, said Indian enterprises are accelerating their AI ambitions, with expectations from business and IT leaders rising. “Dell’s latest commercial portfolio is designed to meet that demand by delivering devices that help drive workforce productivity, support on-device AI and provide the compute power needed for the most demanding workloads,” said Belgundi. He added that the portfolio gives Indian organisations greater flexibility in deciding where AI workloads run without compromising governance, control or enterprise-grade performance. Dell's approach, he said, is focused on giving enterprises the foundation to scale AI with performance at the edge, control at the core and flexibility across the enterprise. Dell Pro series focuses on AI-enabled productivity The Dell Pro family has been expanded with Pro 3, Pro 5 and Pro 7 models, offering processor choices based on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 and AMD Ryzen AI 400 platforms. Selected configurations support on-device AI and Copilot+ PC experiences, with battery life reaching up to 23 hours. The Pro 7 is available in 13- and 14-inch laptop and 2-in-1 variants. Features include aluminium construction, optional OLED panels, cameras of up to 8MP and mini-LED backlit keyboards on selected models. The 13-inch Pro 7 is up to 18% thinner than the previous-generation model. The Pro 5 comes in 14- and 16-inch versions and can be configured with Intel or AMD processors, up to an 8MP HDR + IR camera, OLED display options and 70Wh batteries. Meanwhile, the Pro 3 is offered in 14- and 16-inch sizes, starting at 1.31kg, with Wi-Fi 7 and displays rated at up to 500 nits. Across the portfolio, Dell has also focused on improvements to audio, thermals, acoustics and display brightness. Precision workstations target AI and professional workloads For high-performance computing requirements, Dell has introduced Pro Precision 9 T2, T4 and T6 tower workstations. These systems can be equipped with Intel Xeon 600 Series processors offering up to 86 cores and NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell graphics. The Pro Precision 9 T6 supports up to 15 PCIe slots, five 300W GPUs and up to 316TB of storage. Dell has also introduced the Pro Precision 7 R1, a 1U rack workstation supporting up to NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell graphics, 128GB DDR5 ECC memory and 64TB of storage. Its Deskside Agentic AI capability is designed for local workloads involving models ranging from 30 billion to 500 billion parameters. Displays and security complete the portfolio Dell's new commercial ecosystem also includes the 43-inch Pro 43 Plus 4K Huddle Conferencing Monitor, UltraSharp 32 4K QD-OLED Monitor and Pro 7 Webcam 4K. The products incorporate features such as AI framing, HDR, noise cancellation and professional colour capabilities. For enterprise protection, Dell Trusted Workspace brings together security measures covering BIOS and firmware verification, threat detection, credential protection and below-the-OS telemetry. In India, the Dell Pro 3 starts at ₹1,27,429, Pro 5 at ₹1,30,969 and Pro 7 at ₹1,43,370. Precision workstations start at ₹2,50,000 and go up to ₹6,23,000, while displays start at ₹1,27,199. The Pro 7 Webcam 4K is priced at ₹29,340. Dell also cited an IDC study showing that 76% of Indian organisations prioritise advanced NPU-powered AI performance when selecting AI PCs.
New Arrival
The new Infinix smartphone combines a colour-changing design, Active Matrix Cube, Dimensity 7100 5G chipset, 6000mAh battery and Android 16 with features aimed at performance, entertainment and personalisation. Infinix has launched the HOT 70 Pro in India, targeting young consumers with a smartphone that combines an expressive design with performance-focused hardware and interactive features. The device introduces the company’s Dynamic Shine Design alongside an Active Matrix Cube on the rear panel. The HOT 70 Pro comes with a 144Hz FHD+ display, 50MP Sony IMX882 camera system, MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G processor, IP68 protection and a 6000mAh battery with 45W FastCharge. It runs on Android 16 and is offered with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Commenting on the launch, Miraj Gupta, CMO, Infinix India, said: “Smartphones keep getting smarter. At Infinix, we think they can have more personality too. HOT 70 Pro brings performance and personality together - technology that reacts, transforms and isn’t afraid to stand out. Sounds a lot like our users.” Dynamic design and interactive rear panel The HOT 70 Pro introduces Dynamic Shine Design, which uses different finishes to make the phone’s appearance more interactive. The smartphone is available in Thermo Orange, Mirage Green, Silk Glow Purple and Dive Blue. Thermo Orange uses a thermochromic finish that changes colour with temperature, while Mirage Green responds to UV light and glows in the dark. Silk Glow Purple features a texture that changes with viewing angles, and Dive Blue comes with a matte finish. The device measures up to 7.85mm in thickness. A key feature is the Active Matrix Cube (AMC) on the rear. Beyond conventional notification indicators, the system provides lighting effects for activities including startup, music playback and gaming. It also supports interactive games such as Lucky Wheel and Lucky Numbers. The AMC can display alerts for calls, messages, charging, low battery, camera and video activity, countdowns and weather. Through Matrix Studio, users can create customised patterns and emojis, with creations also shareable between HOT 70 Pro devices. 144Hz display and Sony camera The smartphone features a 6.76-inch FHD+ Punch Hole display with a 144Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling and peak brightness of up to 910 nits HBM. The display offers a screen-to-body ratio of up to 91.86%, aiming to provide a more immersive viewing experience for gaming and content consumption. For photography, the HOT 70 Pro gets a 50MP Sony IMX882 camera system with features including Live Photo Mode and AI Eraser. The latter enables users to remove unwanted objects or people from images. An 8MP front camera handles selfies and video calls. Dimensity 7100 5G and 6000mAh battery Performance is handled by the MediaTek Dimensity 7100 5G platform, paired with an octa-core CPU and Mali-G57 GPU. Infinix says the phone can support gaming at up to 90fps in popular titles, while UFS 2.2 storage is designed to improve everyday responsiveness. The device houses a 6000mAh battery and supports 45W FastCharge. According to the company, the battery can reach 50% capacity in around 25 minutes and a full charge in approximately 63 minutes under stated testing conditions. Super Fast Charging and Smart Charging modes are also included. The HOT 70 Pro additionally features a One-Tap AI Button, which can be configured for quick access to more than 50 applications. Users can assign Gemini to the button, while the Power button also provides direct access to Gemini. Running Android 16, the smartphone is promised three major OS updates and five years of security patches. NFC support is also included. Price and availability The Infinix HOT 70 Pro starts at ₹22,999 under the Day 1 offer, inclusive of applicable bank offers. It will be available in 6GB+128GB and 8GB+128GB configurations across Silk Glow Purple, Dive Blue, Thermo Orange and Mirage Green. The smartphone will be sold through Flipkart and retail stores across India, with No Cost EMI options available for three, six and nine months.
New Arrival
The new lineup is aimed at organisations seeking greater flexibility in running AI workloads, combining on-device intelligence, high-performance computing, stronger security and enterprise-grade control across diverse business environments. Dell Technologies has strengthened its commercial technology portfolio in India with a new lineup of AI-ready computing devices, professional workstations, displays and peripherals. The company unveiled the portfolio at Dell Technologies Forum 2026 in Mumbai on September 2, targeting organisations that are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence into employee workflows and business applications. The new portfolio reflects the growing emphasis on running AI workloads across different layers of enterprise infrastructure. Rather than relying entirely on centralised computing resources, Dell is positioning its latest devices to support workloads directly at the endpoint, while its workstation offerings address more demanding applications such as AI development, simulation and rendering. Indrajit Belgundi, senior director and general manager, Client Solutions Group, Dell Technologies India, said Indian enterprises are accelerating their AI ambitions, with expectations from business and IT leaders rising. “Dell’s latest commercial portfolio is designed to meet that demand by delivering devices that help drive workforce productivity, support on-device AI and provide the compute power needed for the most demanding workloads,” said Belgundi. He added that the portfolio gives Indian organisations greater flexibility in deciding where AI workloads run without compromising governance, control or enterprise-grade performance. Dell's approach, he said, is focused on giving enterprises the foundation to scale AI with performance at the edge, control at the core and flexibility across the enterprise. Dell Pro series focuses on AI-enabled productivity The Dell Pro family has been expanded with Pro 3, Pro 5 and Pro 7 models, offering processor choices based on Intel Core Ultra Series 3 and AMD Ryzen AI 400 platforms. Selected configurations support on-device AI and Copilot+ PC experiences, with battery life reaching up to 23 hours. The Pro 7 is available in 13- and 14-inch laptop and 2-in-1 variants. Features include aluminium construction, optional OLED panels, cameras of up to 8MP and mini-LED backlit keyboards on selected models. The 13-inch Pro 7 is up to 18% thinner than the previous-generation model. The Pro 5 comes in 14- and 16-inch versions and can be configured with Intel or AMD processors, up to an 8MP HDR + IR camera, OLED display options and 70Wh batteries. Meanwhile, the Pro 3 is offered in 14- and 16-inch sizes, starting at 1.31kg, with Wi-Fi 7 and displays rated at up to 500 nits. Across the portfolio, Dell has also focused on improvements to audio, thermals, acoustics and display brightness. Precision workstations target AI and professional workloads For high-performance computing requirements, Dell has introduced Pro Precision 9 T2, T4 and T6 tower workstations. These systems can be equipped with Intel Xeon 600 Series processors offering up to 86 cores and NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell graphics. The Pro Precision 9 T6 supports up to 15 PCIe slots, five 300W GPUs and up to 316TB of storage. Dell has also introduced the Pro Precision 7 R1, a 1U rack workstation supporting up to NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell graphics, 128GB DDR5 ECC memory and 64TB of storage. Its Deskside Agentic AI capability is designed for local workloads involving models ranging from 30 billion to 500 billion parameters. Displays and security complete the portfolio Dell's new commercial ecosystem also includes the 43-inch Pro 43 Plus 4K Huddle Conferencing Monitor, UltraSharp 32 4K QD-OLED Monitor and Pro 7 Webcam 4K. The products incorporate features such as AI framing, HDR, noise cancellation and professional colour capabilities. For enterprise protection, Dell Trusted Workspace brings together security measures covering BIOS and firmware verification, threat detection, credential protection and below-the-OS telemetry. In India, the Dell Pro 3 starts at ₹1,27,429, Pro 5 at ₹1,30,969 and Pro 7 at ₹1,43,370. Precision workstations start at ₹2,50,000 and go up to ₹6,23,000, while displays start at ₹1,27,199. The Pro 7 Webcam 4K is priced at ₹29,340. Dell also cited an IDC study showing that 76% of Indian organisations prioritise advanced NPU-powered AI performance when selecting AI PCs.
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Channel Buzz
India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are approaching a defining transformation. By 2030, their success will no longer be measured by cost efficiencies, talent scale or the number of AI pilots launched, but by their ability to industrialize AI, own business outcomes and influence global enterprise strategy, according to a new report from Dell Technologies and Zinnov. Released at the Dell Technologies Forum 2026 , the report, “ India GCCs 2030: From Capability Centers to Agentic Transformation Engines ,” draws on surveys and interviews with more than 50 senior GCC leaders across BFSI, retail, manufacturing and software. Its central message is clear: ambition around AI is high, but the foundations required to scale it remain incomplete. India’s GCC Story Enters a New Phase India today hosts more than 2,100 GCCs , employing 2.36 million people and generating $98.4 billion in revenue in FY26. The strategic importance of these centres is also rising, with 64% of GCC leaders holding dual global mandates—managing India operations while simultaneously owning global functions. AI is accelerating this transition. Around 70% of GCCs already have a defined AI roadmap or charter, while India accounts for approximately 28% of global GCC AI talent. More than 1,200 centres have developed AI and machine-learning capabilities. Importantly, 66% of GCC leaders now identify top-line business impact as a major priority for enterprise AI strategy. This signals a fundamental shift from using India primarily for efficiency and execution towards positioning GCCs as engines of innovation and business growth. The AI Pilot Trap Despite this momentum, nearly 70% of GCCs remain stuck at the AI pilot stage. The problem, according to the report, is not lack of ambition but inadequate foundations. Fragmented data, legacy infrastructure, unclear governance, immature security controls and outdated talent models frequently prevent successful proofs of concept from becoming enterprise-scale deployments. Production environments are considerably more complicated than controlled pilots. Data quality deteriorates, governance requirements increase and standalone AI applications become difficult to integrate with common enterprise platforms. The economics also change dramatically at scale. A standard AI chat interaction may consume approximately 1,000–2,000 tokens , while agentic workflows can require anywhere from 10,000 to 500,000 tokens per workflow . Compute, token consumption, tools, security and workforce reskilling therefore become critical business considerations. Four Forces Will Reshape GCCs The report identifies four major forces that could determine which GCCs emerge as transformation leaders. First, GCCs must move from isolated AI experiments towards repeatable AI-enabled workflows embedded within business functions. Second, AI architecture needs to be planned before production. Data readiness, infrastructure, compute, security, governance and economics can no longer be treated as separate decisions. Third, GCCs must increasingly own products, markets, platforms and measurable business outcomes, rather than merely supporting global operations. Finally, workforce models need fundamental redesign. With around 55% of routine GCC work exposed to AI-led automation and 60% of the workforce requiring reskilling by 2030, employees will increasingly need to move from repetitive execution towards engineering, product development and complex business problem-solving. Infrastructure Becomes a Strategic AI Decision One of the report’s key recommendations is that GCCs carefully determine which AI workloads they should own and which they should lease. AI applications involving sensitive information, regulatory requirements, business-critical processes or predictable high-volume workloads may demand greater infrastructure control. Experimental and lower-risk workloads could remain better suited to flexible cloud or managed environments. The report also proposes a Sovereign Sandbox model, allowing GCCs to experiment with regulated or proprietary data within controlled environments before moving those workloads into production. From Capability Centres to Transformation Engines “The most influential GCCs of 2030 will not be measured by the number of AI initiatives they launch, but by their ability to industrialize AI responsibly and at scale , ” said Manish Gupta, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India. He emphasized that data, infrastructure and governance will form the foundation for enterprise innovation. Sidhant Rastogi, President, Zinnov, sees the GCC model reaching an inflection point where the next decade will be defined by ownership rather than simply scale, talent and capability . The message for India’s GCC ecosystem is significant. The next competitive advantage will not come from launching another AI proof of concept. It will come from turning AI into secure, governed and economically sustainable production systems. By 2030, the leading GCCs could therefore look fundamentally different from today’s delivery centres—evolving into Agentic Transformation Engines that co-create enterprise strategy, orchestrate autonomous workflows and deliver measurable global business outcomes.
Channel Buzz
The Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) concluded its United Summit 2026 at Alila Diwa Goa with its Annual General Meeting taking centre stage and marking the beginning of a new chapter for the association. The three-day gathering, held from 18 to 20 September, brought together ISODA members, technology partners and ecosystem stakeholders for business conversations, knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration. The AGM was the defining moment of the Summit, providing members with an opportunity to come together, review the association’s journey and formally welcome the new Management Committee. The new leadership team takes charge with the responsibility of building on ISODA’s strong member-led foundation while creating greater value, stronger participation and wider opportunities for the IT channel community. A New Management Committee Takes Charge The new Management Committee represents a broad cross-section of the ISODA community and will carry forward the association’s work across its national and regional network. The committee will be responsible for strengthening member engagement, supporting regional chapters, building industry relationships and continuing the initiatives that bring the community together. Name Designation Vimesh Avlani Chairman Satya Priya Das Vice Chairman Lalit Choudhary President Dalip Arora Vice President Pradeep Daga Secretary Ravi Jalan Treasurer Bharat Gupta Regional Secretary, West Aditi Jhawar Regional Secretary, East D K Bajaj Regional Secretary, Delhi/NCR Yogesh Chordia Regional Secretary, Tamil Nadu Sanjay Srivastava Regional Secretary, Karnataka Dhiraj Vijayvargia Regional Secretary, Rajasthan Phanindra Kumar Regional Secretary, Hyderabad Dewang Modi Regional Secretary, Gujarat Tapan Ghosal Regional Secretary, Northeast The new committee assumes responsibility at a time when the technology channel is evolving rapidly and member expectations are expanding. Its mandate will include keeping the association closely connected to the needs of members while continuing to create platforms for interaction with technology companies, industry bodies and other ecosystem partners. United Summit 2026: Three Days of Business, Knowledge and Community The United Summit 2026 was designed around the core spirit of ISODA, Unite. Engage. Accelerate. The programme combined structured sessions with informal networking, partner interactions, stall visits and community-led conversations, allowing members to engage with both business opportunities and the broader direction of the technology ecosystem. Some of the key highlights of the United Summit 2026 were: 100+ Industry Participants - ISODA members, technology companies, industry leaders, distributors, ISVs and other stakeholders - came together for networking, knowledge sharing, collaboration and business opportunities. United Summit Expo was grandly successful with 20 Stalls from ISODA’s ISV and Distributor members, event sponsors and representatives from the MSME ecosystem, providing opportunities to showcase solutions, connect with partners and customers, and strengthen business networks. Day 1: Welcome, Networking and Industry Collaboration The Summit opened on Friday, 18 September with member check-ins and lunch, followed by the formal welcome and agenda setting. The afternoon created dedicated time for members to visit partner stalls, reconnect with peers and begin conversations in an informal setting. High tea provided another opportunity for networking before the evening’s industry-focused sessions. One of the important moments of Day 1 was the Goa IT Association presentation and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ISODA and the Goa IT Association. The collaboration reflects an effort to connect two technology ecosystems and create a stronger platform for knowledge exchange, joint engagement and opportunities for members. The day also featured a session by the MSME ecosystem on cybersecurity and MSME benefits, bringing practical industry considerations into the Summit programme. Members then had free time before coming together for the Welcome Dinner at the pre-function area. Day 2: Keynote, Partner Sessions and Member Conversations Saturday, 19 September began with the inauguration of the Summit followed by the keynote address. The keynote set the tone for a day focused on business thinking, industry developments and the opportunities emerging for the technology channel. The morning continued with sponsor presentations, giving participating partners an opportunity to engage directly with the ISODA community. Sessions by Sixscape, Acronis, Halofort and Vembu were followed by a coffee break and stall visits, keeping the programme closely connected to technology discovery and business conversations. A dedicated session with Nandak Pandya, titled “Current Scenario of ISODA Members - Opportunities, Challenges & the way out”, provided members with a focused platform to examine the current business environment, the challenges facing the community and possible ways forward. The session added a member-centric perspective to the day’s broader industry discussions. The programme then moved into further stall visits and lunch before the Annual General Meeting. With three hours dedicated to the AGM, the afternoon became the central governance and community moment of the Summit, culminating in the formal transition to the new Management Committee. The AGM: The Defining Moment of the Summit The AGM represented more than a formal association requirement. It was the point at which the ISODA community came together to participate in the association’s governance and begin its next leadership chapter. The transition to the new Management Committee places renewed emphasis on member participation, regional engagement and a coordinated approach to strengthening the value of the association. The new committee will build on the work of previous leadership teams while continuing to develop the platforms through which members connect with one another, technology partners and the wider industry. With ISODA’s network spanning 200+ member organisations, 20,000+ feet-on-street, 150+ cities covered, nine regional chapters and 1,000+ ecosystem alliances, the scale of the community provides a strong foundation for the next phase of the association’s journey. Celebrating Excellence and Closing the Summit The formal business programme of Day 2 concluded with free time followed by the Gala Dinner and ISODA Awards for Business Excellence 2026. The awards provided a platform to recognize achievements across the ISODA community and celebrate organizations that are contributing to the growth and evolution of the technology ecosystem. During the Day 2 presentations, all exhibitors were also tasked with giving a 60 second elevator pitch. The same jury that judged the ISODA Awards for Business Excellence 2026. The Winners of the Awards for Business Excellence 2026 and their categories are as under: Category Winner Best Solution Partner LDS Infotech Pvt Ltd IP Creation, Products / Framework / ISV dMACQ Software Best Distributor Technobind Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Cyber Resilience & Compliance Excellence Noventiq ValuePoint AI-Driven Operational Efficiency Compusoft Advisors (India) Pvt Ltd The Winner of the Best Elevator Pitch Amongst Exhibitors was: Category Winner Best Elevator Pitch Enjay IT Solutions Ltd The final morning offered members a relaxed close to three days that had combined formal association business with networking, industry engagement and community interaction. A Platform for the Next Chapter The United Summit 2026 demonstrated the breadth of ISODA’s role as a member-led technology association. From the AGM and leadership transition to the Goa IT Association collaboration, industry sessions, sponsor engagements, member dialogue and Excellence Awards, the programme created multiple touchpoints for members to connect and participate. As the new Management Committee begins its term, the focus will remain on strengthening the association from the ground up, with active regional chapters, meaningful member engagement, relevant industry conversations and opportunities that translate into tangible value for the ISODA community.
Channel Buzz
India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are approaching a defining transformation. By 2030, their success will no longer be measured by cost efficiencies, talent scale or the number of AI pilots launched, but by their ability to industrialize AI, own business outcomes and influence global enterprise strategy, according to a new report from Dell Technologies and Zinnov. Released at the Dell Technologies Forum 2026 , the report, “ India GCCs 2030: From Capability Centers to Agentic Transformation Engines ,” draws on surveys and interviews with more than 50 senior GCC leaders across BFSI, retail, manufacturing and software. Its central message is clear: ambition around AI is high, but the foundations required to scale it remain incomplete. India’s GCC Story Enters a New Phase India today hosts more than 2,100 GCCs , employing 2.36 million people and generating $98.4 billion in revenue in FY26. The strategic importance of these centres is also rising, with 64% of GCC leaders holding dual global mandates—managing India operations while simultaneously owning global functions. AI is accelerating this transition. Around 70% of GCCs already have a defined AI roadmap or charter, while India accounts for approximately 28% of global GCC AI talent. More than 1,200 centres have developed AI and machine-learning capabilities. Importantly, 66% of GCC leaders now identify top-line business impact as a major priority for enterprise AI strategy. This signals a fundamental shift from using India primarily for efficiency and execution towards positioning GCCs as engines of innovation and business growth. The AI Pilot Trap Despite this momentum, nearly 70% of GCCs remain stuck at the AI pilot stage. The problem, according to the report, is not lack of ambition but inadequate foundations. Fragmented data, legacy infrastructure, unclear governance, immature security controls and outdated talent models frequently prevent successful proofs of concept from becoming enterprise-scale deployments. Production environments are considerably more complicated than controlled pilots. Data quality deteriorates, governance requirements increase and standalone AI applications become difficult to integrate with common enterprise platforms. The economics also change dramatically at scale. A standard AI chat interaction may consume approximately 1,000–2,000 tokens , while agentic workflows can require anywhere from 10,000 to 500,000 tokens per workflow . Compute, token consumption, tools, security and workforce reskilling therefore become critical business considerations. Four Forces Will Reshape GCCs The report identifies four major forces that could determine which GCCs emerge as transformation leaders. First, GCCs must move from isolated AI experiments towards repeatable AI-enabled workflows embedded within business functions. Second, AI architecture needs to be planned before production. Data readiness, infrastructure, compute, security, governance and economics can no longer be treated as separate decisions. Third, GCCs must increasingly own products, markets, platforms and measurable business outcomes, rather than merely supporting global operations. Finally, workforce models need fundamental redesign. With around 55% of routine GCC work exposed to AI-led automation and 60% of the workforce requiring reskilling by 2030, employees will increasingly need to move from repetitive execution towards engineering, product development and complex business problem-solving. Infrastructure Becomes a Strategic AI Decision One of the report’s key recommendations is that GCCs carefully determine which AI workloads they should own and which they should lease. AI applications involving sensitive information, regulatory requirements, business-critical processes or predictable high-volume workloads may demand greater infrastructure control. Experimental and lower-risk workloads could remain better suited to flexible cloud or managed environments. The report also proposes a Sovereign Sandbox model, allowing GCCs to experiment with regulated or proprietary data within controlled environments before moving those workloads into production. From Capability Centres to Transformation Engines “The most influential GCCs of 2030 will not be measured by the number of AI initiatives they launch, but by their ability to industrialize AI responsibly and at scale , ” said Manish Gupta, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India. He emphasized that data, infrastructure and governance will form the foundation for enterprise innovation. Sidhant Rastogi, President, Zinnov, sees the GCC model reaching an inflection point where the next decade will be defined by ownership rather than simply scale, talent and capability . The message for India’s GCC ecosystem is significant. The next competitive advantage will not come from launching another AI proof of concept. It will come from turning AI into secure, governed and economically sustainable production systems. By 2030, the leading GCCs could therefore look fundamentally different from today’s delivery centres—evolving into Agentic Transformation Engines that co-create enterprise strategy, orchestrate autonomous workflows and deliver measurable global business outcomes.
Channel Buzz
The Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) concluded its United Summit 2026 at Alila Diwa Goa with its Annual General Meeting taking centre stage and marking the beginning of a new chapter for the association. The three-day gathering, held from 18 to 20 September, brought together ISODA members, technology partners and ecosystem stakeholders for business conversations, knowledge sharing, networking and collaboration. The AGM was the defining moment of the Summit, providing members with an opportunity to come together, review the association’s journey and formally welcome the new Management Committee. The new leadership team takes charge with the responsibility of building on ISODA’s strong member-led foundation while creating greater value, stronger participation and wider opportunities for the IT channel community. A New Management Committee Takes Charge The new Management Committee represents a broad cross-section of the ISODA community and will carry forward the association’s work across its national and regional network. The committee will be responsible for strengthening member engagement, supporting regional chapters, building industry relationships and continuing the initiatives that bring the community together. Name Designation Vimesh Avlani Chairman Satya Priya Das Vice Chairman Lalit Choudhary President Dalip Arora Vice President Pradeep Daga Secretary Ravi Jalan Treasurer Bharat Gupta Regional Secretary, West Aditi Jhawar Regional Secretary, East D K Bajaj Regional Secretary, Delhi/NCR Yogesh Chordia Regional Secretary, Tamil Nadu Sanjay Srivastava Regional Secretary, Karnataka Dhiraj Vijayvargia Regional Secretary, Rajasthan Phanindra Kumar Regional Secretary, Hyderabad Dewang Modi Regional Secretary, Gujarat Tapan Ghosal Regional Secretary, Northeast The new committee assumes responsibility at a time when the technology channel is evolving rapidly and member expectations are expanding. Its mandate will include keeping the association closely connected to the needs of members while continuing to create platforms for interaction with technology companies, industry bodies and other ecosystem partners. United Summit 2026: Three Days of Business, Knowledge and Community The United Summit 2026 was designed around the core spirit of ISODA, Unite. Engage. Accelerate. The programme combined structured sessions with informal networking, partner interactions, stall visits and community-led conversations, allowing members to engage with both business opportunities and the broader direction of the technology ecosystem. Some of the key highlights of the United Summit 2026 were: 100+ Industry Participants - ISODA members, technology companies, industry leaders, distributors, ISVs and other stakeholders - came together for networking, knowledge sharing, collaboration and business opportunities. United Summit Expo was grandly successful with 20 Stalls from ISODA’s ISV and Distributor members, event sponsors and representatives from the MSME ecosystem, providing opportunities to showcase solutions, connect with partners and customers, and strengthen business networks. Day 1: Welcome, Networking and Industry Collaboration The Summit opened on Friday, 18 September with member check-ins and lunch, followed by the formal welcome and agenda setting. The afternoon created dedicated time for members to visit partner stalls, reconnect with peers and begin conversations in an informal setting. High tea provided another opportunity for networking before the evening’s industry-focused sessions. One of the important moments of Day 1 was the Goa IT Association presentation and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ISODA and the Goa IT Association. The collaboration reflects an effort to connect two technology ecosystems and create a stronger platform for knowledge exchange, joint engagement and opportunities for members. The day also featured a session by the MSME ecosystem on cybersecurity and MSME benefits, bringing practical industry considerations into the Summit programme. Members then had free time before coming together for the Welcome Dinner at the pre-function area. Day 2: Keynote, Partner Sessions and Member Conversations Saturday, 19 September began with the inauguration of the Summit followed by the keynote address. The keynote set the tone for a day focused on business thinking, industry developments and the opportunities emerging for the technology channel. The morning continued with sponsor presentations, giving participating partners an opportunity to engage directly with the ISODA community. Sessions by Sixscape, Acronis, Halofort and Vembu were followed by a coffee break and stall visits, keeping the programme closely connected to technology discovery and business conversations. A dedicated session with Nandak Pandya, titled “Current Scenario of ISODA Members - Opportunities, Challenges & the way out”, provided members with a focused platform to examine the current business environment, the challenges facing the community and possible ways forward. The session added a member-centric perspective to the day’s broader industry discussions. The programme then moved into further stall visits and lunch before the Annual General Meeting. With three hours dedicated to the AGM, the afternoon became the central governance and community moment of the Summit, culminating in the formal transition to the new Management Committee. The AGM: The Defining Moment of the Summit The AGM represented more than a formal association requirement. It was the point at which the ISODA community came together to participate in the association’s governance and begin its next leadership chapter. The transition to the new Management Committee places renewed emphasis on member participation, regional engagement and a coordinated approach to strengthening the value of the association. The new committee will build on the work of previous leadership teams while continuing to develop the platforms through which members connect with one another, technology partners and the wider industry. With ISODA’s network spanning 200+ member organisations, 20,000+ feet-on-street, 150+ cities covered, nine regional chapters and 1,000+ ecosystem alliances, the scale of the community provides a strong foundation for the next phase of the association’s journey. Celebrating Excellence and Closing the Summit The formal business programme of Day 2 concluded with free time followed by the Gala Dinner and ISODA Awards for Business Excellence 2026. The awards provided a platform to recognize achievements across the ISODA community and celebrate organizations that are contributing to the growth and evolution of the technology ecosystem. During the Day 2 presentations, all exhibitors were also tasked with giving a 60 second elevator pitch. The same jury that judged the ISODA Awards for Business Excellence 2026. The Winners of the Awards for Business Excellence 2026 and their categories are as under: Category Winner Best Solution Partner LDS Infotech Pvt Ltd IP Creation, Products / Framework / ISV dMACQ Software Best Distributor Technobind Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Cyber Resilience & Compliance Excellence Noventiq ValuePoint AI-Driven Operational Efficiency Compusoft Advisors (India) Pvt Ltd The Winner of the Best Elevator Pitch Amongst Exhibitors was: Category Winner Best Elevator Pitch Enjay IT Solutions Ltd The final morning offered members a relaxed close to three days that had combined formal association business with networking, industry engagement and community interaction. A Platform for the Next Chapter The United Summit 2026 demonstrated the breadth of ISODA’s role as a member-led technology association. From the AGM and leadership transition to the Goa IT Association collaboration, industry sessions, sponsor engagements, member dialogue and Excellence Awards, the programme created multiple touchpoints for members to connect and participate. As the new Management Committee begins its term, the focus will remain on strengthening the association from the ground up, with active regional chapters, meaningful member engagement, relevant industry conversations and opportunities that translate into tangible value for the ISODA community.
Movers & Shakers
Deloitte has appointed Rohan Lobo as Industry Leader for Technology, Media and Telecommunications in South Asia. In his new role, Rohan will help boards and executive teams make critical decisions on capital allocation, portfolio strategy, capability investments, and transformation priorities. He will lead Deloitte's integrated TMT agenda across corporates, GCCs, global clients and investors, bringing together the firm's capabilities in strategy, corporate finance and M&A, tax, risk and cyber, and Data & AI, technology and workforce transformation. He has advised clients across India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia and the US, spanning telecom, technology, manufacturing, and government. He previously led Deloitte South Asia's GCC practice, building the firm's position across the GCC lifecycle from setup and scaling to performance enhancement and co-delivery. Rohan is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Movers & Shakers
The data platform company for AI and high-performance workloads, WEKA (WekaIO) has appointed Anjani Kumar to head its Public Sector business across India. In his new role, Kumar will spearhead the company’s growth strategy across Central Government ministries, state government programmes, public sector undertakings (PSUs), and strategic national infrastructure and AI initiatives. Kumar brings more than 19 years of experience in IT sales, with a strong track record of driving large-scale technology engagements spanning cloud, artificial intelligence, data storage and hybrid infrastructure across government and enterprise segments in India. Prior to joining WEKA, Kumar spent a decade with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) India, where he served as Enterprise Account Manager. During his tenure, he managed several mission-critical Central Government accounts, including the Ministry of Railways, UIDAI and the Government of Uttar Pradesh. He also consistently exceeded annual sales targets while leading high-impact deployments across compute, storage and HPE Hybrid Cloud solutions. Kumar’s career also includes business management and sales roles with global technology companies such as IBM India and EMC IT Solutions. His expertise spans software-defined storage (SDS), unstructured data management, SAN, NAS and enterprise backup architectures, with a particular focus on large and complex government accounts. Kumar holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and an MBA in Marketing and IT. His experience across enterprise technology, data infrastructure and strategic government accounts is expected to further strengthen WEKA’s public sector presence and support its growth ambitions in India.
Movers & Shakers
Deloitte has appointed Rohan Lobo as Industry Leader for Technology, Media and Telecommunications in South Asia. In his new role, Rohan will help boards and executive teams make critical decisions on capital allocation, portfolio strategy, capability investments, and transformation priorities. He will lead Deloitte's integrated TMT agenda across corporates, GCCs, global clients and investors, bringing together the firm's capabilities in strategy, corporate finance and M&A, tax, risk and cyber, and Data & AI, technology and workforce transformation. He has advised clients across India, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia and the US, spanning telecom, technology, manufacturing, and government. He previously led Deloitte South Asia's GCC practice, building the firm's position across the GCC lifecycle from setup and scaling to performance enhancement and co-delivery. Rohan is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Movers & Shakers
The data platform company for AI and high-performance workloads, WEKA (WekaIO) has appointed Anjani Kumar to head its Public Sector business across India. In his new role, Kumar will spearhead the company’s growth strategy across Central Government ministries, state government programmes, public sector undertakings (PSUs), and strategic national infrastructure and AI initiatives. Kumar brings more than 19 years of experience in IT sales, with a strong track record of driving large-scale technology engagements spanning cloud, artificial intelligence, data storage and hybrid infrastructure across government and enterprise segments in India. Prior to joining WEKA, Kumar spent a decade with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) India, where he served as Enterprise Account Manager. During his tenure, he managed several mission-critical Central Government accounts, including the Ministry of Railways, UIDAI and the Government of Uttar Pradesh. He also consistently exceeded annual sales targets while leading high-impact deployments across compute, storage and HPE Hybrid Cloud solutions. Kumar’s career also includes business management and sales roles with global technology companies such as IBM India and EMC IT Solutions. His expertise spans software-defined storage (SDS), unstructured data management, SAN, NAS and enterprise backup architectures, with a particular focus on large and complex government accounts. Kumar holds a B.Tech in Computer Science and an MBA in Marketing and IT. His experience across enterprise technology, data infrastructure and strategic government accounts is expected to further strengthen WEKA’s public sector presence and support its growth ambitions in India.
Face to Face
The notification of the ₹62,500-crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) represents a major shift in India’s electronics manufacturing strategy—from large-scale assembly toward deeper domestic value addition, indigenous design and intellectual property creation. Ashok Chandak, President of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) , described the scheme as a “defining turning point” for the industry. By incentivizing localization of critical sub-assemblies such as camera modules, display assemblies, mechanical components and battery cells, MPMS aims to increase the proportion of value created within India. A particularly significant element is the proposed 3% incentive for domestic R&D and product design under Target Segment 2, aimed at encouraging the creation and expansion of Indian mobile-phone brands. This could help manufacturers move beyond contract production toward owning technology, designs, products and intellectual property. The bigger opportunity, however, comes from connecting MPMS with India's wider electronics and semiconductor strategy. According to Chandak, the combination of MPMS, the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) and Semicon India can create a powerful integrated manufacturing ecosystem. MPMS generates demand for finished devices, ECMS strengthens domestic production of components, sub-systems and multilayer PCBs, while semiconductor initiatives build capabilities in silicon fabrication, packaging, ATMP/OSAT and fabless chip design. Together, these programs can potentially create what IESA describes as an end-to-end “Sand-to-Systems” value chain: The strategic objective is therefore much bigger than producing more smartphones. India wants to capture a greater share of the technology, IP, manufacturing and economic value embedded inside every device. If successfully executed, MPMS could help transform India from one of the world's largest mobile manufacturing locations into a design-led electronics and semiconductor powerhouse, strengthening supply-chain resilience, creating high-value technology jobs and positioning Indian brands more competitively in global markets.
Face to Face
Sumeet Kela Founder - Director Net Protector Cybersecurity NPAV's cybersecurity philosophy is centered on developing indigenous security solutions tailored to India's unique digital ecosystem. Designed and developed entirely in India, its solutions are built to address the specific needs of Indian businesses—especially MSMEs— by delivering robust, lightweight, affordable, and easy-to- deploy protection without compromising performance. Leveraging a deep understanding of the local market, Sanjiv Kela, Founder - MD & Sumeet Kela, Founder - Director – Net Protector Anti Virus (NPAV) tells VARINDIA of how the brand differentiates itself through solutions, backed by round-the-clock customer support and an extensive partner network. Net Protector has emerged as a trusted "Made in India" cybersecurity brand. What has been the key philosophy behind building indigenous security solutions that address India's unique cyber challenges? NPAV’s philosophy has always been rooted in the belief that India's digital landscape requires cybersecurity solutions built specifically for its unique scale, diversity, and rapidly evolving digital ecosystem. India's IT environment differs significantly from global markets, and so do its cybersecurity challenges. From the beginning, we recognized that Indian businesses—particularly MSMEs—as well as individual users need security solutions that are powerful, lightweight, affordable, and easy to deploy. At NPAV, our guiding principle has always been to deliver maximum protection without compromising system performance. By designing and developing our core technologies entirely in Pune, India, we maintain complete control over innovation and can respond quickly to emerging threats. This enables us to build security solutions that effectively counter localized cyber threats while meeting global cybersecurity standards. How does NPAV differentiate itself from global cybersecurity vendors while strengthening customer trust and contributing to India's vision of digital sovereignty? What differentiates NPAV from global cybersecurity vendors is our deep understanding of the Indian market and our close proximity to our customers. While many international solutions are designed primarily for Western markets, our products are engineered specifically to perform efficiently across India's diverse infrastructure, internet conditions, and hardware environments. Customer trust is built on reliability, transparency, and accessibility. We provide dedicated 24×7 technical and commercial support through our extensive partner network across India, ensuring customers receive prompt assistance whenever they need it. As an indigenous cybersecurity company, we strongly support India's vision of digital sovereignty. By developing cybersecurity solutions within India, we help ensure that sensitive data, threat intelligence, and security telemetry remain under Indian control, which is increasingly important for national security and strategic digital independence. How is NPAV innovating its products to safeguard Indian enterprises, government organizations, and critical infrastructure? The cyber threat landscape has evolved dramatically, with attackers increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to launch sophisticated ransomware, zero-day exploits, and advanced persistent threats. To stay ahead, NPAV has integrated advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into its security architecture through our proprietary ZeroV DeepLearn AI technology. Rather than relying solely on traditional signature-based detection, our solutions use real-time behavioral analysis, heuristic detection, and AI-driven threat intelligence to proactively identify and block previously unknown threats before they can execute. Our enterprise solutions—including Endpoint Security and Z Security—provide multi-layered protection with capabilities such as ransomware defense, data loss prevention, secure cloud backup, device control, vulnerability management, and centralized security management. How does NPAV's "Made in India" approach support national cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat? Cybersecurity has become an essential pillar of national security. Dependence on foreign technologies to protect critical digital infrastructure can introduce strategic risks. NPAV embodies the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat by demonstrating that world-class cybersecurity solutions can be researched, developed, and continuously enhanced entirely in India. By building our own proprietary security technologies, threat intelligence, and detection algorithms, we reduce dependence on external platforms while ensuring greater control over cybersecurity operations. This approach strengthens data sovereignty, supports the growth of India's cybersecurity ecosystem, creates high-value technology jobs, and contributes to building a resilient digital future for the nation. Sanjiv Kela Founder & MD Net Protector Cybersecurity As the CEO of Net Protector, what is your vision for the company's next phase of growth, and how do you see NPAV shaping the future of cybersecurity in India while expanding its global footprint? Our long-term vision, inspired by our Founder and Managing Director, Mr. Sanjiv Kela, is to transform NPAV from a leading endpoint security provider into a globally recognized cybersecurity and digital trust company. In India, we are making significant investments in next-generation technologies, including Zero Trust Security, AI-powered threat detection, cloud security, Extended Detection and Response (XDR), and advanced endpoint protection to support the country's rapidly growing digital economy. Internationally, we see tremendous opportunities across emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Our goal is to deliver scalable, affordable, and enterprise-grade "Made in India" cybersecurity solutions worldwide while demonstrating that Indian cybersecurity innovation can compete with the world's best. Cybersecurity Suite for BFSI Net Protector (NPAV) offers an integrated cybersecurity suite to help BFSI organizations strengthen cyber resilience, protect critical data, ensure regulatory compliance, and maintain business continuity. The portfolio includes Krypton Enterprise Backup, Krypton Firewall Log & Access BFSI Audit, Krypton Enterprise AI Insight, and Krypton Encryption Manager, delivering backup, audit, AI- driven security insights, and encryption. Together, these solutions provide a strong foundation for data protection, compliance, and operational resilience, while organizations should complement them with capabilities for AI-driven identity fraud, deepfake detection, and privacy governance to address emerging cyber threats. COMPROMISED CREDENTIALS: Net Protector (NPAV) addresses identity-based threats through a layered approach combining Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI)and Krypton Firewall Log & Access BFSI Audit (KFLA). KEAI uses AI-driven behavioral analytics to establish normal user activity and detect anomalies such as unusual login times, devices, locations, or access patterns. KFLA centralizes and monitors firewall and access logs for real-time visibility across the enterprise. Additionally, NPAV's AV-Test Advanced Certified endpoint protection helps prevent credential theft by blocking keyloggers and infostealer malware before credentials can be compromised. ON DATA EXFILTRATION DETECTION Krypton Firewall Log & Access (KFLA) and Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI) work together to detect abnormal data access and movement in real time. KFLA provides continuous monitoring and audit-ready logging, while KEAI applies behavioral analytics and predictive intelligence to identify unusual activities—such as large data transfers—and trigger automated responses like alerts or session isolation. Together, they enhance threat detection, incident response, and forensic readiness for BFSI organizations. ON AI-DRIVEN / AUTONOMOUS ATTACKS NPAV's Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI) combines AI-driven threat detection, behavioral analytics, predictive intelligence, and automated response to identify adaptive cyber threats beyond traditional signature-based methods. Complementing this, Krypton Encryption Manager (KEM) enforces policy-based encryption across endpoints, servers, and removable devices, ensuring data remains protected even if attackers bypass initial defenses. Together, they provide a layered security approach against evolving AI-driven attacks, although the underlying machine learning techniques are not detailed in the presentation. ON DETECTION SPEED AND RESPONSE This is the one area the presentation materials don't quantify. The deck references "real-time monitoring" and "automated response" as design goals across KFLA and KEAI, but it doesn't publish specific MTTD (mean-time-to-detect) or MTTR (mean-time-to-respond) benchmarks for an account-takeover scenario. Given the earlier questions we discussed around the Bank of Baroda breach, this is actually the most important number to press NPAV on directly — ideally with reference to independent testing (similar to how their endpoint protection carries AV-Test, VB100, OPSWAT, and West Coast Labs certifications) rather than vendor-stated figures alone. ON REGULATORY AND SECTOR-SPECIFIC FIT Net Protector (NPAV)'s Krypton Firewall Log & Access (KFLA) is purpose-built for the BFSI sector, offering compliance-ready log management, monitoring, and audit reporting aligned with RBI cybersecurity expectations. Krypton Encryption Manager (KEM) strengthens data protection through encryption and audit capabilities. Supported by certifications such as AV - "Our long-term strategy centers heavily on the BFSI market. To support this vision, we are increasing our investment in enterprise offerings tailored to financial institutions, ensuring we remain a trusted partner in their digital transformation journey over the coming years." Ms. Shaila Kela Director & CFO "To stay ahead in the current AI landscape, we are constantly upgrading our capabilities to address the stringent security needs of the financial sector. We are committed to achieving zero-day trust and providing next-generation cyber defense for our clients." Ms. Preeti Kela, Director & Head Of Ai / Cybersecurity Lab
Face to Face
The notification of the ₹62,500-crore Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) represents a major shift in India’s electronics manufacturing strategy—from large-scale assembly toward deeper domestic value addition, indigenous design and intellectual property creation. Ashok Chandak, President of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) , described the scheme as a “defining turning point” for the industry. By incentivizing localization of critical sub-assemblies such as camera modules, display assemblies, mechanical components and battery cells, MPMS aims to increase the proportion of value created within India. A particularly significant element is the proposed 3% incentive for domestic R&D and product design under Target Segment 2, aimed at encouraging the creation and expansion of Indian mobile-phone brands. This could help manufacturers move beyond contract production toward owning technology, designs, products and intellectual property. The bigger opportunity, however, comes from connecting MPMS with India's wider electronics and semiconductor strategy. According to Chandak, the combination of MPMS, the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) and Semicon India can create a powerful integrated manufacturing ecosystem. MPMS generates demand for finished devices, ECMS strengthens domestic production of components, sub-systems and multilayer PCBs, while semiconductor initiatives build capabilities in silicon fabrication, packaging, ATMP/OSAT and fabless chip design. Together, these programs can potentially create what IESA describes as an end-to-end “Sand-to-Systems” value chain: The strategic objective is therefore much bigger than producing more smartphones. India wants to capture a greater share of the technology, IP, manufacturing and economic value embedded inside every device. If successfully executed, MPMS could help transform India from one of the world's largest mobile manufacturing locations into a design-led electronics and semiconductor powerhouse, strengthening supply-chain resilience, creating high-value technology jobs and positioning Indian brands more competitively in global markets.
Face to Face
Sumeet Kela Founder - Director Net Protector Cybersecurity NPAV's cybersecurity philosophy is centered on developing indigenous security solutions tailored to India's unique digital ecosystem. Designed and developed entirely in India, its solutions are built to address the specific needs of Indian businesses—especially MSMEs— by delivering robust, lightweight, affordable, and easy-to- deploy protection without compromising performance. Leveraging a deep understanding of the local market, Sanjiv Kela, Founder - MD & Sumeet Kela, Founder - Director – Net Protector Anti Virus (NPAV) tells VARINDIA of how the brand differentiates itself through solutions, backed by round-the-clock customer support and an extensive partner network. Net Protector has emerged as a trusted "Made in India" cybersecurity brand. What has been the key philosophy behind building indigenous security solutions that address India's unique cyber challenges? NPAV’s philosophy has always been rooted in the belief that India's digital landscape requires cybersecurity solutions built specifically for its unique scale, diversity, and rapidly evolving digital ecosystem. India's IT environment differs significantly from global markets, and so do its cybersecurity challenges. From the beginning, we recognized that Indian businesses—particularly MSMEs—as well as individual users need security solutions that are powerful, lightweight, affordable, and easy to deploy. At NPAV, our guiding principle has always been to deliver maximum protection without compromising system performance. By designing and developing our core technologies entirely in Pune, India, we maintain complete control over innovation and can respond quickly to emerging threats. This enables us to build security solutions that effectively counter localized cyber threats while meeting global cybersecurity standards. How does NPAV differentiate itself from global cybersecurity vendors while strengthening customer trust and contributing to India's vision of digital sovereignty? What differentiates NPAV from global cybersecurity vendors is our deep understanding of the Indian market and our close proximity to our customers. While many international solutions are designed primarily for Western markets, our products are engineered specifically to perform efficiently across India's diverse infrastructure, internet conditions, and hardware environments. Customer trust is built on reliability, transparency, and accessibility. We provide dedicated 24×7 technical and commercial support through our extensive partner network across India, ensuring customers receive prompt assistance whenever they need it. As an indigenous cybersecurity company, we strongly support India's vision of digital sovereignty. By developing cybersecurity solutions within India, we help ensure that sensitive data, threat intelligence, and security telemetry remain under Indian control, which is increasingly important for national security and strategic digital independence. How is NPAV innovating its products to safeguard Indian enterprises, government organizations, and critical infrastructure? The cyber threat landscape has evolved dramatically, with attackers increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to launch sophisticated ransomware, zero-day exploits, and advanced persistent threats. To stay ahead, NPAV has integrated advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into its security architecture through our proprietary ZeroV DeepLearn AI technology. Rather than relying solely on traditional signature-based detection, our solutions use real-time behavioral analysis, heuristic detection, and AI-driven threat intelligence to proactively identify and block previously unknown threats before they can execute. Our enterprise solutions—including Endpoint Security and Z Security—provide multi-layered protection with capabilities such as ransomware defense, data loss prevention, secure cloud backup, device control, vulnerability management, and centralized security management. How does NPAV's "Made in India" approach support national cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat? Cybersecurity has become an essential pillar of national security. Dependence on foreign technologies to protect critical digital infrastructure can introduce strategic risks. NPAV embodies the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat by demonstrating that world-class cybersecurity solutions can be researched, developed, and continuously enhanced entirely in India. By building our own proprietary security technologies, threat intelligence, and detection algorithms, we reduce dependence on external platforms while ensuring greater control over cybersecurity operations. This approach strengthens data sovereignty, supports the growth of India's cybersecurity ecosystem, creates high-value technology jobs, and contributes to building a resilient digital future for the nation. Sanjiv Kela Founder & MD Net Protector Cybersecurity As the CEO of Net Protector, what is your vision for the company's next phase of growth, and how do you see NPAV shaping the future of cybersecurity in India while expanding its global footprint? Our long-term vision, inspired by our Founder and Managing Director, Mr. Sanjiv Kela, is to transform NPAV from a leading endpoint security provider into a globally recognized cybersecurity and digital trust company. In India, we are making significant investments in next-generation technologies, including Zero Trust Security, AI-powered threat detection, cloud security, Extended Detection and Response (XDR), and advanced endpoint protection to support the country's rapidly growing digital economy. Internationally, we see tremendous opportunities across emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Our goal is to deliver scalable, affordable, and enterprise-grade "Made in India" cybersecurity solutions worldwide while demonstrating that Indian cybersecurity innovation can compete with the world's best. Cybersecurity Suite for BFSI Net Protector (NPAV) offers an integrated cybersecurity suite to help BFSI organizations strengthen cyber resilience, protect critical data, ensure regulatory compliance, and maintain business continuity. The portfolio includes Krypton Enterprise Backup, Krypton Firewall Log & Access BFSI Audit, Krypton Enterprise AI Insight, and Krypton Encryption Manager, delivering backup, audit, AI- driven security insights, and encryption. Together, these solutions provide a strong foundation for data protection, compliance, and operational resilience, while organizations should complement them with capabilities for AI-driven identity fraud, deepfake detection, and privacy governance to address emerging cyber threats. COMPROMISED CREDENTIALS: Net Protector (NPAV) addresses identity-based threats through a layered approach combining Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI)and Krypton Firewall Log & Access BFSI Audit (KFLA). KEAI uses AI-driven behavioral analytics to establish normal user activity and detect anomalies such as unusual login times, devices, locations, or access patterns. KFLA centralizes and monitors firewall and access logs for real-time visibility across the enterprise. Additionally, NPAV's AV-Test Advanced Certified endpoint protection helps prevent credential theft by blocking keyloggers and infostealer malware before credentials can be compromised. ON DATA EXFILTRATION DETECTION Krypton Firewall Log & Access (KFLA) and Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI) work together to detect abnormal data access and movement in real time. KFLA provides continuous monitoring and audit-ready logging, while KEAI applies behavioral analytics and predictive intelligence to identify unusual activities—such as large data transfers—and trigger automated responses like alerts or session isolation. Together, they enhance threat detection, incident response, and forensic readiness for BFSI organizations. ON AI-DRIVEN / AUTONOMOUS ATTACKS NPAV's Krypton Enterprise AI Insight (KEAI) combines AI-driven threat detection, behavioral analytics, predictive intelligence, and automated response to identify adaptive cyber threats beyond traditional signature-based methods. Complementing this, Krypton Encryption Manager (KEM) enforces policy-based encryption across endpoints, servers, and removable devices, ensuring data remains protected even if attackers bypass initial defenses. Together, they provide a layered security approach against evolving AI-driven attacks, although the underlying machine learning techniques are not detailed in the presentation. ON DETECTION SPEED AND RESPONSE This is the one area the presentation materials don't quantify. The deck references "real-time monitoring" and "automated response" as design goals across KFLA and KEAI, but it doesn't publish specific MTTD (mean-time-to-detect) or MTTR (mean-time-to-respond) benchmarks for an account-takeover scenario. Given the earlier questions we discussed around the Bank of Baroda breach, this is actually the most important number to press NPAV on directly — ideally with reference to independent testing (similar to how their endpoint protection carries AV-Test, VB100, OPSWAT, and West Coast Labs certifications) rather than vendor-stated figures alone. ON REGULATORY AND SECTOR-SPECIFIC FIT Net Protector (NPAV)'s Krypton Firewall Log & Access (KFLA) is purpose-built for the BFSI sector, offering compliance-ready log management, monitoring, and audit reporting aligned with RBI cybersecurity expectations. Krypton Encryption Manager (KEM) strengthens data protection through encryption and audit capabilities. Supported by certifications such as AV - "Our long-term strategy centers heavily on the BFSI market. To support this vision, we are increasing our investment in enterprise offerings tailored to financial institutions, ensuring we remain a trusted partner in their digital transformation journey over the coming years." Ms. Shaila Kela Director & CFO "To stay ahead in the current AI landscape, we are constantly upgrading our capabilities to address the stringent security needs of the financial sector. We are committed to achieving zero-day trust and providing next-generation cyber defense for our clients." Ms. Preeti Kela, Director & Head Of Ai / Cybersecurity Lab
VAR Speak
TUSHAD TALATI Director- Brand & Communication Epson India Evolving Marketing Strategy for the AI Era AI is changing Epson’s marketing in many ways, and we are looking at different ways to harness its benefits. The first and most obvious is that AI is changing how people discover our brand. People are increasingly asking AI platforms questions rather than simply typing keywords into a search engine. This means our marketing has to think beyond traditional SEO and consider how Epson and our products are represented in AI-generated answers. Being visible and credible in these new search environments has become an increasingly important part of brand building and demand generation. The creative process is changing too. AI allows us to take a core idea and quickly develop different messages and executions for different audiences. We operate with a relatively lean marketing team supported by a network of specialist agencies, so AI is also becoming an important enabler in the way we work. We are using it across creative strategy, content, PR, marketing communications, web and technology-related activities. As we move forward, we are looking to use AI to understand customers better and make better decisions. For example, we want to bring together signals from website behaviour, search, content engagement, CRM and other interactions that previously sat in different places. If someone is researching high-volume printing, repeatedly looking at cost-per-print information and downloading product specifications, that should tell us much more about their intent than simply knowing they are an SMB customer. We can use those signals to make our communication more relevant and, through Account-Based Marketing, identify high-value businesses and tailor our approach around their specific needs. The next step is to move from understanding behaviour to predicting it. AI should help us identify which customers may be ready for an upgrade, which prospects are more likely to convert, or where an emerging demand may be developing. That can influence not just marketing, but where sales focuses, which partners we activate and where we invest. It also helps us get closer to measuring marketing by actual business outcomes rather than just clicks, impressions or engagement. For us, the real opportunity is not simply to make marketing faster. It is to make it more intelligent, more predictive and more closely connected to business growth.
VAR Speak
SOORAJ BALAKRISHNAN Head of Marketing Acer India Evolving Marketing Strategy for the AI Era Our marketing strategy is evolving to keep pace with the way consumers are experiencing technology today. As AI becomes an increasingly important part of the PC experience, we are moving beyond communicating specifications and focusing more on how technology can make a tangible difference to consumers’ everyday lives. Our communication is therefore centred on practical AI use cases, productivity, creativity, gaming and personalisation, making the benefits of AI easier to understand and more relevant to different consumer segments. At the same time, we are strengthening our digital, social, retail and experiential engagement to create more meaningful interactions with consumers. We want customers to not just hear about AI, but see, experience and understand its value through our products and content. For Acer, the larger objective is to build a stronger, more contemporary technology brand by combining product innovation with consumer-led storytelling and deeper engagement across the entire customer journey. Technology-driven Trust, Partner Ecosystems, and Customer Experience AI, data analytics, and digital channels are helping us make customer engagement more relevant, responsive, and personalised. We are using consumer insights and market data to understand evolving preferences, identify emerging trends and sharpen how we communicate with different audiences. AI is also enabling us to create more engaging content and experiences while helping customers better understand the value that technology can bring to their everyday lives. Digital platforms also play an important role in strengthening engagement with our partners and creating a more connected ecosystem. By bringing together insights, communication and engagement across digital and physical touchpoints, we can create greater consistency in the customer journey. Brand Positioning in Competitive Market Our key priority is to differentiate Acer through a combination of product innovation, meaningful technology experiences and strong consumer relevance. As the PC market becomes increasingly competitive, we are focused on delivering products that address evolving consumer needs across segments, while building stronger differentiation around areas such as AI, gaming, performance, design and mobility. Equally important is ensuring that our brand communication goes beyond product specifications and clearly demonstrates the value and experiences our technology delivers. From a business perspective, we are focused on turning these efforts into measurable outcomes through stronger consumer engagement, improved product consideration, deeper channel relationships and sustained market growth. We are also placing greater emphasis on data-led decision-making, ensuring that our marketing investments are closely connected to business objectives and that we can measure their impact across the customer journey.
VAR Speak
TUSHAD TALATI Director- Brand & Communication Epson India Evolving Marketing Strategy for the AI Era AI is changing Epson’s marketing in many ways, and we are looking at different ways to harness its benefits. The first and most obvious is that AI is changing how people discover our brand. People are increasingly asking AI platforms questions rather than simply typing keywords into a search engine. This means our marketing has to think beyond traditional SEO and consider how Epson and our products are represented in AI-generated answers. Being visible and credible in these new search environments has become an increasingly important part of brand building and demand generation. The creative process is changing too. AI allows us to take a core idea and quickly develop different messages and executions for different audiences. We operate with a relatively lean marketing team supported by a network of specialist agencies, so AI is also becoming an important enabler in the way we work. We are using it across creative strategy, content, PR, marketing communications, web and technology-related activities. As we move forward, we are looking to use AI to understand customers better and make better decisions. For example, we want to bring together signals from website behaviour, search, content engagement, CRM and other interactions that previously sat in different places. If someone is researching high-volume printing, repeatedly looking at cost-per-print information and downloading product specifications, that should tell us much more about their intent than simply knowing they are an SMB customer. We can use those signals to make our communication more relevant and, through Account-Based Marketing, identify high-value businesses and tailor our approach around their specific needs. The next step is to move from understanding behaviour to predicting it. AI should help us identify which customers may be ready for an upgrade, which prospects are more likely to convert, or where an emerging demand may be developing. That can influence not just marketing, but where sales focuses, which partners we activate and where we invest. It also helps us get closer to measuring marketing by actual business outcomes rather than just clicks, impressions or engagement. For us, the real opportunity is not simply to make marketing faster. It is to make it more intelligent, more predictive and more closely connected to business growth.
VAR Speak
SOORAJ BALAKRISHNAN Head of Marketing Acer India Evolving Marketing Strategy for the AI Era Our marketing strategy is evolving to keep pace with the way consumers are experiencing technology today. As AI becomes an increasingly important part of the PC experience, we are moving beyond communicating specifications and focusing more on how technology can make a tangible difference to consumers’ everyday lives. Our communication is therefore centred on practical AI use cases, productivity, creativity, gaming and personalisation, making the benefits of AI easier to understand and more relevant to different consumer segments. At the same time, we are strengthening our digital, social, retail and experiential engagement to create more meaningful interactions with consumers. We want customers to not just hear about AI, but see, experience and understand its value through our products and content. For Acer, the larger objective is to build a stronger, more contemporary technology brand by combining product innovation with consumer-led storytelling and deeper engagement across the entire customer journey. Technology-driven Trust, Partner Ecosystems, and Customer Experience AI, data analytics, and digital channels are helping us make customer engagement more relevant, responsive, and personalised. We are using consumer insights and market data to understand evolving preferences, identify emerging trends and sharpen how we communicate with different audiences. AI is also enabling us to create more engaging content and experiences while helping customers better understand the value that technology can bring to their everyday lives. Digital platforms also play an important role in strengthening engagement with our partners and creating a more connected ecosystem. By bringing together insights, communication and engagement across digital and physical touchpoints, we can create greater consistency in the customer journey. Brand Positioning in Competitive Market Our key priority is to differentiate Acer through a combination of product innovation, meaningful technology experiences and strong consumer relevance. As the PC market becomes increasingly competitive, we are focused on delivering products that address evolving consumer needs across segments, while building stronger differentiation around areas such as AI, gaming, performance, design and mobility. Equally important is ensuring that our brand communication goes beyond product specifications and clearly demonstrates the value and experiences our technology delivers. From a business perspective, we are focused on turning these efforts into measurable outcomes through stronger consumer engagement, improved product consideration, deeper channel relationships and sustained market growth. We are also placing greater emphasis on data-led decision-making, ensuring that our marketing investments are closely connected to business objectives and that we can measure their impact across the customer journey.
Cyber Security
Expanded capabilities turn fragmented cryptographic data into a prioritized plan, coordinated action, and measurable progress toward post-quantum readiness DigiCert, a global leader in intelligent trust, has announced the general availability of DigiCert Quantum Central, part of the DigiCert ONE platform, that helps organizations manage and demonstrate progress toward post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness. First introduced in preview in July, Quantum Central offers expanded capabilities that help organizations move from finding cryptographic risks to managing them. Teams can bring together cryptographic data from multiple sources, apply their own security policies, initiate remediation workflows, assign ownership, and track progress from a central location. The launch comes as organizations struggle to turn PQC planning into execution. According to the 2026 DigiCert Quantum Readiness Outlook, 87% of organizations are planning, testing or implementing PQC initiatives, yet only 7% have deployed quantum-safe or hybrid cryptography. “Most organizations understand the quantum risk. Their challenge is coordinating action across legacy systems, fragmented data and multiple technology owners,” said Kevin Hilscher, Senior Director of Product Management at DigiCert. “Quantum Central turns cryptographic visibility into a prioritized and trackable readiness program. Teams can begin with a critical environment, act on what they find and expand over time, while giving leadership, auditors and regulators clear evidence of progress.” Quantum Central helps security, IT, risk and compliance teams: · Create a unified cryptographic inventory: Consolidate and normalize data from DigiCert ONE, network scans, certificate lifecycle management platforms, key vaults, uploaded CSV files and software or cryptographic bills of materials. · Establish policies and priorities: Define cryptographic policies based on organizational requirements, industry standards, and regulatory guidance. Quantum Central evaluates inventory data, identifies policy violations and alerts teams when action is needed. · Turn findings into remediation: Translate policy violations into recommended actions and create change requests through established workflows, including Jira. Integration with DigiCert Trust Lifecycle Manager enables teams to initiate certificate lifecycle actions directly from their readiness program. · Interpret inventory data faster: Use an inventory-aware AI assistant to understand findings, explore cryptographic exposure and identify practical next steps. · Measure and report progress: Track remediation status, policy compliance, and overall cryptographic posture through centralized dashboards. Organizations can also export inventory data as cryptographic bills of materials for audits, assessments, and reporting. · Connect external systems: Import cryptographic data programmatically through an API, allowing organizations to continue expanding their inventory as their readiness programs mature. “The market is entering the operational phase of post-quantum readiness, and enterprises need a way to connect cryptographic discovery with business context, policy and remediation,” said Jennifer Glenn, Research Director for Information and Data Security at IDC. “Tying inventory, workflows, and reporting to that policy in a single view gives organizations a practical operating model for the complex, multiyear transition to quantum-safe cryptography.” Quantum readiness requires organizations to manage a multiyear technology transition while standards, vendor capabilities and regulatory expectations continue to evolve. Organizations can make practical progress now by assigning accountable owners, establishing enough cryptographic visibility to set priorities, adopting PQC where supported and documenting results. An incremental approach allows teams to begin with a critical application environment or infrastructure layer and expand their program without waiting for a complete enterprise-wide inventory. Quantum Central is the management layer for enterprise quantum readiness, spanning cryptographic use cases beyond PKI. DigiCert ONE managers provide the automation layer for certificates, software, devices and content, while DigiCert Private CA and CertCentral provide the trust and issuance foundation needed to put new cryptography into production. That combination helps organizations manage the broader readiness program while preparing for more complex PKI transition that will unfold over time. DigiCert Quantum Central is available now. Organizations can start a free trial, request a demonstration or contact DigiCert to discuss an enterprise deployment.
Cyber Security
The cyber resilience firm has unveiled what it calls the industry's first AI security and governance platform built specifically for resource-constrained organizations, aiming to help businesses adopt AI safely while protecting sensitive data and demonstrating compliance. Barracuda Networks, Inc. has launched Barracuda AI Data Security, a solution the company describes as the industry's first AI security and governance offering purpose-built for resource-constrained organizations and managed service providers (MSPs). The platform is designed to help businesses accelerate AI adoption with confidence by safeguarding sensitive data, enforcing responsible AI use, and generating compliance evidence. Built on the BarracudaONE platform, the solution marks a significant addition to Barracuda's AI Security portfolio, bringing together AI visibility, data protection, threat defense, and governance into one integrated experience. The launch responds to a widening security gap: new research from Barracuda found that nearly half of senior IT leaders admit their teams lack the skills needed to securely govern AI already in use across their organizations. The risks are already materializing—IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 found that 68% of organizations that suffered a breach had no policies in place to manage AI or detect shadow AI usage. "AI adoption is accelerating faster than most businesses can keep pace, creating one of the most urgent new security and compliance challenges organizations face today," said Neal Bradbury, Chief Product Officer at Barracuda. "Organizations need a practical way to secure AI as a new attack surface, protect sensitive data, enforce responsible use, and demonstrate compliance. At the same time, they need the confidence to embrace and accelerate AI adoption as a driver of productivity and innovation. Barracuda AI Data Security delivers those capabilities in a single, easy-to-deploy solution. This is the first of several innovations that will expand our AI Security suite and help businesses unlock AI's full potential, securely." Parag Khurana, Country Manager, India at Barracuda , added, "Across India, organisations are moving quickly to embed AI into business operations, from customer engagement and software development to productivity and decision-making. While the opportunities are significant, many business leaders are also recognising that sustainable AI adoption requires a stronger understanding of how data is being used, shared and protected across a growing ecosystem of AI applications. Barracuda AI Data Security helps organisations gain that visibility and confidence. By providing a clearer view of AI usage and helping safeguard sensitive information, it enables businesses to innovate faster while maintaining trust with customers, employees and stakeholders. In a market where AI is becoming a competitive advantage, having the right foundations in place will be critical to turning ambition into long-term business value." How the solution works Barracuda AI Data Security combines security, governance and compliance into a single system, offering full visibility into AI usage, safe enablement of approved tools, real-time inspection of prompts and uploads, and audit-ready evidence of policy enforcement. Powered by the Barracuda IQ AI engine, it extends protection across more than 1,300 generative AI tools, including Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Its core capabilities include automatic blocking of sensitive data—such as customer records, passwords, financial information and proprietary code—from reaching GenAI services without requiring initial setup; detection of prompt injection, jailbreak attempts and policy-violating content aligned with the OWASP LLM Top 10; a compliance-ready audit trail with one-click exports for insurers and auditors; and flexible policy controls tailored to specific teams, tools and data types. Built for smaller businesses and service providers Unlike most AI governance tools designed with large enterprises in mind, Barracuda AI Data Security targets smaller businesses and MSPs that often face excessive complexity, specialized skill requirements, and high costs with existing offerings. The company says the solution can be deployed within minutes, using familiar firewall-style workflows and guided configuration through Barracuda's Bailey AI assistant, removing the need for specialized AI security expertise. MSPs also gain centralized multitenant management and bundled pricing designed to fit their service models. Barracuda AI Data Security is scheduled for release in October 2026 and will be included at no additional cost within Barracuda SecureEdge Premium Access. Early adopters cite strong demand Jake Haacker, Chief Information and Security Officer at Horizon Health Alliance , said, "Harnessing the benefits of AI in a safe, responsible and impactful way is a strategic priority for Horizon, but governance and oversight can be challenging and quite complex. We need solutions that make protecting patient and other sensitive data seamless, while ensuring consistent policy enforcement and providing clear guardrails for responsible use. Barracuda AI Data Security will enable us to adopt AI faster and with far less risk, so our teams can stay focused on delivering exceptional care." Geoff Turner, Chief Executive Officer at Elevate Technology Group , said, "Our customers are already adopting AI and working with us to build AI policies that fit their specific security frameworks with a mindset of quick adoption. But policy only goes so far – both the business and IT need safeguards. We need controls that are simple, scalable and built for real-world environments. Barracuda AI Data Security gives us, as an MSP, a powerful way to help our customers embrace AI securely – with centralized management, strong data protection and clear evidence of compliance. It will enable us to lead customers through responsible and secure AI adoption with peace of mind and real controls protecting their business." Adam Galfskiy, Head of AI at Aura Technologies , said, "AI is reshaping the future of how our customers work, and MSPs have a critical role in helping them adopt it responsibly and at scale. What stands out about Barracuda AI Data Security is the forward-thinking foundation it gives us – a way to guide customers into an AI-driven future with clarity, control and confidence. The blend of visibility, governance and simplicity will empower organizations to innovate boldly without introducing new risk. It's a pivotal advancement for MSPs and the customers we serve."
Cyber Security
Expanded capabilities turn fragmented cryptographic data into a prioritized plan, coordinated action, and measurable progress toward post-quantum readiness DigiCert, a global leader in intelligent trust, has announced the general availability of DigiCert Quantum Central, part of the DigiCert ONE platform, that helps organizations manage and demonstrate progress toward post-quantum cryptography (PQC) readiness. First introduced in preview in July, Quantum Central offers expanded capabilities that help organizations move from finding cryptographic risks to managing them. Teams can bring together cryptographic data from multiple sources, apply their own security policies, initiate remediation workflows, assign ownership, and track progress from a central location. The launch comes as organizations struggle to turn PQC planning into execution. According to the 2026 DigiCert Quantum Readiness Outlook, 87% of organizations are planning, testing or implementing PQC initiatives, yet only 7% have deployed quantum-safe or hybrid cryptography. “Most organizations understand the quantum risk. Their challenge is coordinating action across legacy systems, fragmented data and multiple technology owners,” said Kevin Hilscher, Senior Director of Product Management at DigiCert. “Quantum Central turns cryptographic visibility into a prioritized and trackable readiness program. Teams can begin with a critical environment, act on what they find and expand over time, while giving leadership, auditors and regulators clear evidence of progress.” Quantum Central helps security, IT, risk and compliance teams: · Create a unified cryptographic inventory: Consolidate and normalize data from DigiCert ONE, network scans, certificate lifecycle management platforms, key vaults, uploaded CSV files and software or cryptographic bills of materials. · Establish policies and priorities: Define cryptographic policies based on organizational requirements, industry standards, and regulatory guidance. Quantum Central evaluates inventory data, identifies policy violations and alerts teams when action is needed. · Turn findings into remediation: Translate policy violations into recommended actions and create change requests through established workflows, including Jira. Integration with DigiCert Trust Lifecycle Manager enables teams to initiate certificate lifecycle actions directly from their readiness program. · Interpret inventory data faster: Use an inventory-aware AI assistant to understand findings, explore cryptographic exposure and identify practical next steps. · Measure and report progress: Track remediation status, policy compliance, and overall cryptographic posture through centralized dashboards. Organizations can also export inventory data as cryptographic bills of materials for audits, assessments, and reporting. · Connect external systems: Import cryptographic data programmatically through an API, allowing organizations to continue expanding their inventory as their readiness programs mature. “The market is entering the operational phase of post-quantum readiness, and enterprises need a way to connect cryptographic discovery with business context, policy and remediation,” said Jennifer Glenn, Research Director for Information and Data Security at IDC. “Tying inventory, workflows, and reporting to that policy in a single view gives organizations a practical operating model for the complex, multiyear transition to quantum-safe cryptography.” Quantum readiness requires organizations to manage a multiyear technology transition while standards, vendor capabilities and regulatory expectations continue to evolve. Organizations can make practical progress now by assigning accountable owners, establishing enough cryptographic visibility to set priorities, adopting PQC where supported and documenting results. An incremental approach allows teams to begin with a critical application environment or infrastructure layer and expand their program without waiting for a complete enterprise-wide inventory. Quantum Central is the management layer for enterprise quantum readiness, spanning cryptographic use cases beyond PKI. DigiCert ONE managers provide the automation layer for certificates, software, devices and content, while DigiCert Private CA and CertCentral provide the trust and issuance foundation needed to put new cryptography into production. That combination helps organizations manage the broader readiness program while preparing for more complex PKI transition that will unfold over time. DigiCert Quantum Central is available now. Organizations can start a free trial, request a demonstration or contact DigiCert to discuss an enterprise deployment.
Cyber Security
The cyber resilience firm has unveiled what it calls the industry's first AI security and governance platform built specifically for resource-constrained organizations, aiming to help businesses adopt AI safely while protecting sensitive data and demonstrating compliance. Barracuda Networks, Inc. has launched Barracuda AI Data Security, a solution the company describes as the industry's first AI security and governance offering purpose-built for resource-constrained organizations and managed service providers (MSPs). The platform is designed to help businesses accelerate AI adoption with confidence by safeguarding sensitive data, enforcing responsible AI use, and generating compliance evidence. Built on the BarracudaONE platform, the solution marks a significant addition to Barracuda's AI Security portfolio, bringing together AI visibility, data protection, threat defense, and governance into one integrated experience. The launch responds to a widening security gap: new research from Barracuda found that nearly half of senior IT leaders admit their teams lack the skills needed to securely govern AI already in use across their organizations. The risks are already materializing—IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026 found that 68% of organizations that suffered a breach had no policies in place to manage AI or detect shadow AI usage. "AI adoption is accelerating faster than most businesses can keep pace, creating one of the most urgent new security and compliance challenges organizations face today," said Neal Bradbury, Chief Product Officer at Barracuda. "Organizations need a practical way to secure AI as a new attack surface, protect sensitive data, enforce responsible use, and demonstrate compliance. At the same time, they need the confidence to embrace and accelerate AI adoption as a driver of productivity and innovation. Barracuda AI Data Security delivers those capabilities in a single, easy-to-deploy solution. This is the first of several innovations that will expand our AI Security suite and help businesses unlock AI's full potential, securely." Parag Khurana, Country Manager, India at Barracuda , added, "Across India, organisations are moving quickly to embed AI into business operations, from customer engagement and software development to productivity and decision-making. While the opportunities are significant, many business leaders are also recognising that sustainable AI adoption requires a stronger understanding of how data is being used, shared and protected across a growing ecosystem of AI applications. Barracuda AI Data Security helps organisations gain that visibility and confidence. By providing a clearer view of AI usage and helping safeguard sensitive information, it enables businesses to innovate faster while maintaining trust with customers, employees and stakeholders. In a market where AI is becoming a competitive advantage, having the right foundations in place will be critical to turning ambition into long-term business value." How the solution works Barracuda AI Data Security combines security, governance and compliance into a single system, offering full visibility into AI usage, safe enablement of approved tools, real-time inspection of prompts and uploads, and audit-ready evidence of policy enforcement. Powered by the Barracuda IQ AI engine, it extends protection across more than 1,300 generative AI tools, including Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Its core capabilities include automatic blocking of sensitive data—such as customer records, passwords, financial information and proprietary code—from reaching GenAI services without requiring initial setup; detection of prompt injection, jailbreak attempts and policy-violating content aligned with the OWASP LLM Top 10; a compliance-ready audit trail with one-click exports for insurers and auditors; and flexible policy controls tailored to specific teams, tools and data types. Built for smaller businesses and service providers Unlike most AI governance tools designed with large enterprises in mind, Barracuda AI Data Security targets smaller businesses and MSPs that often face excessive complexity, specialized skill requirements, and high costs with existing offerings. The company says the solution can be deployed within minutes, using familiar firewall-style workflows and guided configuration through Barracuda's Bailey AI assistant, removing the need for specialized AI security expertise. MSPs also gain centralized multitenant management and bundled pricing designed to fit their service models. Barracuda AI Data Security is scheduled for release in October 2026 and will be included at no additional cost within Barracuda SecureEdge Premium Access. Early adopters cite strong demand Jake Haacker, Chief Information and Security Officer at Horizon Health Alliance , said, "Harnessing the benefits of AI in a safe, responsible and impactful way is a strategic priority for Horizon, but governance and oversight can be challenging and quite complex. We need solutions that make protecting patient and other sensitive data seamless, while ensuring consistent policy enforcement and providing clear guardrails for responsible use. Barracuda AI Data Security will enable us to adopt AI faster and with far less risk, so our teams can stay focused on delivering exceptional care." Geoff Turner, Chief Executive Officer at Elevate Technology Group , said, "Our customers are already adopting AI and working with us to build AI policies that fit their specific security frameworks with a mindset of quick adoption. But policy only goes so far – both the business and IT need safeguards. We need controls that are simple, scalable and built for real-world environments. Barracuda AI Data Security gives us, as an MSP, a powerful way to help our customers embrace AI securely – with centralized management, strong data protection and clear evidence of compliance. It will enable us to lead customers through responsible and secure AI adoption with peace of mind and real controls protecting their business." Adam Galfskiy, Head of AI at Aura Technologies , said, "AI is reshaping the future of how our customers work, and MSPs have a critical role in helping them adopt it responsibly and at scale. What stands out about Barracuda AI Data Security is the forward-thinking foundation it gives us – a way to guide customers into an AI-driven future with clarity, control and confidence. The blend of visibility, governance and simplicity will empower organizations to innovate boldly without introducing new risk. It's a pivotal advancement for MSPs and the customers we serve."
Software
Databricks has acquired Row Zero , the spreadsheet built for humans and agents to work together with data. The acquisition will expand the capabilities of Genie, Databricks’ AI coworker, which helps business teams turn data into trusted answers and actions. Genie can analyze why margins changed or produce a document on sales pipeline opportunities. With Row Zero, Genie will add a familiar spreadsheet interface that business teams can use to explore, model, and collaborate, all on a governed foundation powered by Genie Ontology, Unity Catalog, and Unity Gateway. Why Bring Secure Governed Spreadsheets to Genie? After four decades, spreadsheets remain the most broadly used analytics tool in the business world. Their flexibility lets users represent the most sophisticated business models through a set of familiar, well-proven formulas. For this reason, spreadsheets remain the primary engine of business decision-making despite continuous advances in the data and analytics market. The prevalence of spreadsheets also creates major security and governance challenges for the modern enterprise. Teams have long relied on ungoverned spreadsheet files (“spreadmarts”) to store data or to share between humans and agents. Every data export adds to what is arguably the largest set of ungoverned data pipelines in the enterprise. As companies deploy agents that analyze, model, and act on business data, they can't afford to have those agents operating on sensitive data of unknown lineage and quality. Row Zero closes this gap by offering a scalable spreadsheet that connects directly to live, governed data. This means teams can work the way they always have, backed by built-in security and governance. And because they can work directly with the spreadsheet via Row Zero’s agent tools, every agent action remains fully interpretable and auditable by the business teams using the spreadsheet's syntax and processing model. Row Zero will natively integrate with the Databricks Data + AI Platform, including Genie on web as well as desktop and mobile apps, so teams can easily move from chat to hands-on pivoting, modeling, and visualization. “Genie is helping make every knowledge worker dramatically more productive and impactful. As more finance, operations, and go-to-market teams adopt Genie, incorporating a seamless spreadsheet experience is a must-have,” said Patrick Wendell, Co-founder and VP of Engineering at Databricks . “We’re super excited to bring the Row Zero team to Databricks, helping us continue to evolve Genie’s capabilities to become the go-to AI coworker for every enterprise team.” Flexibility Meets Governance with Row Zero Finance, operations, sales, and marketing teams have already picked spreadsheets as their tool of choice. Now, Row Zero extends Genie and the Databricks Data + AI Platform within the familiar spreadsheet interface. Key capabilities include: Full compatibility with leading spreadsheets : Designed to complement popular tools such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, Row Zero features the familiar formulas, pivots, and keyboard shortcuts teams already know and love, so users can leverage their skills and assets with less friction. Governed integration into leading data platforms : Row Zero features direct integration into leading data sources. Queries honor each user's permissions, data auto-refreshes from authoritative live sources, exports can be locked down, and users can write results back, all without stale copies or manual refreshes. Every interaction is auditable, and security controls travel with the data wherever it goes. Lightning-fast performance at scale : Row Zero features a data processing engine that allows business users to work with billions of rows at interactive speeds. “We built Row Zero because we love spreadsheets but recognized they needed to seamlessly connect to enterprise-scale data with governance and security at the core. Joining Databricks accelerates our vision of giving business users the spreadsheet they deserve: secure, connected, scalable, and deeply integrated with AI agents,” said Breck Fresen, Founder and CEO of Row Zero . The team behind Row Zero was founded by former AWS and Tableau engineers. They are joining Databricks to continue expanding Genie’s capabilities. Row Zero will be available to all Databricks customers across all major clouds and will continue to feature support for data sources beyond Databricks.
Software
HCLTech , a leading global technology company, has been selected by M Group, the leading essential infrastructure services provider in the UK and Ireland, to modernize and transform IT operations across its 200-plus locations. Through AI-led managed services spanning infrastructure and end-user operations, HCLTech will deploy its AI Force service transformation platform to streamline M Group's IT landscape, strengthen resilience and build a scalable digital foundation for growth. The program will also accelerate broader digital transformation across M Group's water, energy, technology and communications, transport, and defense, industrial and public sector business lines. "Technology is critical to helping our people deliver essential infrastructure services safely, efficiently and at scale. As we continue to transform M Group, we're investing in a stronger digital foundation and partnering with HCLTech, a global leader in IT services, to bring a new level of service for every team member in the field and in the office. Together, we'll enhance the quality, reliability and scalability of our IT operations, helping colleagues work more effectively while supporting innovation and sustainable growth across the business,” said Chloe Anfield, Chief Technology Officer at M Group. "M Group keeps critical infrastructure running for millions across the UK and Ireland. Being trusted to modernize the IT backbone behind that is a responsibility we take seriously. Our teams bring deep experience in complex, multi-site environments and we are committed to ensuring M Group's technology keeps pace with the demands of the sectors it serves," said Ajay Bahl, Chief Growth Officer and Global Head, Energy and Manufacturing at HCLTech. This win extends HCLTech's track record in essential infrastructure, an environment where operational continuity and regulatory compliance leave little margin for error and marks a significant deployment of AI Force at scale across a multi-sector services business.
Software
Databricks has acquired Row Zero , the spreadsheet built for humans and agents to work together with data. The acquisition will expand the capabilities of Genie, Databricks’ AI coworker, which helps business teams turn data into trusted answers and actions. Genie can analyze why margins changed or produce a document on sales pipeline opportunities. With Row Zero, Genie will add a familiar spreadsheet interface that business teams can use to explore, model, and collaborate, all on a governed foundation powered by Genie Ontology, Unity Catalog, and Unity Gateway. Why Bring Secure Governed Spreadsheets to Genie? After four decades, spreadsheets remain the most broadly used analytics tool in the business world. Their flexibility lets users represent the most sophisticated business models through a set of familiar, well-proven formulas. For this reason, spreadsheets remain the primary engine of business decision-making despite continuous advances in the data and analytics market. The prevalence of spreadsheets also creates major security and governance challenges for the modern enterprise. Teams have long relied on ungoverned spreadsheet files (“spreadmarts”) to store data or to share between humans and agents. Every data export adds to what is arguably the largest set of ungoverned data pipelines in the enterprise. As companies deploy agents that analyze, model, and act on business data, they can't afford to have those agents operating on sensitive data of unknown lineage and quality. Row Zero closes this gap by offering a scalable spreadsheet that connects directly to live, governed data. This means teams can work the way they always have, backed by built-in security and governance. And because they can work directly with the spreadsheet via Row Zero’s agent tools, every agent action remains fully interpretable and auditable by the business teams using the spreadsheet's syntax and processing model. Row Zero will natively integrate with the Databricks Data + AI Platform, including Genie on web as well as desktop and mobile apps, so teams can easily move from chat to hands-on pivoting, modeling, and visualization. “Genie is helping make every knowledge worker dramatically more productive and impactful. As more finance, operations, and go-to-market teams adopt Genie, incorporating a seamless spreadsheet experience is a must-have,” said Patrick Wendell, Co-founder and VP of Engineering at Databricks . “We’re super excited to bring the Row Zero team to Databricks, helping us continue to evolve Genie’s capabilities to become the go-to AI coworker for every enterprise team.” Flexibility Meets Governance with Row Zero Finance, operations, sales, and marketing teams have already picked spreadsheets as their tool of choice. Now, Row Zero extends Genie and the Databricks Data + AI Platform within the familiar spreadsheet interface. Key capabilities include: Full compatibility with leading spreadsheets : Designed to complement popular tools such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, Row Zero features the familiar formulas, pivots, and keyboard shortcuts teams already know and love, so users can leverage their skills and assets with less friction. Governed integration into leading data platforms : Row Zero features direct integration into leading data sources. Queries honor each user's permissions, data auto-refreshes from authoritative live sources, exports can be locked down, and users can write results back, all without stale copies or manual refreshes. Every interaction is auditable, and security controls travel with the data wherever it goes. Lightning-fast performance at scale : Row Zero features a data processing engine that allows business users to work with billions of rows at interactive speeds. “We built Row Zero because we love spreadsheets but recognized they needed to seamlessly connect to enterprise-scale data with governance and security at the core. Joining Databricks accelerates our vision of giving business users the spreadsheet they deserve: secure, connected, scalable, and deeply integrated with AI agents,” said Breck Fresen, Founder and CEO of Row Zero . The team behind Row Zero was founded by former AWS and Tableau engineers. They are joining Databricks to continue expanding Genie’s capabilities. Row Zero will be available to all Databricks customers across all major clouds and will continue to feature support for data sources beyond Databricks.
Software
HCLTech , a leading global technology company, has been selected by M Group, the leading essential infrastructure services provider in the UK and Ireland, to modernize and transform IT operations across its 200-plus locations. Through AI-led managed services spanning infrastructure and end-user operations, HCLTech will deploy its AI Force service transformation platform to streamline M Group's IT landscape, strengthen resilience and build a scalable digital foundation for growth. The program will also accelerate broader digital transformation across M Group's water, energy, technology and communications, transport, and defense, industrial and public sector business lines. "Technology is critical to helping our people deliver essential infrastructure services safely, efficiently and at scale. As we continue to transform M Group, we're investing in a stronger digital foundation and partnering with HCLTech, a global leader in IT services, to bring a new level of service for every team member in the field and in the office. Together, we'll enhance the quality, reliability and scalability of our IT operations, helping colleagues work more effectively while supporting innovation and sustainable growth across the business,” said Chloe Anfield, Chief Technology Officer at M Group. "M Group keeps critical infrastructure running for millions across the UK and Ireland. Being trusted to modernize the IT backbone behind that is a responsibility we take seriously. Our teams bring deep experience in complex, multi-site environments and we are committed to ensuring M Group's technology keeps pace with the demands of the sectors it serves," said Ajay Bahl, Chief Growth Officer and Global Head, Energy and Manufacturing at HCLTech. This win extends HCLTech's track record in essential infrastructure, an environment where operational continuity and regulatory compliance leave little margin for error and marks a significant deployment of AI Force at scale across a multi-sector services business.
Peripherals
Premium lifestyle electronics brand TEMPT introduces a compact all-in-one kit combining fast charging cables, device converters, a mobile stand, storage slots and cleaning tools, priced at Rs 949 across two colour variants. TEMPT , a premium lifestyle electronics brand in India, has launched Konekt, a 15-in-1 multi-functional accessory kit aimed at professionals, travellers and content creators who frequently move between meetings, flights, shoots and client visits. The compact, travel-ready kit is designed to bring together everyday tech essentials needed to keep devices charged, connected, organised and clean. Built-in charging and device connectivity At the core of Konekt is a built-in retractable 60W Fast PD charging Type-C cable, allowing users to charge compatible laptops, tablets and smartphones without carrying a separate cable. The kit also includes USB-A, Lightning and Micro USB converters compatible with both Android and iOS devices, supporting data transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps. The retractable design keeps the cable neatly stored when not in use, eliminating tangled wires. For added convenience, the kit includes a built-in mobile stand, letting users prop up their phones for video calls, in-flight or train entertainment, or hands-free viewing while working. Organised storage and cleaning tools Konekt also addresses the problem of misplacing small tech accessories through a compact multi-tier storage case. It includes dedicated slots for two Nano SIM cards, one SD card, two TF cards, USB-A, USB-C and Lightning converters, along with a metal SIM ejector pin, keeping small items organised and easily accessible. To help users maintain their devices, the kit comes with a complete cleaning set featuring a keyboard brush, a charging-port brush and hook, a lens cleaning pad, a metal nib, a mini brush and a memory foam cleaning sponge — covering smartphones, laptops, keyboards and other gadgets in a single compact unit. Made from premium ABS material, Konekt is housed in a compact transparent storage case with an accompanying pouch, designed to fit easily into a backpack or work bag while keeping essential accessories together and travel-ready. Speaking on the launch, Gaurav Khetterpal, CEO & Founder of TEMPT Smart Pvt. Ltd. , said: “Konekt is designed for people who are constantly on the move and cannot afford to keep searching for a cable, adapter, SIM pin or cleaning tool when they need it. We wanted to put these everyday essentials into one compact kit that simply travels with you.” The TEMPT 15-in-1 Multi-Functional Accessory Kit is available in Black and White colour variants, priced at INR 949, and can be purchased via TemptIndia.com and Amazon.in.
Peripherals
Designed for convenient and portable everyday data storage, with Type-C connectivity and up to 450 MB/s read speeds Consistent Infosystems , a leading IT hardware, surveillance, and electronics brand, has introduced its new Data Locker Ex. HDD 1TB (CTH2CSCA) and Data Locker Ex. HDD 2TB (CTH2DSCA), designed to provide users with a convenient and portable solution for storing, organizing and backing up their digital content. Combining a compact form factor with a sleek, modern design, the external hard drives are suited for everyday use across home, office and professional environments. As work and entertainment increasingly move across devices, carrying large files, media libraries and backups has become part of everyday digital use. Consistent’s new external HDDs address this need with a compact, portable design and 1TB and 2TB storage options, giving users a simple way to keep their data accessible wherever they need it. The new External HDD range provides ample space for storing photos, videos, music, documents, games and backup files, making it suitable for both personal and professional use. Featuring a sleek black finish with a textured, ribbed surface, the drives have a modern and compact design that makes them easy to carry between home, office and while travelling. The Data Locker Ex. HDD 1TB and 2TB come with Type-C connectivity and support up to 450 MB/s reading speeds and transfer rates of up to 6 Gbps, enabling convenient movement of data and files. Compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux, both external HDD variants offer flexibility across different devices and operating systems, allowing users to access and manage their data with ease. Built with durable ABS construction, the drives are suitable for regular storage and backup requirements, while their compact and portable form factor makes them convenient to carry and use. For added convenience, the drives offer a Plug & Play experience and reliable performance, enabling users to connect and access their data without complex setup. Whether used for personal files, professional documents, media libraries or backups, the external HDDs provide a practical solution for managing and transferring digital content. Commenting on the launch, Yogesh Agrawal, CMD and Co-Founder, Consistent Infosystems , said, “As the volume of digital content continues to grow, users increasingly require convenient and reliable ways to store, transfer and back up their data. Our new External HDD range is designed to address these everyday storage requirements with flexible capacity options, portability and ease of use. With the 1TB and 2TB variants, we aim to provide practical storage solutions for both personal and professional users.” With these new additions, Consistent aims to offer users practical storage options that combine capacity, portability and ease of use, helping them manage their growing digital content and keep important files readily accessible. Pricing and Availability The Consistent Data Locker Ex. HDD range is available in 1TB and 2TB storage capacities. The 1TB variant carries an MRP of INR 18,999, while the 2TB variant carries an MRP of INR 34,999. The products are available through shop.consistent.in and other leading retail channels.
Peripherals
Premium lifestyle electronics brand TEMPT introduces a compact all-in-one kit combining fast charging cables, device converters, a mobile stand, storage slots and cleaning tools, priced at Rs 949 across two colour variants. TEMPT , a premium lifestyle electronics brand in India, has launched Konekt, a 15-in-1 multi-functional accessory kit aimed at professionals, travellers and content creators who frequently move between meetings, flights, shoots and client visits. The compact, travel-ready kit is designed to bring together everyday tech essentials needed to keep devices charged, connected, organised and clean. Built-in charging and device connectivity At the core of Konekt is a built-in retractable 60W Fast PD charging Type-C cable, allowing users to charge compatible laptops, tablets and smartphones without carrying a separate cable. The kit also includes USB-A, Lightning and Micro USB converters compatible with both Android and iOS devices, supporting data transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps. The retractable design keeps the cable neatly stored when not in use, eliminating tangled wires. For added convenience, the kit includes a built-in mobile stand, letting users prop up their phones for video calls, in-flight or train entertainment, or hands-free viewing while working. Organised storage and cleaning tools Konekt also addresses the problem of misplacing small tech accessories through a compact multi-tier storage case. It includes dedicated slots for two Nano SIM cards, one SD card, two TF cards, USB-A, USB-C and Lightning converters, along with a metal SIM ejector pin, keeping small items organised and easily accessible. To help users maintain their devices, the kit comes with a complete cleaning set featuring a keyboard brush, a charging-port brush and hook, a lens cleaning pad, a metal nib, a mini brush and a memory foam cleaning sponge — covering smartphones, laptops, keyboards and other gadgets in a single compact unit. Made from premium ABS material, Konekt is housed in a compact transparent storage case with an accompanying pouch, designed to fit easily into a backpack or work bag while keeping essential accessories together and travel-ready. Speaking on the launch, Gaurav Khetterpal, CEO & Founder of TEMPT Smart Pvt. Ltd. , said: “Konekt is designed for people who are constantly on the move and cannot afford to keep searching for a cable, adapter, SIM pin or cleaning tool when they need it. We wanted to put these everyday essentials into one compact kit that simply travels with you.” The TEMPT 15-in-1 Multi-Functional Accessory Kit is available in Black and White colour variants, priced at INR 949, and can be purchased via TemptIndia.com and Amazon.in.
Peripherals
Designed for convenient and portable everyday data storage, with Type-C connectivity and up to 450 MB/s read speeds Consistent Infosystems , a leading IT hardware, surveillance, and electronics brand, has introduced its new Data Locker Ex. HDD 1TB (CTH2CSCA) and Data Locker Ex. HDD 2TB (CTH2DSCA), designed to provide users with a convenient and portable solution for storing, organizing and backing up their digital content. Combining a compact form factor with a sleek, modern design, the external hard drives are suited for everyday use across home, office and professional environments. As work and entertainment increasingly move across devices, carrying large files, media libraries and backups has become part of everyday digital use. Consistent’s new external HDDs address this need with a compact, portable design and 1TB and 2TB storage options, giving users a simple way to keep their data accessible wherever they need it. The new External HDD range provides ample space for storing photos, videos, music, documents, games and backup files, making it suitable for both personal and professional use. Featuring a sleek black finish with a textured, ribbed surface, the drives have a modern and compact design that makes them easy to carry between home, office and while travelling. The Data Locker Ex. HDD 1TB and 2TB come with Type-C connectivity and support up to 450 MB/s reading speeds and transfer rates of up to 6 Gbps, enabling convenient movement of data and files. Compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux, both external HDD variants offer flexibility across different devices and operating systems, allowing users to access and manage their data with ease. Built with durable ABS construction, the drives are suitable for regular storage and backup requirements, while their compact and portable form factor makes them convenient to carry and use. For added convenience, the drives offer a Plug & Play experience and reliable performance, enabling users to connect and access their data without complex setup. Whether used for personal files, professional documents, media libraries or backups, the external HDDs provide a practical solution for managing and transferring digital content. Commenting on the launch, Yogesh Agrawal, CMD and Co-Founder, Consistent Infosystems , said, “As the volume of digital content continues to grow, users increasingly require convenient and reliable ways to store, transfer and back up their data. Our new External HDD range is designed to address these everyday storage requirements with flexible capacity options, portability and ease of use. With the 1TB and 2TB variants, we aim to provide practical storage solutions for both personal and professional users.” With these new additions, Consistent aims to offer users practical storage options that combine capacity, portability and ease of use, helping them manage their growing digital content and keep important files readily accessible. Pricing and Availability The Consistent Data Locker Ex. HDD range is available in 1TB and 2TB storage capacities. The 1TB variant carries an MRP of INR 18,999, while the 2TB variant carries an MRP of INR 34,999. The products are available through shop.consistent.in and other leading retail channels.
Industry Event
From the cricket grounds of Delhi to conversations shaping the future of security, from manufacturing floors to the evolving landscape of smart cities, August was a month of movement for CP PLUS. Across diverse platforms and industries, CP PLUS continued to bring its vision of a safer, smarter, and more connected India to life — not merely as a participant, but as a brand helping shape the conversations and experiences around security. Securing the Spirit of Delhi The month saw CP PLUS take its place alongside one of the city’s biggest passions: Cricket. The Delhi Premier League brought Delhi’s sporting spirit to life through a season of talent, determination and spirited competition. As part of the journey, CP PLUS helped secure the action on the ground, bringing its expertise in security and surveillance to a platform where the energy of the city took centre stage. It was a fitting intersection of technology and the everyday moments that make a city come alive — securing not just a venue, but the spirit of Delhi on the ground. Shaping the Conversation on the Future of Security Security today extends far beyond what the eye can see. It is increasingly about how connected systems collect, interpret, and act upon information - and, equally, how we build trust around them. At the Security Today Knowledge Summit 2026, CP PLUS joined an important dialogue on “The Ubiquity of Surveillance & the Inversion of Security”, examining the changing relationship between visibility, connectivity, protection and vulnerability in an increasingly surveilled world. Representing CP PLUS, Ms. Swati Samaddar, Head - Government Affairs, brought the brand’s perspective to the conversation, contributing to a larger dialogue on what responsible and future-ready security must look like. As the Title Partner of STKS 2026, CP PLUS continued its commitment to enabling conversations that challenge convention and move the security industry forward. Leading the Way in Manufacturing Innovation The future of technology is built as much on manufacturing capability as it is on ideas. At the 16th Edition of the CII Manufacturing Innovation Conclave (MIC) 2026, CP PLUS stood at the intersection of manufacturing, technology and innovation - reflecting a journey that has increasingly moved from building at scale to building with greater intelligence and indigenous capability. Through investments in technology, manufacturing excellence and innovation, CP PLUS continues to contribute to India’s evolving technology ecosystem, strengthening the foundations for security solutions designed and built for the needs of tomorrow. Securing What’s Next for India’s Cities As cities become more connected, their security ecosystems must evolve with them. At the Safe City & Intelligent Mobility Summit 2026, CP PLUS showcased how AI-powered surveillance, intelligent analytics, and connected security ecosystems can help cities see more clearly, respond more intelligently, and build safer environments. The conversation around smart cities is no longer limited to infrastructure. It is about creating systems that can understand what is happening around them and enable faster, more informed responses. CP PLUS continues to explore this intersection of AI, surveillance, and intelligent urban infrastructure to help shape the cities of tomorrow. Bringing the Future of Security to Bharat Vyapar Mahotsav August also took CP PLUS to Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav 2026, where technology met one of India’s largest business platforms. Through a larger showcase of intelligent surveillance, advanced security solutions, and Made-in-India technology, CP PLUS brought its vision of the future of security closer to businesses and audiences across the country. It was another opportunity to demonstrate how innovation in security is becoming increasingly integral to the way India builds, works, and grows. One Month. One Direction. Across very different platforms, one theme remained constant through August: security is evolving - and CP PLUS is evolving with it. Whether it was securing the pulse of a cricketing city, contributing to conversations around the future of surveillance, advancing manufacturing innovation, enabling smarter cities, or bringing intelligent security to a wider business audience, CP PLUS continued to lead from the ground up. Because leading the way in security is not about being present everywhere. It is about being where India is moving next - and helping secure what comes with it.
Industry Event
India’s premier video security brand PRAMA, presented innovative security products and smart solutions for MSME sector at the first edition of Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM), held from 12th -15th August 2026 at the Bharatiya Mandapam, New Delhi. The event brought together innovators, manufacturers, system integrators and start-ups on the same platform. The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav was inaugurated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry as a Chief Guest . The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Shri Jitin Prasada and Smt. Smriti Irani, Former Union Minister were present as special guests of honour along with other leaders CAIT and Swadeshi Jagran Manch and many more. PRAMA management representative said, “The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahostav is a great platform for Pan India Trade bodies and entrepreneurs of MSME sector. The Indian security market is poised for a new growth phase due to the exponential growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. MSME sector is the backbone of India's economy. We are glad to serve the needs of India’s Medium and Small enterprises. We find Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM) event, a highly valuable exhibition platform to connect with the key stakeholders and ecosystem partners. We showcased the latest products and solutions in this expo. We appreciate CAIT’s proactive role in organizing Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav event to spur innovation and engagement with key industry stakeholders.” He further elaborated, “PRAMA, being India’s premier indigenous security brand holds, great significance. The spectacular growth that India security industry has achieved, PRAMA’s evolution as a leading security brand is the manifestation of Indian spirit and ingenuity. We are taking indigenous manufacturing to the next level. We are here to offer best-in-class products with cutting edge technologies that can deliver solutions as per the MSME Sector’s evolving requirements as per the business cases and application scenarios.” The elaborately designed spacious PRAMA booth was center of attraction for the trade and industry specific visitors. PRAMA booth showcased the latest products and MSME sector’s solutions, including Ai technology, Interactive Display Panel, Perimeter and Defence Solution, Ranginview IP Series with Built-in MiC, Safe City Solution, Transportation Solution, Mobile enforcement Solution, Networking and Transmission and many more. PRAMA booth displayed the latest video security products, including Ai Solution. PRAMA’s AiSense technology, powered by advanced AI Algorithms, takes surveillance to the next level. This technology intelligently distinguishes people and vehicles from other moving objects, reducing false alarm caused by animals or environmental factors. With AiSense Technology one can focus on the real threats, optimize resources and build on an intelligent security system. The AI Sense Technology can be very helpful in the various application scenarios in the retail segment for the MSME sector. PRAMA's Interactive Display Panel (IDP) was displayed at the booth, it is an all-in-one large display panel which integrates features of a computer, whiteboard, and projector, all in one device, making it a versatile tool for education, corporate training and business video conferencing scenarios. It is a great communication and training tool for the MSME sector. PRAMA's booth showcased Safe City Solution, which provides sound, stable and reliable public security. It features a suite of advanced technologies and security subsystems to safeguard industries, centralise operations, and integrate security platforms. These integrated technologies enable rapid and effective responses to security needs and events. Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM) 2026 is India's largest Make-In-India multi-sectoral trade expo, designed to bring together India's diverse business ecosystem under one roof, connecting traders, MSMEs, manufacturers, industry leaders, institutions, and policymakers from across the country. The mega event was organized by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) & ITPO. The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM), 2026 was a four day event, which was successfully concluded. The event helped to create awareness about the latest innovations and products in the myriad trade segments. The discussions and deliberations were done with various key stakeholders on the core trade and MSME issues. The event was attended by the key trade and business professionals, Government officials and key stakeholders from the Trade and MSME sectors.
Industry Event
From the cricket grounds of Delhi to conversations shaping the future of security, from manufacturing floors to the evolving landscape of smart cities, August was a month of movement for CP PLUS. Across diverse platforms and industries, CP PLUS continued to bring its vision of a safer, smarter, and more connected India to life — not merely as a participant, but as a brand helping shape the conversations and experiences around security. Securing the Spirit of Delhi The month saw CP PLUS take its place alongside one of the city’s biggest passions: Cricket. The Delhi Premier League brought Delhi’s sporting spirit to life through a season of talent, determination and spirited competition. As part of the journey, CP PLUS helped secure the action on the ground, bringing its expertise in security and surveillance to a platform where the energy of the city took centre stage. It was a fitting intersection of technology and the everyday moments that make a city come alive — securing not just a venue, but the spirit of Delhi on the ground. Shaping the Conversation on the Future of Security Security today extends far beyond what the eye can see. It is increasingly about how connected systems collect, interpret, and act upon information - and, equally, how we build trust around them. At the Security Today Knowledge Summit 2026, CP PLUS joined an important dialogue on “The Ubiquity of Surveillance & the Inversion of Security”, examining the changing relationship between visibility, connectivity, protection and vulnerability in an increasingly surveilled world. Representing CP PLUS, Ms. Swati Samaddar, Head - Government Affairs, brought the brand’s perspective to the conversation, contributing to a larger dialogue on what responsible and future-ready security must look like. As the Title Partner of STKS 2026, CP PLUS continued its commitment to enabling conversations that challenge convention and move the security industry forward. Leading the Way in Manufacturing Innovation The future of technology is built as much on manufacturing capability as it is on ideas. At the 16th Edition of the CII Manufacturing Innovation Conclave (MIC) 2026, CP PLUS stood at the intersection of manufacturing, technology and innovation - reflecting a journey that has increasingly moved from building at scale to building with greater intelligence and indigenous capability. Through investments in technology, manufacturing excellence and innovation, CP PLUS continues to contribute to India’s evolving technology ecosystem, strengthening the foundations for security solutions designed and built for the needs of tomorrow. Securing What’s Next for India’s Cities As cities become more connected, their security ecosystems must evolve with them. At the Safe City & Intelligent Mobility Summit 2026, CP PLUS showcased how AI-powered surveillance, intelligent analytics, and connected security ecosystems can help cities see more clearly, respond more intelligently, and build safer environments. The conversation around smart cities is no longer limited to infrastructure. It is about creating systems that can understand what is happening around them and enable faster, more informed responses. CP PLUS continues to explore this intersection of AI, surveillance, and intelligent urban infrastructure to help shape the cities of tomorrow. Bringing the Future of Security to Bharat Vyapar Mahotsav August also took CP PLUS to Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav 2026, where technology met one of India’s largest business platforms. Through a larger showcase of intelligent surveillance, advanced security solutions, and Made-in-India technology, CP PLUS brought its vision of the future of security closer to businesses and audiences across the country. It was another opportunity to demonstrate how innovation in security is becoming increasingly integral to the way India builds, works, and grows. One Month. One Direction. Across very different platforms, one theme remained constant through August: security is evolving - and CP PLUS is evolving with it. Whether it was securing the pulse of a cricketing city, contributing to conversations around the future of surveillance, advancing manufacturing innovation, enabling smarter cities, or bringing intelligent security to a wider business audience, CP PLUS continued to lead from the ground up. Because leading the way in security is not about being present everywhere. It is about being where India is moving next - and helping secure what comes with it.
Industry Event
India’s premier video security brand PRAMA, presented innovative security products and smart solutions for MSME sector at the first edition of Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM), held from 12th -15th August 2026 at the Bharatiya Mandapam, New Delhi. The event brought together innovators, manufacturers, system integrators and start-ups on the same platform. The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav was inaugurated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry as a Chief Guest . The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Shri Jitin Prasada and Smt. Smriti Irani, Former Union Minister were present as special guests of honour along with other leaders CAIT and Swadeshi Jagran Manch and many more. PRAMA management representative said, “The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahostav is a great platform for Pan India Trade bodies and entrepreneurs of MSME sector. The Indian security market is poised for a new growth phase due to the exponential growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. MSME sector is the backbone of India's economy. We are glad to serve the needs of India’s Medium and Small enterprises. We find Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM) event, a highly valuable exhibition platform to connect with the key stakeholders and ecosystem partners. We showcased the latest products and solutions in this expo. We appreciate CAIT’s proactive role in organizing Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav event to spur innovation and engagement with key industry stakeholders.” He further elaborated, “PRAMA, being India’s premier indigenous security brand holds, great significance. The spectacular growth that India security industry has achieved, PRAMA’s evolution as a leading security brand is the manifestation of Indian spirit and ingenuity. We are taking indigenous manufacturing to the next level. We are here to offer best-in-class products with cutting edge technologies that can deliver solutions as per the MSME Sector’s evolving requirements as per the business cases and application scenarios.” The elaborately designed spacious PRAMA booth was center of attraction for the trade and industry specific visitors. PRAMA booth showcased the latest products and MSME sector’s solutions, including Ai technology, Interactive Display Panel, Perimeter and Defence Solution, Ranginview IP Series with Built-in MiC, Safe City Solution, Transportation Solution, Mobile enforcement Solution, Networking and Transmission and many more. PRAMA booth displayed the latest video security products, including Ai Solution. PRAMA’s AiSense technology, powered by advanced AI Algorithms, takes surveillance to the next level. This technology intelligently distinguishes people and vehicles from other moving objects, reducing false alarm caused by animals or environmental factors. With AiSense Technology one can focus on the real threats, optimize resources and build on an intelligent security system. The AI Sense Technology can be very helpful in the various application scenarios in the retail segment for the MSME sector. PRAMA's Interactive Display Panel (IDP) was displayed at the booth, it is an all-in-one large display panel which integrates features of a computer, whiteboard, and projector, all in one device, making it a versatile tool for education, corporate training and business video conferencing scenarios. It is a great communication and training tool for the MSME sector. PRAMA's booth showcased Safe City Solution, which provides sound, stable and reliable public security. It features a suite of advanced technologies and security subsystems to safeguard industries, centralise operations, and integrate security platforms. These integrated technologies enable rapid and effective responses to security needs and events. Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM) 2026 is India's largest Make-In-India multi-sectoral trade expo, designed to bring together India's diverse business ecosystem under one roof, connecting traders, MSMEs, manufacturers, industry leaders, institutions, and policymakers from across the country. The mega event was organized by Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) & ITPO. The Bharatiya Vyapar Mahotsav (BVM), 2026 was a four day event, which was successfully concluded. The event helped to create awareness about the latest innovations and products in the myriad trade segments. The discussions and deliberations were done with various key stakeholders on the core trade and MSME issues. The event was attended by the key trade and business professionals, Government officials and key stakeholders from the Trade and MSME sectors.
Voice of Channel Chief
Atul Gupta Director - RX Infotech As organizations accelerate cloud adoption and AI initiatives, the focus has shifted from simply moving workloads to building secure, compliant, and scalable digital environments. Lapcare supports this transition through offering premium dependable technology solutions that enables partners to build secure, productive, and future-ready digital environments Overcoming the Toughest Barriers in Cloud Migration Cloud migration today is no longer a technology refresh—it is a strategic business transformation. At Lapcare, we believe the biggest challenge in migrating legacy workloads such as ERP, CRM, or inventory management systems to the cloud is ensuring business continuity while preserving data integrity and security. Many organizations rely on customized legacy applications that are deeply integrated with day-to-day operations. Our approach is to adopt a phased migration strategy, beginning with a comprehensive assessment, followed by workload prioritization, rigorous testing, and secure data migration. This minimizes disruption while enabling customers to modernize their IT environment with confidence. Aligning Cloud Migration with AI Adoption and Compliance Requirements The rapid adoption of Generative AI, coupled with India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and data localization requirements, has significantly changed how organizations plan their cloud journey. Cloud infrastructure must now be designed with security, governance, compliance, and scalability at its core. At Lapcare, we see cloud modernization as the foundation for AI-driven innovation. Organizations require secure, compliant, and high-performance infrastructure to unlock the full potential of AI, analytics, and intelligent automation. As a trusted technology brand, we support this transformation through a comprehensive portfolio of IT peripherals, networking products, storage solutions, power solutions, and enterprise accessories that enable reliable hybrid and cloud-first workplaces. Building Long-Term Customer Value Beyond Cloud Migration Looking beyond migration, the greatest long-term opportunity for Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and solution partners lies in delivering end-to-end managed services that combine AI enablement, cybersecurity, cloud optimization, and lifecycle support. Customers increasingly seek strategic technology partners rather than product suppliers. Our focus is to strengthen this ecosystem by providing high-quality, dependable technology solutions that empower partners to build secure, productive, and future-ready digital environments. As cloud adoption accelerates across India, we believe sustainable value will come from helping businesses continuously optimize, secure, and innovate on their cloud investments rather than viewing migration as a one-time project.
Voice of Channel Chief
Neeraj Gargi, CTO & Director - Intelegain Technologies At Intelegain Technologies, cloud migration is approached as a business transformation initiative rather than a technology project. By combining structured migration planning, AI-led process transformation, and continuous security optimization, the company helps organizations reduce risk, improve operational performance, and create long-term business value beyond migration. Overcoming the Toughest Barriers in Cloud Migration Disruption to an established infrastructure initially brings internal challenges related to factors such as change management, TCO, and stakeholder alignment. Once buy-in is secured from internal stakeholders, organizations can begin evaluating other factors that influence the cloud migration strategy, including: Ø Licensing complexities from OEMs related to running workloads on-premises versus in the public cloud. Ø Regulatory compliance requirements for migrating business-critical applications to the public cloud, although most compliance frameworks support cloud adoption with appropriate adjustments to the migration strategy. Ø System integration requirements with external applications and third-party platforms. Ø Understanding the TCO implications when transitioning from a CAPEX to an OPEX model. The following is an industry-proven approach as cloud migration strategy: Discovery: We conduct an end-to-end assessment of the existing IT landscape — legacy applications, their dependencies, and their actual relevance to current business needs. This phase is designed to answer three fundamental questions: What exists? What is being used? What can be retired? Take Baby Steps: We follow a repeatable, workload-by-workload framework that allows each application to move at its own pace: Discover → Assess → Prioritize → Pilot → Migrate → Optimize . Throughout this journey, the focus stays on business outcomes, not migration metrics. Success is measured by improved performance, reduced costs, stronger compliance, and tangible value delivered to the business. Building Long-Term Customer Value Beyond Cloud Migration The biggest long-term value creation opportunity is not in migration itself, but in the intersection of AI and security. Migration revenues are finite. Once the workload is moved, the project ends. The real opportunity is creating recurring business value after migration. Guided AI Led Business Process Transformation Most customers do not need another chatbot. They need measurable improvements in productivity, customer experience, revenue, compliance, and operational efficiency. Organizations should therefore begin with clearly defined business objectives rather than the technology itself, focusing on metrics such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, customer retention, employee productivity, working capital reduction, faster decision making, and compliance improvement. Driving Cloud and Data Security As organizations accelerate their digital transformation journeys, maintaining a strong security posture is no longer optional—it is a fundamental business requirement. For solution providers and technology partners, helping customers strengthen and continuously improve their security posture creates significant long-term business value. Security is not a one-time implementation project; it requires ongoing monitoring, optimization, policy enhancements, compliance assessments, and adaptation to an evolving threat landscape. This creates opportunities for recurring engagement through managed security services, security operations, compliance consulting, vulnerability management, and cloud security optimization.
Voice of Channel Chief
Atul Gupta Director - RX Infotech As organizations accelerate cloud adoption and AI initiatives, the focus has shifted from simply moving workloads to building secure, compliant, and scalable digital environments. Lapcare supports this transition through offering premium dependable technology solutions that enables partners to build secure, productive, and future-ready digital environments Overcoming the Toughest Barriers in Cloud Migration Cloud migration today is no longer a technology refresh—it is a strategic business transformation. At Lapcare, we believe the biggest challenge in migrating legacy workloads such as ERP, CRM, or inventory management systems to the cloud is ensuring business continuity while preserving data integrity and security. Many organizations rely on customized legacy applications that are deeply integrated with day-to-day operations. Our approach is to adopt a phased migration strategy, beginning with a comprehensive assessment, followed by workload prioritization, rigorous testing, and secure data migration. This minimizes disruption while enabling customers to modernize their IT environment with confidence. Aligning Cloud Migration with AI Adoption and Compliance Requirements The rapid adoption of Generative AI, coupled with India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and data localization requirements, has significantly changed how organizations plan their cloud journey. Cloud infrastructure must now be designed with security, governance, compliance, and scalability at its core. At Lapcare, we see cloud modernization as the foundation for AI-driven innovation. Organizations require secure, compliant, and high-performance infrastructure to unlock the full potential of AI, analytics, and intelligent automation. As a trusted technology brand, we support this transformation through a comprehensive portfolio of IT peripherals, networking products, storage solutions, power solutions, and enterprise accessories that enable reliable hybrid and cloud-first workplaces. Building Long-Term Customer Value Beyond Cloud Migration Looking beyond migration, the greatest long-term opportunity for Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and solution partners lies in delivering end-to-end managed services that combine AI enablement, cybersecurity, cloud optimization, and lifecycle support. Customers increasingly seek strategic technology partners rather than product suppliers. Our focus is to strengthen this ecosystem by providing high-quality, dependable technology solutions that empower partners to build secure, productive, and future-ready digital environments. As cloud adoption accelerates across India, we believe sustainable value will come from helping businesses continuously optimize, secure, and innovate on their cloud investments rather than viewing migration as a one-time project.
Voice of Channel Chief
Neeraj Gargi, CTO & Director - Intelegain Technologies At Intelegain Technologies, cloud migration is approached as a business transformation initiative rather than a technology project. By combining structured migration planning, AI-led process transformation, and continuous security optimization, the company helps organizations reduce risk, improve operational performance, and create long-term business value beyond migration. Overcoming the Toughest Barriers in Cloud Migration Disruption to an established infrastructure initially brings internal challenges related to factors such as change management, TCO, and stakeholder alignment. Once buy-in is secured from internal stakeholders, organizations can begin evaluating other factors that influence the cloud migration strategy, including: Ø Licensing complexities from OEMs related to running workloads on-premises versus in the public cloud. Ø Regulatory compliance requirements for migrating business-critical applications to the public cloud, although most compliance frameworks support cloud adoption with appropriate adjustments to the migration strategy. Ø System integration requirements with external applications and third-party platforms. Ø Understanding the TCO implications when transitioning from a CAPEX to an OPEX model. The following is an industry-proven approach as cloud migration strategy: Discovery: We conduct an end-to-end assessment of the existing IT landscape — legacy applications, their dependencies, and their actual relevance to current business needs. This phase is designed to answer three fundamental questions: What exists? What is being used? What can be retired? Take Baby Steps: We follow a repeatable, workload-by-workload framework that allows each application to move at its own pace: Discover → Assess → Prioritize → Pilot → Migrate → Optimize . Throughout this journey, the focus stays on business outcomes, not migration metrics. Success is measured by improved performance, reduced costs, stronger compliance, and tangible value delivered to the business. Building Long-Term Customer Value Beyond Cloud Migration The biggest long-term value creation opportunity is not in migration itself, but in the intersection of AI and security. Migration revenues are finite. Once the workload is moved, the project ends. The real opportunity is creating recurring business value after migration. Guided AI Led Business Process Transformation Most customers do not need another chatbot. They need measurable improvements in productivity, customer experience, revenue, compliance, and operational efficiency. Organizations should therefore begin with clearly defined business objectives rather than the technology itself, focusing on metrics such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, customer retention, employee productivity, working capital reduction, faster decision making, and compliance improvement. Driving Cloud and Data Security As organizations accelerate their digital transformation journeys, maintaining a strong security posture is no longer optional—it is a fundamental business requirement. For solution providers and technology partners, helping customers strengthen and continuously improve their security posture creates significant long-term business value. Security is not a one-time implementation project; it requires ongoing monitoring, optimization, policy enhancements, compliance assessments, and adaptation to an evolving threat landscape. This creates opportunities for recurring engagement through managed security services, security operations, compliance consulting, vulnerability management, and cloud security optimization.
Technotainment
A high-profile alleged sextortion case in Mumbai has prompted the Crime Branch to investigate what police suspect could be a broader network targeting wealthy businessmen, entrepreneurs and senior executives. The investigation widened after a 31-year-old woman who had filed a rape complaint against Easy Pay founder Nilay Patel was herself arrested over an alleged multimillion-rupee extortion demand. According to police, the woman had accused Patel of sexually assaulting her at a five-star hotel near Mumbai airport, leading to his arrest on July 24. Investigators subsequently allege that she demanded ₹4 crore to withdraw or settle the matter. The demand was reportedly negotiated down to ₹2.5 crore. Patel’s representatives began recording conversations during the negotiations. Police say these recordings, together with call records, messages and financial transactions, have become key evidence in the Anti-Extortion Cell’s investigation. Authorities allege that an initial payment of ₹5 lakh was accepted in Mumbai’s BKC area before arrests were made. The Crime Branch is now examining whether similar tactics were used against other affluent individuals. Investigators suspect potential targets may have been approached through introductions involving banking, financing or prospective business relationships before personal relationships developed and alleged threats or financial demands followed. Authorities are also examining reports of an earlier Goa extortion case involving a woman with the same name and alleged associates. Police still need to establish whether the individual in that case and the woman arrested in Mumbai are the same person. The investigation highlights the growing complexity of sextortion and reputation-based financial crime, where personal relationships, digital communications, recordings and threats of legal or reputational damage can potentially be weaponized for financial gain. The allegations remain under investigation and should not be treated as established facts until determined through the judicial process. But the case sends an important warning to business leaders: in the digital era, personal security, identity verification and preservation of digital evidence are becoming as critical as corporate cybersecurity.
Technotainment
Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon has found herself at the centre of a heated social-media debate after her Raksha Bandhan advertisement for jewellery brand GIVA triggered criticism over her outfit and its portrayal of the festival. The advertisement showed Sanon wearing an Indo-Western ensemble featuring a bralette-style blouse, cape and draped skirt while celebrating Raksha Bandhan. She was also shown tying a rakhi to her pet dog. A section of social-media users argued that the styling was inappropriate for a traditional festival and questioned the absence of familiar elements such as a puja thali and tilak. Others objected to extending the rakhi ritual to a pet. However, many users defended Sanon, arguing that clothing should not determine someone's respect for culture or tradition. The debate subsequently widened after actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut criticised the campaign. Sanon responded strongly, saying the essence of festivals lies in their emotions and meaning rather than clothing. She also explained that her sister and dogs are part of the protective emotional bond Raksha Bandhan represents for her. The controversy ultimately prompted GIVA to withdraw the advertisement, saying it respected Indian culture and had never intended to hurt sentiments. The episode highlights a growing challenge for brands operating in India's enormous consumer market. Advertising increasingly attempts to combine modern lifestyles with traditional cultural identities, but the boundary between creative reinterpretation and cultural sensitivity can quickly become contentious. For marketers, the lesson is significant: in the social-media era, festive campaigns are no longer merely advertisements. Every creative decision can become a national conversation about culture, identity and changing social values.
Technotainment
A high-profile alleged sextortion case in Mumbai has prompted the Crime Branch to investigate what police suspect could be a broader network targeting wealthy businessmen, entrepreneurs and senior executives. The investigation widened after a 31-year-old woman who had filed a rape complaint against Easy Pay founder Nilay Patel was herself arrested over an alleged multimillion-rupee extortion demand. According to police, the woman had accused Patel of sexually assaulting her at a five-star hotel near Mumbai airport, leading to his arrest on July 24. Investigators subsequently allege that she demanded ₹4 crore to withdraw or settle the matter. The demand was reportedly negotiated down to ₹2.5 crore. Patel’s representatives began recording conversations during the negotiations. Police say these recordings, together with call records, messages and financial transactions, have become key evidence in the Anti-Extortion Cell’s investigation. Authorities allege that an initial payment of ₹5 lakh was accepted in Mumbai’s BKC area before arrests were made. The Crime Branch is now examining whether similar tactics were used against other affluent individuals. Investigators suspect potential targets may have been approached through introductions involving banking, financing or prospective business relationships before personal relationships developed and alleged threats or financial demands followed. Authorities are also examining reports of an earlier Goa extortion case involving a woman with the same name and alleged associates. Police still need to establish whether the individual in that case and the woman arrested in Mumbai are the same person. The investigation highlights the growing complexity of sextortion and reputation-based financial crime, where personal relationships, digital communications, recordings and threats of legal or reputational damage can potentially be weaponized for financial gain. The allegations remain under investigation and should not be treated as established facts until determined through the judicial process. But the case sends an important warning to business leaders: in the digital era, personal security, identity verification and preservation of digital evidence are becoming as critical as corporate cybersecurity.
Technotainment
Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon has found herself at the centre of a heated social-media debate after her Raksha Bandhan advertisement for jewellery brand GIVA triggered criticism over her outfit and its portrayal of the festival. The advertisement showed Sanon wearing an Indo-Western ensemble featuring a bralette-style blouse, cape and draped skirt while celebrating Raksha Bandhan. She was also shown tying a rakhi to her pet dog. A section of social-media users argued that the styling was inappropriate for a traditional festival and questioned the absence of familiar elements such as a puja thali and tilak. Others objected to extending the rakhi ritual to a pet. However, many users defended Sanon, arguing that clothing should not determine someone's respect for culture or tradition. The debate subsequently widened after actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut criticised the campaign. Sanon responded strongly, saying the essence of festivals lies in their emotions and meaning rather than clothing. She also explained that her sister and dogs are part of the protective emotional bond Raksha Bandhan represents for her. The controversy ultimately prompted GIVA to withdraw the advertisement, saying it respected Indian culture and had never intended to hurt sentiments. The episode highlights a growing challenge for brands operating in India's enormous consumer market. Advertising increasingly attempts to combine modern lifestyles with traditional cultural identities, but the boundary between creative reinterpretation and cultural sensitivity can quickly become contentious. For marketers, the lesson is significant: in the social-media era, festive campaigns are no longer merely advertisements. Every creative decision can become a national conversation about culture, identity and changing social values.
Investments
India’s technology M&A market is revealing two sharply different stories: AI-native startups attracting rapid strategic acquisitions while once highly valued digital businesses consolidate at dramatically lower valuations. Key Highlights 1. Adobe acquires Rilo within a year of its founding. 2. AI talent and IP are driving faster strategic exits. 3. upGrad acquires Unacademy for about $206 million. 4. Unacademy’s valuation falls ~94% from its 2021 peak. 5. India’s M&A market is resetting: AI innovation commands attention while legacy digital valuations face reality checks. Adobe’s acquisition of Rilo illustrates the speed of the AI opportunity. Founded in September 2025 by IIT Bombay batchmates Dhruv Jaglan and Georgi Boby, Rilo developed AI agents capable of executing marketing and go-to-market workflows through natural-language instructions. The six-member startup evolved its technology toward “AI employees” that could support competitive intelligence, prospecting and campaign research. Less than a year after its launch, Adobe acquired Rilo’s team and technology through a licensing-and-talent transaction. Financial terms were undisclosed. Rilo had reportedly raised only $1 million at a $10 million valuation. The acquisition demonstrates how specialised AI talent, intellectual property and agentic capabilities can become strategically valuable long before a startup reaches significant scale. At the other end of the spectrum, upGrad’s approximately $206 million all-stock acquisition of Unacademy represents consolidation following the pandemic-era edtech boom. The transaction values Unacademy roughly 94% below its $3.44 billion peak valuation in 2021. CEO Gaurav Munjal acknowledged the substantial valuation decline while maintaining that the transaction was not a distress sale, pointing to Unacademy’s cash position, revenue and improving business economics. Together, the deals underline a changing technology market: investors and acquirers are increasingly rewarding AI capability, specialised talent and strategic technology, while established digital businesses face greater pressure to demonstrate sustainable growth and profitability.
Investments
AI-driven scenario planning and analysis platform, Anaplan has announced a multi-million-dollar investment to expand its Asia-Pacific (APAC) presence. As part of the initiative, Anaplan has opened its largest office to date in Gurugram, India, featuring the company’s first Customer Experience Center in the region. “APAC is critical to Anaplan’s growth, ongoing innovation and AI leadership,” said Charles Gottdiener, Chief Executive Officer, Anaplan . “As enterprises across the region navigate increasing complexity, they need a decision infrastructure that allows them to move with speed, precision and confidence. Our investment in Gurugram as a strategic hub accelerates our growth and brings world-class talent and AI-focused innovation closer to the organizations we serve.” Accelerating APAC Momentum The expansion builds on Anaplan’s rapid growth across the APAC region. Recent milestones include: · Financial growth: APAC was Anaplan's fastest growing region for net new bookings last fiscal year. · Expanding footprint: Anaplan now boasts more than 500 employees across nine APAC offices, bolstered by new data centers in India, Indonesia, Singapore to support local data residency. · Enterprise adoption: Over 500 regional customers, including Bridgestone, Cebu Pacific, Canva, Mitsui Chemicals, Mizuho Bank and Omron Healthcare rely on Anaplan for complex decision-making across finance, supply chain, sales and workforce planning. A New Hub for Innovation in India Created in partnership with DLF India, the country’s largest real estate developer, Anaplan’s new 42,000-square-foot Gurugram facility can accommodate up to 500 employees. The space brings together engineering, product development, go-to-market, customer support, marketing and human resources teams in one of India’s leading markets for enterprise technology talent. Gurugram-based teams will be instrumental in shaping Anaplan’s global product roadmap and advancing its framework for the Agentic Enterprise — an integrated operating model where role-based AI agents run routine operations across finance, supply chain, HR and sales. The facility’s dedicated Customer Experience Center offers enterprise leaders a hands-on environment to test role-based AI agents and explore interactive scenario planning use cases, providing a tangible look at how agentic AI drives resource allocation and accelerates decision velocity at scale. “The caliber of India’s engineering and AI talent is world-class,” said Sanket Deodhar, India Head, Anaplan . “Our customers, like Deepak Fertilizers, Alkem, Daimler Commercia Vehicles, and Hero Fincorp, span a number of India’s most critical industries, reflecting the massive reach of our platform across the country’s economy. India’s largest enterprises need agility at scale, and from Gurugram, our teams will help build and deliver the agentic AI capabilities that make that possible.”
Investments
India’s technology M&A market is revealing two sharply different stories: AI-native startups attracting rapid strategic acquisitions while once highly valued digital businesses consolidate at dramatically lower valuations. Key Highlights 1. Adobe acquires Rilo within a year of its founding. 2. AI talent and IP are driving faster strategic exits. 3. upGrad acquires Unacademy for about $206 million. 4. Unacademy’s valuation falls ~94% from its 2021 peak. 5. India’s M&A market is resetting: AI innovation commands attention while legacy digital valuations face reality checks. Adobe’s acquisition of Rilo illustrates the speed of the AI opportunity. Founded in September 2025 by IIT Bombay batchmates Dhruv Jaglan and Georgi Boby, Rilo developed AI agents capable of executing marketing and go-to-market workflows through natural-language instructions. The six-member startup evolved its technology toward “AI employees” that could support competitive intelligence, prospecting and campaign research. Less than a year after its launch, Adobe acquired Rilo’s team and technology through a licensing-and-talent transaction. Financial terms were undisclosed. Rilo had reportedly raised only $1 million at a $10 million valuation. The acquisition demonstrates how specialised AI talent, intellectual property and agentic capabilities can become strategically valuable long before a startup reaches significant scale. At the other end of the spectrum, upGrad’s approximately $206 million all-stock acquisition of Unacademy represents consolidation following the pandemic-era edtech boom. The transaction values Unacademy roughly 94% below its $3.44 billion peak valuation in 2021. CEO Gaurav Munjal acknowledged the substantial valuation decline while maintaining that the transaction was not a distress sale, pointing to Unacademy’s cash position, revenue and improving business economics. Together, the deals underline a changing technology market: investors and acquirers are increasingly rewarding AI capability, specialised talent and strategic technology, while established digital businesses face greater pressure to demonstrate sustainable growth and profitability.
Investments
AI-driven scenario planning and analysis platform, Anaplan has announced a multi-million-dollar investment to expand its Asia-Pacific (APAC) presence. As part of the initiative, Anaplan has opened its largest office to date in Gurugram, India, featuring the company’s first Customer Experience Center in the region. “APAC is critical to Anaplan’s growth, ongoing innovation and AI leadership,” said Charles Gottdiener, Chief Executive Officer, Anaplan . “As enterprises across the region navigate increasing complexity, they need a decision infrastructure that allows them to move with speed, precision and confidence. Our investment in Gurugram as a strategic hub accelerates our growth and brings world-class talent and AI-focused innovation closer to the organizations we serve.” Accelerating APAC Momentum The expansion builds on Anaplan’s rapid growth across the APAC region. Recent milestones include: · Financial growth: APAC was Anaplan's fastest growing region for net new bookings last fiscal year. · Expanding footprint: Anaplan now boasts more than 500 employees across nine APAC offices, bolstered by new data centers in India, Indonesia, Singapore to support local data residency. · Enterprise adoption: Over 500 regional customers, including Bridgestone, Cebu Pacific, Canva, Mitsui Chemicals, Mizuho Bank and Omron Healthcare rely on Anaplan for complex decision-making across finance, supply chain, sales and workforce planning. A New Hub for Innovation in India Created in partnership with DLF India, the country’s largest real estate developer, Anaplan’s new 42,000-square-foot Gurugram facility can accommodate up to 500 employees. The space brings together engineering, product development, go-to-market, customer support, marketing and human resources teams in one of India’s leading markets for enterprise technology talent. Gurugram-based teams will be instrumental in shaping Anaplan’s global product roadmap and advancing its framework for the Agentic Enterprise — an integrated operating model where role-based AI agents run routine operations across finance, supply chain, HR and sales. The facility’s dedicated Customer Experience Center offers enterprise leaders a hands-on environment to test role-based AI agents and explore interactive scenario planning use cases, providing a tangible look at how agentic AI drives resource allocation and accelerates decision velocity at scale. “The caliber of India’s engineering and AI talent is world-class,” said Sanket Deodhar, India Head, Anaplan . “Our customers, like Deepak Fertilizers, Alkem, Daimler Commercia Vehicles, and Hero Fincorp, span a number of India’s most critical industries, reflecting the massive reach of our platform across the country’s economy. India’s largest enterprises need agility at scale, and from Gurugram, our teams will help build and deliver the agentic AI capabilities that make that possible.”
Make In India
Homegrown high-end computing company Netweb Technologies has raised ₹1,200 crore through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), marking its first equity capital raise since its stock-market listing in July 2023. The fundraise attracted strong participation from domestic and international institutional investors, underlining growing investor interest in India's rapidly expanding AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure market. Marquee participants included Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Nomura Asset Management, Amundi Asset Management and Think Investments, alongside major Indian mutual funds including ICICI Prudential, HDFC, Kotak, Tata, Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss, Invesco and Bank of India Mutual Fund. Under the QIP, Netweb allotted 2,505,219 equity shares with a face value of ₹2 each at an issue price of ₹4,790 per share, including a premium of ₹4,788 per share. The company plans to use the proceeds primarily to strengthen working capital as it prepares to execute an anticipated expansion in its order book. A portion will also be available for general corporate purposes. Netweb Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Lodha described the QIP as an important milestone and said institutional participation reflected confidence in both the company's performance and the long-term opportunity in AI and high-end computing infrastructure. The timing is significant. India's demand for AI servers, GPU infrastructure, supercomputing, private AI clouds and sovereign computing capacity is accelerating as enterprises, government agencies and research institutions increase AI deployments. This is also making India's computing infrastructure market increasingly competitive. Domestic companies such as Netweb will have to compete with global technology majors and other infrastructure providers for enterprise, government and hyperscale AI investments. Access to fresh capital could therefore become a strategic advantage. As AI models become more computationally demanding, vendors capable of supplying high-density computing infrastructure quickly and at scale will be better positioned to capture the emerging opportunity. Despite the fundraise, Netweb shares were trading 4.26% lower at ₹5,225 on the BSE on Tuesday afternoon. The near-term market reaction notwithstanding, the ₹1,200-crore institutional backing highlights a larger trend: India's AI race is rapidly becoming an infrastructure race—and capital will be critical to winning it.
Make In India
India's deep-tech competition is moving beneath the ocean. Odisha-based Coratia Technologies has secured a ₹66-crore Indian Navy contract for indigenous underwater remotely operated vehicles (UWROVs), signalling the emergence of underwater robotics as a strategic technology market. Founded in 2021 and incubated at NIT Rourkela, Coratia develops remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Equipped with cameras, sonar, positioning systems and AI-based inspection capabilities, its robots can inspect locations where sending human divers can be expensive, difficult or dangerous. The technology has applications far beyond defence. Bridges, dams, ports, ship hulls, offshore infrastructure, pipelines and undersea communication cables all require inspection and monitoring, creating a potentially large dual-use market. Coratia's Indian Navy contract under the Ministry of Defence's iDEX initiative represents an important validation of indigenous technology. Its Jalasimha platform has undergone open-sea trials and testing beyond 1,485 feet, while integrating sonar, imaging, leak detection and AI-powered analytics. But Coratia will not have the market to itself. Kochi-based EyeROV has also secured a ₹47-crore Indian Navy order and operates across defence and industrial inspection. Chennai-based Vikra Ocean Tech is developing deep-water ROVs, autonomous surface vessels and amphibious robots. Competition will therefore increasingly revolve around depth, autonomy, endurance, AI analytics, sensor fusion, payload capability, reliability and cost. Companies capable of combining robotic hardware with intelligent data analysis will have an advantage over those providing inspection hardware alone. The opportunity is particularly important because subsea infrastructure is becoming strategically critical. Undersea cables carry enormous volumes of international digital traffic, while ports, offshore energy installations and naval infrastructure require continuous monitoring and protection. India's defence modernisation is simultaneously creating a powerful domestic customer. The Navy is investing across autonomous maritime surveillance, underwater warfare and indigenous platforms, potentially giving Indian startups the scale and operational validation needed to compete internationally. The next stage could see competition expand from individual robots toward complete AI-powered maritime intelligence platforms connecting underwater vehicles, autonomous surface systems, sonar, computer vision and command centres. Coratia's ₹66-crore breakthrough therefore represents more than a startup success. It signals the beginning of an indigenous underwater robotics race, where Indian deep-tech companies could challenge imported systems while building technologies for defence, infrastructure and the rapidly expanding blue economy.
Make In India
Homegrown high-end computing company Netweb Technologies has raised ₹1,200 crore through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), marking its first equity capital raise since its stock-market listing in July 2023. The fundraise attracted strong participation from domestic and international institutional investors, underlining growing investor interest in India's rapidly expanding AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure market. Marquee participants included Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Nomura Asset Management, Amundi Asset Management and Think Investments, alongside major Indian mutual funds including ICICI Prudential, HDFC, Kotak, Tata, Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss, Invesco and Bank of India Mutual Fund. Under the QIP, Netweb allotted 2,505,219 equity shares with a face value of ₹2 each at an issue price of ₹4,790 per share, including a premium of ₹4,788 per share. The company plans to use the proceeds primarily to strengthen working capital as it prepares to execute an anticipated expansion in its order book. A portion will also be available for general corporate purposes. Netweb Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Lodha described the QIP as an important milestone and said institutional participation reflected confidence in both the company's performance and the long-term opportunity in AI and high-end computing infrastructure. The timing is significant. India's demand for AI servers, GPU infrastructure, supercomputing, private AI clouds and sovereign computing capacity is accelerating as enterprises, government agencies and research institutions increase AI deployments. This is also making India's computing infrastructure market increasingly competitive. Domestic companies such as Netweb will have to compete with global technology majors and other infrastructure providers for enterprise, government and hyperscale AI investments. Access to fresh capital could therefore become a strategic advantage. As AI models become more computationally demanding, vendors capable of supplying high-density computing infrastructure quickly and at scale will be better positioned to capture the emerging opportunity. Despite the fundraise, Netweb shares were trading 4.26% lower at ₹5,225 on the BSE on Tuesday afternoon. The near-term market reaction notwithstanding, the ₹1,200-crore institutional backing highlights a larger trend: India's AI race is rapidly becoming an infrastructure race—and capital will be critical to winning it.
Make In India
India's deep-tech competition is moving beneath the ocean. Odisha-based Coratia Technologies has secured a ₹66-crore Indian Navy contract for indigenous underwater remotely operated vehicles (UWROVs), signalling the emergence of underwater robotics as a strategic technology market. Founded in 2021 and incubated at NIT Rourkela, Coratia develops remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Equipped with cameras, sonar, positioning systems and AI-based inspection capabilities, its robots can inspect locations where sending human divers can be expensive, difficult or dangerous. The technology has applications far beyond defence. Bridges, dams, ports, ship hulls, offshore infrastructure, pipelines and undersea communication cables all require inspection and monitoring, creating a potentially large dual-use market. Coratia's Indian Navy contract under the Ministry of Defence's iDEX initiative represents an important validation of indigenous technology. Its Jalasimha platform has undergone open-sea trials and testing beyond 1,485 feet, while integrating sonar, imaging, leak detection and AI-powered analytics. But Coratia will not have the market to itself. Kochi-based EyeROV has also secured a ₹47-crore Indian Navy order and operates across defence and industrial inspection. Chennai-based Vikra Ocean Tech is developing deep-water ROVs, autonomous surface vessels and amphibious robots. Competition will therefore increasingly revolve around depth, autonomy, endurance, AI analytics, sensor fusion, payload capability, reliability and cost. Companies capable of combining robotic hardware with intelligent data analysis will have an advantage over those providing inspection hardware alone. The opportunity is particularly important because subsea infrastructure is becoming strategically critical. Undersea cables carry enormous volumes of international digital traffic, while ports, offshore energy installations and naval infrastructure require continuous monitoring and protection. India's defence modernisation is simultaneously creating a powerful domestic customer. The Navy is investing across autonomous maritime surveillance, underwater warfare and indigenous platforms, potentially giving Indian startups the scale and operational validation needed to compete internationally. The next stage could see competition expand from individual robots toward complete AI-powered maritime intelligence platforms connecting underwater vehicles, autonomous surface systems, sonar, computer vision and command centres. Coratia's ₹66-crore breakthrough therefore represents more than a startup success. It signals the beginning of an indigenous underwater robotics race, where Indian deep-tech companies could challenge imported systems while building technologies for defence, infrastructure and the rapidly expanding blue economy.
Start-UP
TypeSafe AI , developer of the fast-rising Jev model, is reportedly in early talks to raise at least $1 billion at a valuation exceeding $10 billion. Some investors have offered to lead the potential round, although discussions remain preliminary. The extraordinary part is the speed. TypeSafe emerged from stealth on September 15 with a $40 million seed round led by DCVC and a reported valuation of around $200 million. Within nine days, funding discussions implied a potential 50-fold valuation increase. Founder Diogo Almeida previously worked at OpenAI on instruction-following techniques that contributed to the development of ChatGPT. But Jev takes a different approach: rather than generating language, it is designed to help software make structured decisions. Jev produces a Choice or Score accompanied by a confidence level between zero and one. High-confidence decisions can be automated, uncertain cases reviewed, and low-confidence cases escalated to humans. TypeSafe claims Jev is dramatically faster and cheaper than frontier LLMs, although those benchmarks remain company-reported. Investor excitement accelerated after Jev appeared on Vercel’s AI Gateway. Within 24 hours, nearly 13% of paid teams reportedly tried the model, making it the gateway’s fastest-adopted model. However, usage occurred during free access, so it does not necessarily demonstrate recurring paid demand. The investment thesis therefore rests on three factors: Almeida’s AI pedigree, Jev’s differentiated non-generative architecture, and unusually rapid developer experimentation. The bigger question is whether commercial evidence can catch up with valuation expectations. A $10 billion valuation would represent a major bet that “typed decision” models become an important automation layer—and that Jev can defend that position as competitors inevitably emerge.
Start-UP
Navana.ai is a full stack voice AI company in India offering regulated enterprises Voice AI driven business outcomes without compromising on data privacy and compliance through on-prem deployments Navana.ai , a leading sovereign voice AI company for regulated enterprises, today announced that it has raised INR 40 crore in a Series A funding round led by renowned entrepreneur and investor Ronnie Screwvala. Other investors, including Sharad Sanghi, Antler India, Sandeep Singhal and Paula Mariwala have also participated in the round, as Navana.ai deepens its pan-India reach through its proprietary speech models across Indic languages. This fresh capital raised will be used to scale the company’s deployments among BFSI enterprises, to continue spearheading innovation in speech models for Indian languages and dialects, and further the product development of the company’s AI Contact Centre and automated evaluation platform. Navana.ai has serviced over 100 million voice ai minutes with leading BFSI players such as Bajaj Finserv, Protean, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Grihum Housing Finance and others to automate their call center driven business outcomes across sales, collections, compliance and support with Voice AI. Co-founded by brothers Raoul Nanavati and Jai Nanavati, their mission is rooted in a simple observation from the founders that the vast majority of Indians (with only 6–10% speaking English and just 38% of households digitally literate) have been locked out of English-first digital services. By building voice AI that meets people in their own language and dialect, Navana.ai aims to close that gap at the scale of the country's 1 billion-plus internet users. Navana.ai has built proprietary speech models in 12 Indian languages and 45 dialects on real-world Indian speech to handle noise, overlapping speech, code-switching and regional accents. The company has contributed to the ecosystem through long-standing open source collaborations with institutions including IISc Bengaluru, IIT Madras, Microsoft Research and the Gates Foundation. With IISc, Navana.ai open-sourced RESPIN, a 10,000-hour speech corpus spanning 45 dialects, one of the largest openly available Indic speech datasets. In a benchmarking conducted by Navana.ai across various Indian voice AI platforms using real world speech samples, Navana.ai’s Bodhi came out with the highest accuracy in the market making it the most capable in handling real customer conversations. Announcing the company’s fundraise, Raoul Nanavati, Co-Founder and CEO, Navana.ai , said, “From day one, Navana.ai’s mission has been to democratise access to digital services for every Indian, irrespective of where they live. India has spent the last decade building some of these critical digital rails, including identity, connectivity and payments. Now this next decade belongs to meaningful automation. We strongly believe that voice AI will enable automation to truly benefit every Indian’s life, irrespective of their language or literacy. We are excited to partner with Ronnie Screwvala to take our sovereign AI infrastructure to the next stage of scale with some of the biggest names in the BFSI industry.” Investor Ronnie Screwvala, commented, “Navana.ai is solving a problem that large global and generalised AI models simply aren’t built for, which is the sheer linguistic complexity and diversity of India. Voice AI will be a critical part of India’s digital infrastructure as it will soon be an INR 9,500 crore-worth category. But what is important as India builds its voice AI models is not price of the offerings, but about where the customer data actually sits and whether the models are regulator-compliant. Navana.ai addresses exactly this, proving to be a reliable voice AI partner for India’s enterprises. ”
Start-UP
TypeSafe AI , developer of the fast-rising Jev model, is reportedly in early talks to raise at least $1 billion at a valuation exceeding $10 billion. Some investors have offered to lead the potential round, although discussions remain preliminary. The extraordinary part is the speed. TypeSafe emerged from stealth on September 15 with a $40 million seed round led by DCVC and a reported valuation of around $200 million. Within nine days, funding discussions implied a potential 50-fold valuation increase. Founder Diogo Almeida previously worked at OpenAI on instruction-following techniques that contributed to the development of ChatGPT. But Jev takes a different approach: rather than generating language, it is designed to help software make structured decisions. Jev produces a Choice or Score accompanied by a confidence level between zero and one. High-confidence decisions can be automated, uncertain cases reviewed, and low-confidence cases escalated to humans. TypeSafe claims Jev is dramatically faster and cheaper than frontier LLMs, although those benchmarks remain company-reported. Investor excitement accelerated after Jev appeared on Vercel’s AI Gateway. Within 24 hours, nearly 13% of paid teams reportedly tried the model, making it the gateway’s fastest-adopted model. However, usage occurred during free access, so it does not necessarily demonstrate recurring paid demand. The investment thesis therefore rests on three factors: Almeida’s AI pedigree, Jev’s differentiated non-generative architecture, and unusually rapid developer experimentation. The bigger question is whether commercial evidence can catch up with valuation expectations. A $10 billion valuation would represent a major bet that “typed decision” models become an important automation layer—and that Jev can defend that position as competitors inevitably emerge.
Start-UP
Navana.ai is a full stack voice AI company in India offering regulated enterprises Voice AI driven business outcomes without compromising on data privacy and compliance through on-prem deployments Navana.ai , a leading sovereign voice AI company for regulated enterprises, today announced that it has raised INR 40 crore in a Series A funding round led by renowned entrepreneur and investor Ronnie Screwvala. Other investors, including Sharad Sanghi, Antler India, Sandeep Singhal and Paula Mariwala have also participated in the round, as Navana.ai deepens its pan-India reach through its proprietary speech models across Indic languages. This fresh capital raised will be used to scale the company’s deployments among BFSI enterprises, to continue spearheading innovation in speech models for Indian languages and dialects, and further the product development of the company’s AI Contact Centre and automated evaluation platform. Navana.ai has serviced over 100 million voice ai minutes with leading BFSI players such as Bajaj Finserv, Protean, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Grihum Housing Finance and others to automate their call center driven business outcomes across sales, collections, compliance and support with Voice AI. Co-founded by brothers Raoul Nanavati and Jai Nanavati, their mission is rooted in a simple observation from the founders that the vast majority of Indians (with only 6–10% speaking English and just 38% of households digitally literate) have been locked out of English-first digital services. By building voice AI that meets people in their own language and dialect, Navana.ai aims to close that gap at the scale of the country's 1 billion-plus internet users. Navana.ai has built proprietary speech models in 12 Indian languages and 45 dialects on real-world Indian speech to handle noise, overlapping speech, code-switching and regional accents. The company has contributed to the ecosystem through long-standing open source collaborations with institutions including IISc Bengaluru, IIT Madras, Microsoft Research and the Gates Foundation. With IISc, Navana.ai open-sourced RESPIN, a 10,000-hour speech corpus spanning 45 dialects, one of the largest openly available Indic speech datasets. In a benchmarking conducted by Navana.ai across various Indian voice AI platforms using real world speech samples, Navana.ai’s Bodhi came out with the highest accuracy in the market making it the most capable in handling real customer conversations. Announcing the company’s fundraise, Raoul Nanavati, Co-Founder and CEO, Navana.ai , said, “From day one, Navana.ai’s mission has been to democratise access to digital services for every Indian, irrespective of where they live. India has spent the last decade building some of these critical digital rails, including identity, connectivity and payments. Now this next decade belongs to meaningful automation. We strongly believe that voice AI will enable automation to truly benefit every Indian’s life, irrespective of their language or literacy. We are excited to partner with Ronnie Screwvala to take our sovereign AI infrastructure to the next stage of scale with some of the biggest names in the BFSI industry.” Investor Ronnie Screwvala, commented, “Navana.ai is solving a problem that large global and generalised AI models simply aren’t built for, which is the sheer linguistic complexity and diversity of India. Voice AI will be a critical part of India’s digital infrastructure as it will soon be an INR 9,500 crore-worth category. But what is important as India builds its voice AI models is not price of the offerings, but about where the customer data actually sits and whether the models are regulator-compliant. Navana.ai addresses exactly this, proving to be a reliable voice AI partner for India’s enterprises. ”
Cryptocurrency
WazirX has announced the launch of WazirX AI , an intelligent trading assistant designed to help users research crypto markets, understand their portfolios and act on trading opportunities in real time without moving between charts, news feeds, signal groups and trading screens. The agent is integrated into the WazirX app and website, and users can ask questions, receive researched insights with supporting charts, and approve real trades instantly, all from one unified interface. Before users trade, WazirX AI shows them their live portfolio update. It then uses their risk preferences to recommend the right position size. “Crypto markets operate 24/7, but traders should not have to spend their day moving between charts, news feeds and trading screens,” said Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX . “WazirX AI combines market research, portfolio monitoring and trade preparation into one conversation, reducing the time and effort required to evaluate an opportunity and act on it. The AI streamlines the workflow, and enables a faster and easier decision making process.” How it works WazirX AI follows an ‘Ask-Understand-Decide’ model. It can coordinate market-data, technical-analysis, portfolio and order-management across a multi-step request, giving users a quick route from identifying an opportunity to making an informed decision. · Conversational market research: Users can ask about live prices, market news and macroeconomic developments. The co-pilot responds with a clear summary and supporting charts. · Portfolio briefings: Users can request a live overview of their account and connected WazirX balances, including portfolio value, profit and loss, open positions, etc. The same information can also be requested by users as a daily morning brief. · Trade execution in chat: Users can place trades directly within a conversation. WazirX AI presents each proposed order through an approval card and can size the position according to the user’s risk settings. · AI-powered alerts: Users can create monitoring instructions in everyday language, for example, “Tell me if BTC breaks key support.” WazirX AI evaluates the condition and sends a notification when the condition is met. A user can ask WazirX AI to screen INR futures for four-hour momentum, retain opportunities meeting a specified risk-reward threshold, validate the shortlist across multiple timeframes and prepare an order showing entry price, leverage, margin, stop-loss, take-profit and estimated loss. The assistant can then prepare an order displaying the entry price, leverage, margin, stop-loss, take-profit and estimated loss - all within the same conversation. Before placing a trade, traders can spend hours gathering market context, poring over charts, analysing technical indicators, identifying patterns and trends, and working out entry, exit and risk levels. With WazirX AI, that entire process is transitioned into one conversational experience, helping users access relevant insights and complete their analysis in under 10 minutes. The co-pilot continues watching user-defined market conditions and only sends a notification when those conditions require attention. To democratize access to this technology, WazirX is launching a Paper Trading Sandbox where every user begins with a simulated US$100,000 balance. This allows users to explore the entire research-to-trade workflow, test strategies, and build confidence before using real funds.
Cryptocurrency
X is preparing to move deeper into financial services, with plans to let users trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timelines. The feature, described by head of product Nikita Bier, will introduce “Smart Cashtags,” interactive ticker labels that allow buying and selling without leaving the app. The rollout is expected within weeks. By tapping a symbol in a post, users could view market data and execute trades, effectively blending social conversation with real-time investing. Owner Elon Musk has long pushed to transform the platform into an all-encompassing digital utility. He recently said internal testing is underway for X-Money , the company’s in-house payments system, with an external beta likely within a couple of months. Musk’s ambition goes far beyond peer-to-peer transfers. In earlier remarks to employees, he framed payments as covering a user’s entire financial life—transactions, savings, and even securities—arguing that such integration could eventually reduce the need for traditional banking relationships. If delivered, trading and payments would mark a dramatic expansion of X’s role, positioning it at the intersection of social media, fintech and digital identity. The move also intensifies competition with brokerage apps, crypto exchanges and payment platforms already fighting for user engagement. For X, finance may become the engine that converts attention into transactions.
Cryptocurrency
WazirX has announced the launch of WazirX AI , an intelligent trading assistant designed to help users research crypto markets, understand their portfolios and act on trading opportunities in real time without moving between charts, news feeds, signal groups and trading screens. The agent is integrated into the WazirX app and website, and users can ask questions, receive researched insights with supporting charts, and approve real trades instantly, all from one unified interface. Before users trade, WazirX AI shows them their live portfolio update. It then uses their risk preferences to recommend the right position size. “Crypto markets operate 24/7, but traders should not have to spend their day moving between charts, news feeds and trading screens,” said Nischal Shetty, founder, WazirX . “WazirX AI combines market research, portfolio monitoring and trade preparation into one conversation, reducing the time and effort required to evaluate an opportunity and act on it. The AI streamlines the workflow, and enables a faster and easier decision making process.” How it works WazirX AI follows an ‘Ask-Understand-Decide’ model. It can coordinate market-data, technical-analysis, portfolio and order-management across a multi-step request, giving users a quick route from identifying an opportunity to making an informed decision. · Conversational market research: Users can ask about live prices, market news and macroeconomic developments. The co-pilot responds with a clear summary and supporting charts. · Portfolio briefings: Users can request a live overview of their account and connected WazirX balances, including portfolio value, profit and loss, open positions, etc. The same information can also be requested by users as a daily morning brief. · Trade execution in chat: Users can place trades directly within a conversation. WazirX AI presents each proposed order through an approval card and can size the position according to the user’s risk settings. · AI-powered alerts: Users can create monitoring instructions in everyday language, for example, “Tell me if BTC breaks key support.” WazirX AI evaluates the condition and sends a notification when the condition is met. A user can ask WazirX AI to screen INR futures for four-hour momentum, retain opportunities meeting a specified risk-reward threshold, validate the shortlist across multiple timeframes and prepare an order showing entry price, leverage, margin, stop-loss, take-profit and estimated loss. The assistant can then prepare an order displaying the entry price, leverage, margin, stop-loss, take-profit and estimated loss - all within the same conversation. Before placing a trade, traders can spend hours gathering market context, poring over charts, analysing technical indicators, identifying patterns and trends, and working out entry, exit and risk levels. With WazirX AI, that entire process is transitioned into one conversational experience, helping users access relevant insights and complete their analysis in under 10 minutes. The co-pilot continues watching user-defined market conditions and only sends a notification when those conditions require attention. To democratize access to this technology, WazirX is launching a Paper Trading Sandbox where every user begins with a simulated US$100,000 balance. This allows users to explore the entire research-to-trade workflow, test strategies, and build confidence before using real funds.
Cryptocurrency
X is preparing to move deeper into financial services, with plans to let users trade stocks and cryptocurrencies directly from their timelines. The feature, described by head of product Nikita Bier, will introduce “Smart Cashtags,” interactive ticker labels that allow buying and selling without leaving the app. The rollout is expected within weeks. By tapping a symbol in a post, users could view market data and execute trades, effectively blending social conversation with real-time investing. Owner Elon Musk has long pushed to transform the platform into an all-encompassing digital utility. He recently said internal testing is underway for X-Money , the company’s in-house payments system, with an external beta likely within a couple of months. Musk’s ambition goes far beyond peer-to-peer transfers. In earlier remarks to employees, he framed payments as covering a user’s entire financial life—transactions, savings, and even securities—arguing that such integration could eventually reduce the need for traditional banking relationships. If delivered, trading and payments would mark a dramatic expansion of X’s role, positioning it at the intersection of social media, fintech and digital identity. The move also intensifies competition with brokerage apps, crypto exchanges and payment platforms already fighting for user engagement. For X, finance may become the engine that converts attention into transactions.
Channel Guru
A MILESTONE OF CONSISTENT GROWTH DRIVEN BY PEOPLE AND PARTNERSHIPS. For every organisation, there are defining moments that mark both a reflection on the past and a commitment to the future. For iValue, our Private Equity investment in 2019 and now our successful listing on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) are such milestones. The iValue story has never been about visibility for its own sake. From the very beginning, we focused on building quietly, working closely with OEMs, partners and Enterprises, and staying true to one belief: technology creates lasting value only when it solves real business challenges. THE VISION THAT DROVE US From inception in 2008, iValue has been driven by a clear vision: to be the most valued technology enabler and Aggregator in the digital transformation space. That meant choosing away from the conventional path, and being a Trusted advisor, to our system Integrators and Enterprises. Our purpose was clear: curate and integrate the best technologies, address real business challenges, and help enterprises thrive in the ever evolving IT Landscape. We built our business on three fundamental pillars: deep relationships, domain expertise, and an unwavering focus on enterprise value. These principles shaped us into being a trusted advisor. Today, we serve over 8,000 enterprises across sectors, working with more than 100+ OEMs and 800+ channel partners. This includes trusted engagements with the Top 100 Brands across BFSI, ITES, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Conglomerates. But the numbers only tell part of the story. The real story is about how we've consistently aimed to be different, building differentiators that deliver value across the ecosystem. WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS BUSINESS OUTCOMES This philosophy manifests in how we approach enterprise challenges. Our expertise spans across four critical technology domains reshaping enterprises in: Cybersecurity, Information Lifecycle Management, Data Centre Infrastructure, Application Lifecycle Management and Hybrid Multi-Cloud. Today’s Business depend on Digital Applications more than ever before. Hybrid- cloud environment provides business with much needed flexibility with scalability for their core applications. Our Application Lifecycle Management offerings enable enterprises to build secure and scalable digital applications for hybrid cloud deployment needs. Information Lifecycle Management solutions empower enterprises to get the best insights from its vast data towards building predictable and profitable business. we Curate solutions from Code to Cloud needs, to meet every enterprise need around Performance, Availability, Scalability and Security of its critical digital applications. Our 24*7 Managed services help customers proactively identify and address needs to ensure business continuity. Each domain is interconnected. Together, they represent an integrated approach to the app-driven economy, enabling enterprises to build, secure, and scale their end-to-end digital capabilities. Our Center of Excellence (CoE) showcase these best-of-breed technologies in real-time, thus validating the impact of adopting these technologies in a customer’s environment, helping large and medium enterprises make risk-free, informed investment decisions. A MARKET IN TRANSFORMATION The Indian IT product market reached $81.2 billion in 2024, making it the second largest in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), with projections to exceed $106 billion by 2028, according to IDC. But market size alone doesn't capture the transformation underway. Enterprises are fundamentally changing how they buy / consume technology and more importantly how they do business. They're moving from on-premise to hybrid multi-cloud architectures, prioritizing AI and automation, escalating cybersecurity investments in response to evolving threats, and modernizing legacy applications and infrastructure through API-driven integration and microservices. • Most importantly, they're Large Enterprises are not looking for transactional vendors anymore. The IDC report on the Future of Tech Distribution in India highlights this shift: Large and Medium enterprises now seek technology aggregators and advisors who understand their business challenges, simplify complexity, and enable secure, accelerated growth through new-age technology adoptions. This transformation validates everything we've built. As enterprises prioritize digital transformation initiatives, our role as a technology aggregator and consultant becomes increasingly critical. 18 YEARS IN THE MAKING Our CFO, Swaroop MVN, compared our journey to a rocket launch. "The ignition was 2008," he explains. "Since then, we've had multiple 'firsts'—first customer practices, Centre of Excellence (CoE), our ASPL acquisition, expansion into South East Asia, Private Equity investments, Institutionalizing our teams, and now going public." From our first OEM relationship to the 100+ strategic alliances we maintain today, identifying new technology partnerships has been our foundation. Each achievement— supporting enterprises through regulatory shifts, powering digital initiatives like UPI, GST, and Aadhaar, helping banks secure millions of transactions daily, and enabling hybrid-cloud adoption at scale—has been realized together with our partners. Equally important are our customers, who trusted us to guide their digital journeys. Their challenges shaped our solutions. Their ambitions drove our innovation. THE HUMAN ELEMENT Perhaps the most emotional part of listing day was recognizing what it took to get here. As Krishna Raj Sharma noted, “This journey didn’t start with just three promoters. Behind every success is a huge team. And behind every team member, families who gave their strength and support. Seeing our children in front of the bell reminded us this milestone is about legacy as much as it is about growth.” Our 400+ team members bring technical mastery, passion, and customer-first commitment to every engagement. They are consultants, problem-solvers, and trusted advisors to our customers. This listing celebrates them most of all. Sunil Kumar Pillai, Chairman and Managing Director, puts it simply: "This milestone belongs to every person who has been part of iValue's journey. From the earliest employees who believed in our vision, to our partners who stood by us through market shifts, to our customers who trusted us with their most critical assets—this listing is a celebration of you all. OUR COMMITMENT FORWARD As we enter this new chapter with public market accountability, our growth strategy is anchored in four key areas: advancing AI, ALM, cybersecurity, and hybrid cloud services. We're enhancing our capabilities in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and cloud services to meet evolving enterprise needs for analytics, automation, enterprise security, and multi-cloud solutions. We're expanding our application lifecycle management offerings with platforms that streamline development cycles and accelerate delivery. We're growing our geographic footprint in South East Asia and beyond, diversifying markets and building new partnerships. And we're deepening our expertise in the app-driven economy, delivering solutions for mobile-first and app-centric enterprises. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iValue Infosolutions Creating Value for Investors, Enterprises, and India’s Digital Future iValue Infosolutions’ listing on NSE & BSE marks a defining step in our journey of enabling secure and transformative digital enterprises. With 17 years of consistent growth, 8,000+ enterprise relationships, and a trusted partner ecosystem of 600+ system integrators, this milestone reflects our strong foundation and forward-looking vision. As digital adoption accelerates across India and SAARC–SEA markets, iValue is uniquely positioned at the intersection of cybersecurity, cloud, and data innovation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “As we reflect on where we started and where we stand today, one thing is clear: the listing is not an end point. It’s a beginning of a new chapter with an opportunity to strengthen our purpose, widen our reach, and deepen our impact. The journey ahead will demand more discipline and compliance, more innovation and resilience. And we are ready because we walk it together.” - Sunil Kumar Pillai, Chairman & Managing Director, iValue Group For Krishna Raj Sharma, the moment is deeply personal: "When we started out, the vision was simple—to make technology meaningful for enterprises. Over time, that vision grew into a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, adaptation, and building long-term trust. Reaching the Stock Exchange is a proud moment, but more than that, it is a humbling one. It reminds us of the responsibility we carry to our employees, OEM, partners, customers, and now our shareholders." Whether empowering enterprises with AI-driven cybersecurity to protect people and data, guiding banks through compliance mandates that safeguard trust, or enabling telcos and governments to modernize infrastructure for citizen-centric services — our focus has always been on addressing real human challenges through carefully curated technologies. iValue will continue as a trusted advisor. We view this listing not merely as a financial achievement, but as an opportunity to amplify impact, bringing more technologies to more businesses, deepening investments in people and partnerships, and continuing to shape India's digital future. To our Employees: thank you for your expertise, passion, and sacrifices. To our OEMs: Thank you for your partnership during every Milestone. To our Partners: thank you for your collaboration and innovation. To our Customers: thank you for your trust and ambition. To our Investors and Shareholders: thank you for believing in our journey. The future is exciting, but our values remain the same: Innovation, integrity, commitment, and customer-first thinking. These will continue to guide iValue in this new chapter.” - Krishna Raj Sharma, Executive Director, iValue Group The iValue story has always been about people, partnerships, and purpose. Let’s Continue to create Value with iValue, together.
Channel Guru
"We don't just sell products - we architect solutions. Our channel- first philosophy of 'we succeed when our partners succeed' has driven 50% year- on-year growth for two decades." - Ashok Kumar, Founder & Managing Director, RAH Infotech As RAH Infotech celebrates its 20th anniversary, the company stands as a testament to India's rapidly evolving IT distribution landscape. What began as a technology distributor in 2005 has transformed into India's fastest-growing specialty value-added distributor, consistently delivering over 50% year-on-year growth while serving Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across 17 locations. On this milestone occasion, VARINDIA caught up with Ashok Kumar, Founder & Managing Director, and Rahul Yadav, Chief Growth Officer, to decode the success story behind RAH Infotech's remarkable journey from a startup to India's leading cybersecurity and cloud solutions distributor, representing over 30 global technology leaders and serving more than 1,000 enterprises through a robust network of 500+ channel partners. How RAH Infotech is driving technological adoption and business growth across India, with this what is the road-map for the FY 2025-26? Ashok Kumar: At RAH Infotech, we've been at the forefront of India's digital transformation for nearly two decades, maintaining over 50% year-on-year growth since 2005. This consistent growth trajectory reflects the trust Indian IT reseller community has placed in our value-added distribution capabilities. We drive technological adoption through end-to-end solutions - consulting, technical assistance, and implementation services - rather than just product distribution. Our network of 500+ channel partners and 1,000+ enterprise customers, including Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, enables comprehensive market reach across every vertical. The key to our success has been identifying market needs early and introducing cutting- edge technologies from global leaders before competitors. We've consistently anticipated technology shifts - from traditional networking to cloud-first architectures, from perimeter security to zero trust models, and from reactive to proactive cyber defense strategies. For FY 2025-26, our roadmap focuses on digital infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity excellence, and strategic expansion. We're expanding cloud computing solutions through partnerships with leading vendors and, while doubling down on cybersecurity with innovations like Digital Trishul for executive threat monitoring. We're also strengthening our India and international footprint while focusing on AI, IoT, and machine learning distribution. Our investment in emerging technologies positions us to capture the next wave of digital transformation as Indian enterprises embrace Industry 4.0 and smart infrastructure initiatives. RAH Infotech boasts a diverse product and solution portfolio, representing some of the world's most renowned technology brands. Can you name the sectors you are addressing? Ashok Kumar: We serve diverse sectors including BFSI, which drives significant growth through regulatory compliance requirements and digital banking initiatives, government and public sector through massive digitization programs and smart city projects, healthcare with critical data protection and telemedicine infrastructure, hospitality with secure guest networks and contactless solutions, automotive with Industry 4.0 and connected vehicle technologies, education with hybrid learning platforms, manufacturing with operational technology security, and telecommunications with 5G infrastructure and edge computing solutions. Our comprehensive solution domains span cybersecurity covering network security, endpoint protection, application security, and identity management. We provide networking solutions from infrastructure to SD-WAN, cloud computing including hybrid and multi-cloud services, data management with backup and recovery solutions, plus application security and performance optimization. We represent industry leaders like Radware, Hitachi Vantara, ForeScout, Trend Micro, Netskope, AlgoSec, BMC, Checkmarx, Commvault, and Varonis, positioning us as a one-stop-shop for complete IT infrastructure needs. This comprehensive approach allows our partners to address complex customer requirements with integrated solutions rather than point products. Can you share the presence of RAH Infotech in India and the global footprint? Rahul Yadav: RAH Infotech has built a strong pan-India presence with strategic international expansion. We're headquartered in Gurgaon with our operations spanning across the nation. We maintain strong pan-India presence through 17 strategic locations covering metros to tier-2 cities, supported by 500+ VARs and system integrators who form the backbone of our distribution network. Our international footprint spans Singapore for APAC operations, UK and Netherlands for European markets, USA for North American partnerships, UAE for Middle East expansion, and Nepal for SAARC regional coverage. This global reach enables us to leverage international best practices while bringing cutting-edge technologies to India first, often ahead of direct vendor entries. Our geographical strategy focuses on proximity to customers and partners, ensuring rapid response times and local market understanding. Each location houses technical experts who understand regional compliance requirements, language preferences, and business practices. This localized approach has been crucial in government sector wins where understanding state-specific procurement processes and regulatory frameworks makes the difference. Our employee strengthof 228 professionals has grown 12% year-over-year, with one-third being technical experts - a key differentiator in value-added distribution. These technical resources include certified engineers, solution architects, and cybersecurity specialists who provide pre-sales consulting, solution design, and post-deployment support. This combination of local market knowledge and global reach positions us uniquely to serve both multinational corporations and growing Indian enterprises, earning recognition as 'Top APAC Technology Distributor.' What is the key strategy of RAH Infotech for partner empowerment considering the evolving tech industry? Rahul Yadav: Partner empowerment remains our success cornerstone. Unlike competitors moving to direct sales, we maintain channel-first approach because partners' success drives ours. This philosophy has created lasting relationships - many partners have been with us for over five years despite industry consolidations and vendor changes. Our strategy centers on technical excellence with one-third technical workforce providing comprehensive training, certifications, and hands-on support, plus business development assistance including partnerships with consulting firms and Big Four companies. We've invested significantly in partner enablement programs including technical bootcamps, sales methodology training, and market development funds. Our partners receive not just product training but business consulting on market positioning, competitive differentiation, and customer engagement strategies. We also provide demo equipment, proof-of-concept support, and technical resources for large deal closures. We offer competitive margins, flexible financing through our vendor finance programs, and performance-based incentives including international trips and recognition awards, while generating qualified leads from our Fortune 500 and government relationships. Our lead-sharing model ensures partners get first opportunity on deals in their territories. As there are increasing demands for cloud-based solutions, how RAH Infotech is equipped with cloud migration framework? Ashok Kumar: Cloud adoption is now essential for business agility and cost optimization, and we've positioned ourselves as comprehensive enablement partners rather than simple technology distributors. Our framework begins with detailed infrastructure and business assessments, followed by cloud- first strategy development that considers regulatory requirements, data sovereignty, and business continuity needs. We offer hybrid multi-cloud solutions maintaining flexibility between on-premises and cloud workloads through our strategic partnerships with leading cloud and infrastructure vendors. Our cloud expertise extends beyond basic migration to include application modernization, DevOps integration, and cloud-native architecture design. We help organizations break down monolithic applications into microservices, implement containerization strategies, and establish continuous integration/continuous deployment pipelines for faster innovation cycles. Security integration is paramount through partnerships with Netskope for Zero Trust Network Access, Saviynt for comprehensive identity governance and administration, and Radware for application protection against DDoS attacks and web threats. Our LT ZERO collaboration addresses comprehensive data storage, automated backup, long-term archiving, and regulatory compliance concerns including GDPR and local data protection requirements. We modernize applications to be cloud-native rather than simple lift- and-shift migrations, while providing 24/7 managed services including proactive monitoring, performance optimization, cost management, and security incident response. Industry-specific frameworks address BFSI regulatory compliance, government data sovereignty mandates, and healthcare protection requirements under various privacy regulations. RAHUL YADAV EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RAH INFOTECH Can you share RAH Infotech's proactive stance on cyber security solutions? Rahul Yadav: Cybersecurity is our foundation, not just a solution area. With threats evolving rapidly during geopolitical instability, we've adopted proactive approaches. Our Digital Trishul launch with RiskProfiler.io offers 24/7 dark web and executive monitoring, protecting high- ranking officials from personal cyber threats like credential theft and social engineering. Through Netskope, we implement Zero Trust Access ensuring "never trust, always verify" authentication. Our comprehensive portfolio covers network security with next- gen firewalls, application security through web application firewalls, data security via Varonis partnership, identity security through Saviynt and Delinea, plus advanced endpoint protection. Our specialized government and critical infrastructure solutions, combined with SOC capabilities and AI-powered threat intelligence, enable proactive threat hunting rather than reactive responses. We architect comprehensive security postures that are globally best-in-class yet locally relevant to India's threat landscape.
Channel Guru
A MILESTONE OF CONSISTENT GROWTH DRIVEN BY PEOPLE AND PARTNERSHIPS. For every organisation, there are defining moments that mark both a reflection on the past and a commitment to the future. For iValue, our Private Equity investment in 2019 and now our successful listing on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) are such milestones. The iValue story has never been about visibility for its own sake. From the very beginning, we focused on building quietly, working closely with OEMs, partners and Enterprises, and staying true to one belief: technology creates lasting value only when it solves real business challenges. THE VISION THAT DROVE US From inception in 2008, iValue has been driven by a clear vision: to be the most valued technology enabler and Aggregator in the digital transformation space. That meant choosing away from the conventional path, and being a Trusted advisor, to our system Integrators and Enterprises. Our purpose was clear: curate and integrate the best technologies, address real business challenges, and help enterprises thrive in the ever evolving IT Landscape. We built our business on three fundamental pillars: deep relationships, domain expertise, and an unwavering focus on enterprise value. These principles shaped us into being a trusted advisor. Today, we serve over 8,000 enterprises across sectors, working with more than 100+ OEMs and 800+ channel partners. This includes trusted engagements with the Top 100 Brands across BFSI, ITES, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Conglomerates. But the numbers only tell part of the story. The real story is about how we've consistently aimed to be different, building differentiators that deliver value across the ecosystem. WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS BUSINESS OUTCOMES This philosophy manifests in how we approach enterprise challenges. Our expertise spans across four critical technology domains reshaping enterprises in: Cybersecurity, Information Lifecycle Management, Data Centre Infrastructure, Application Lifecycle Management and Hybrid Multi-Cloud. Today’s Business depend on Digital Applications more than ever before. Hybrid- cloud environment provides business with much needed flexibility with scalability for their core applications. Our Application Lifecycle Management offerings enable enterprises to build secure and scalable digital applications for hybrid cloud deployment needs. Information Lifecycle Management solutions empower enterprises to get the best insights from its vast data towards building predictable and profitable business. we Curate solutions from Code to Cloud needs, to meet every enterprise need around Performance, Availability, Scalability and Security of its critical digital applications. Our 24*7 Managed services help customers proactively identify and address needs to ensure business continuity. Each domain is interconnected. Together, they represent an integrated approach to the app-driven economy, enabling enterprises to build, secure, and scale their end-to-end digital capabilities. Our Center of Excellence (CoE) showcase these best-of-breed technologies in real-time, thus validating the impact of adopting these technologies in a customer’s environment, helping large and medium enterprises make risk-free, informed investment decisions. A MARKET IN TRANSFORMATION The Indian IT product market reached $81.2 billion in 2024, making it the second largest in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), with projections to exceed $106 billion by 2028, according to IDC. But market size alone doesn't capture the transformation underway. Enterprises are fundamentally changing how they buy / consume technology and more importantly how they do business. They're moving from on-premise to hybrid multi-cloud architectures, prioritizing AI and automation, escalating cybersecurity investments in response to evolving threats, and modernizing legacy applications and infrastructure through API-driven integration and microservices. • Most importantly, they're Large Enterprises are not looking for transactional vendors anymore. The IDC report on the Future of Tech Distribution in India highlights this shift: Large and Medium enterprises now seek technology aggregators and advisors who understand their business challenges, simplify complexity, and enable secure, accelerated growth through new-age technology adoptions. This transformation validates everything we've built. As enterprises prioritize digital transformation initiatives, our role as a technology aggregator and consultant becomes increasingly critical. 18 YEARS IN THE MAKING Our CFO, Swaroop MVN, compared our journey to a rocket launch. "The ignition was 2008," he explains. "Since then, we've had multiple 'firsts'—first customer practices, Centre of Excellence (CoE), our ASPL acquisition, expansion into South East Asia, Private Equity investments, Institutionalizing our teams, and now going public." From our first OEM relationship to the 100+ strategic alliances we maintain today, identifying new technology partnerships has been our foundation. Each achievement— supporting enterprises through regulatory shifts, powering digital initiatives like UPI, GST, and Aadhaar, helping banks secure millions of transactions daily, and enabling hybrid-cloud adoption at scale—has been realized together with our partners. Equally important are our customers, who trusted us to guide their digital journeys. Their challenges shaped our solutions. Their ambitions drove our innovation. THE HUMAN ELEMENT Perhaps the most emotional part of listing day was recognizing what it took to get here. As Krishna Raj Sharma noted, “This journey didn’t start with just three promoters. Behind every success is a huge team. And behind every team member, families who gave their strength and support. Seeing our children in front of the bell reminded us this milestone is about legacy as much as it is about growth.” Our 400+ team members bring technical mastery, passion, and customer-first commitment to every engagement. They are consultants, problem-solvers, and trusted advisors to our customers. This listing celebrates them most of all. Sunil Kumar Pillai, Chairman and Managing Director, puts it simply: "This milestone belongs to every person who has been part of iValue's journey. From the earliest employees who believed in our vision, to our partners who stood by us through market shifts, to our customers who trusted us with their most critical assets—this listing is a celebration of you all. OUR COMMITMENT FORWARD As we enter this new chapter with public market accountability, our growth strategy is anchored in four key areas: advancing AI, ALM, cybersecurity, and hybrid cloud services. We're enhancing our capabilities in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and cloud services to meet evolving enterprise needs for analytics, automation, enterprise security, and multi-cloud solutions. We're expanding our application lifecycle management offerings with platforms that streamline development cycles and accelerate delivery. We're growing our geographic footprint in South East Asia and beyond, diversifying markets and building new partnerships. And we're deepening our expertise in the app-driven economy, delivering solutions for mobile-first and app-centric enterprises. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iValue Infosolutions Creating Value for Investors, Enterprises, and India’s Digital Future iValue Infosolutions’ listing on NSE & BSE marks a defining step in our journey of enabling secure and transformative digital enterprises. With 17 years of consistent growth, 8,000+ enterprise relationships, and a trusted partner ecosystem of 600+ system integrators, this milestone reflects our strong foundation and forward-looking vision. As digital adoption accelerates across India and SAARC–SEA markets, iValue is uniquely positioned at the intersection of cybersecurity, cloud, and data innovation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “As we reflect on where we started and where we stand today, one thing is clear: the listing is not an end point. It’s a beginning of a new chapter with an opportunity to strengthen our purpose, widen our reach, and deepen our impact. The journey ahead will demand more discipline and compliance, more innovation and resilience. And we are ready because we walk it together.” - Sunil Kumar Pillai, Chairman & Managing Director, iValue Group For Krishna Raj Sharma, the moment is deeply personal: "When we started out, the vision was simple—to make technology meaningful for enterprises. Over time, that vision grew into a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, adaptation, and building long-term trust. Reaching the Stock Exchange is a proud moment, but more than that, it is a humbling one. It reminds us of the responsibility we carry to our employees, OEM, partners, customers, and now our shareholders." Whether empowering enterprises with AI-driven cybersecurity to protect people and data, guiding banks through compliance mandates that safeguard trust, or enabling telcos and governments to modernize infrastructure for citizen-centric services — our focus has always been on addressing real human challenges through carefully curated technologies. iValue will continue as a trusted advisor. We view this listing not merely as a financial achievement, but as an opportunity to amplify impact, bringing more technologies to more businesses, deepening investments in people and partnerships, and continuing to shape India's digital future. To our Employees: thank you for your expertise, passion, and sacrifices. To our OEMs: Thank you for your partnership during every Milestone. To our Partners: thank you for your collaboration and innovation. To our Customers: thank you for your trust and ambition. To our Investors and Shareholders: thank you for believing in our journey. The future is exciting, but our values remain the same: Innovation, integrity, commitment, and customer-first thinking. These will continue to guide iValue in this new chapter.” - Krishna Raj Sharma, Executive Director, iValue Group The iValue story has always been about people, partnerships, and purpose. Let’s Continue to create Value with iValue, together.
Channel Guru
"We don't just sell products - we architect solutions. Our channel- first philosophy of 'we succeed when our partners succeed' has driven 50% year- on-year growth for two decades." - Ashok Kumar, Founder & Managing Director, RAH Infotech As RAH Infotech celebrates its 20th anniversary, the company stands as a testament to India's rapidly evolving IT distribution landscape. What began as a technology distributor in 2005 has transformed into India's fastest-growing specialty value-added distributor, consistently delivering over 50% year-on-year growth while serving Fortune 500 companies and government agencies across 17 locations. On this milestone occasion, VARINDIA caught up with Ashok Kumar, Founder & Managing Director, and Rahul Yadav, Chief Growth Officer, to decode the success story behind RAH Infotech's remarkable journey from a startup to India's leading cybersecurity and cloud solutions distributor, representing over 30 global technology leaders and serving more than 1,000 enterprises through a robust network of 500+ channel partners. How RAH Infotech is driving technological adoption and business growth across India, with this what is the road-map for the FY 2025-26? Ashok Kumar: At RAH Infotech, we've been at the forefront of India's digital transformation for nearly two decades, maintaining over 50% year-on-year growth since 2005. This consistent growth trajectory reflects the trust Indian IT reseller community has placed in our value-added distribution capabilities. We drive technological adoption through end-to-end solutions - consulting, technical assistance, and implementation services - rather than just product distribution. Our network of 500+ channel partners and 1,000+ enterprise customers, including Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, enables comprehensive market reach across every vertical. The key to our success has been identifying market needs early and introducing cutting- edge technologies from global leaders before competitors. We've consistently anticipated technology shifts - from traditional networking to cloud-first architectures, from perimeter security to zero trust models, and from reactive to proactive cyber defense strategies. For FY 2025-26, our roadmap focuses on digital infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity excellence, and strategic expansion. We're expanding cloud computing solutions through partnerships with leading vendors and, while doubling down on cybersecurity with innovations like Digital Trishul for executive threat monitoring. We're also strengthening our India and international footprint while focusing on AI, IoT, and machine learning distribution. Our investment in emerging technologies positions us to capture the next wave of digital transformation as Indian enterprises embrace Industry 4.0 and smart infrastructure initiatives. RAH Infotech boasts a diverse product and solution portfolio, representing some of the world's most renowned technology brands. Can you name the sectors you are addressing? Ashok Kumar: We serve diverse sectors including BFSI, which drives significant growth through regulatory compliance requirements and digital banking initiatives, government and public sector through massive digitization programs and smart city projects, healthcare with critical data protection and telemedicine infrastructure, hospitality with secure guest networks and contactless solutions, automotive with Industry 4.0 and connected vehicle technologies, education with hybrid learning platforms, manufacturing with operational technology security, and telecommunications with 5G infrastructure and edge computing solutions. Our comprehensive solution domains span cybersecurity covering network security, endpoint protection, application security, and identity management. We provide networking solutions from infrastructure to SD-WAN, cloud computing including hybrid and multi-cloud services, data management with backup and recovery solutions, plus application security and performance optimization. We represent industry leaders like Radware, Hitachi Vantara, ForeScout, Trend Micro, Netskope, AlgoSec, BMC, Checkmarx, Commvault, and Varonis, positioning us as a one-stop-shop for complete IT infrastructure needs. This comprehensive approach allows our partners to address complex customer requirements with integrated solutions rather than point products. Can you share the presence of RAH Infotech in India and the global footprint? Rahul Yadav: RAH Infotech has built a strong pan-India presence with strategic international expansion. We're headquartered in Gurgaon with our operations spanning across the nation. We maintain strong pan-India presence through 17 strategic locations covering metros to tier-2 cities, supported by 500+ VARs and system integrators who form the backbone of our distribution network. Our international footprint spans Singapore for APAC operations, UK and Netherlands for European markets, USA for North American partnerships, UAE for Middle East expansion, and Nepal for SAARC regional coverage. This global reach enables us to leverage international best practices while bringing cutting-edge technologies to India first, often ahead of direct vendor entries. Our geographical strategy focuses on proximity to customers and partners, ensuring rapid response times and local market understanding. Each location houses technical experts who understand regional compliance requirements, language preferences, and business practices. This localized approach has been crucial in government sector wins where understanding state-specific procurement processes and regulatory frameworks makes the difference. Our employee strengthof 228 professionals has grown 12% year-over-year, with one-third being technical experts - a key differentiator in value-added distribution. These technical resources include certified engineers, solution architects, and cybersecurity specialists who provide pre-sales consulting, solution design, and post-deployment support. This combination of local market knowledge and global reach positions us uniquely to serve both multinational corporations and growing Indian enterprises, earning recognition as 'Top APAC Technology Distributor.' What is the key strategy of RAH Infotech for partner empowerment considering the evolving tech industry? Rahul Yadav: Partner empowerment remains our success cornerstone. Unlike competitors moving to direct sales, we maintain channel-first approach because partners' success drives ours. This philosophy has created lasting relationships - many partners have been with us for over five years despite industry consolidations and vendor changes. Our strategy centers on technical excellence with one-third technical workforce providing comprehensive training, certifications, and hands-on support, plus business development assistance including partnerships with consulting firms and Big Four companies. We've invested significantly in partner enablement programs including technical bootcamps, sales methodology training, and market development funds. Our partners receive not just product training but business consulting on market positioning, competitive differentiation, and customer engagement strategies. We also provide demo equipment, proof-of-concept support, and technical resources for large deal closures. We offer competitive margins, flexible financing through our vendor finance programs, and performance-based incentives including international trips and recognition awards, while generating qualified leads from our Fortune 500 and government relationships. Our lead-sharing model ensures partners get first opportunity on deals in their territories. As there are increasing demands for cloud-based solutions, how RAH Infotech is equipped with cloud migration framework? Ashok Kumar: Cloud adoption is now essential for business agility and cost optimization, and we've positioned ourselves as comprehensive enablement partners rather than simple technology distributors. Our framework begins with detailed infrastructure and business assessments, followed by cloud- first strategy development that considers regulatory requirements, data sovereignty, and business continuity needs. We offer hybrid multi-cloud solutions maintaining flexibility between on-premises and cloud workloads through our strategic partnerships with leading cloud and infrastructure vendors. Our cloud expertise extends beyond basic migration to include application modernization, DevOps integration, and cloud-native architecture design. We help organizations break down monolithic applications into microservices, implement containerization strategies, and establish continuous integration/continuous deployment pipelines for faster innovation cycles. Security integration is paramount through partnerships with Netskope for Zero Trust Network Access, Saviynt for comprehensive identity governance and administration, and Radware for application protection against DDoS attacks and web threats. Our LT ZERO collaboration addresses comprehensive data storage, automated backup, long-term archiving, and regulatory compliance concerns including GDPR and local data protection requirements. We modernize applications to be cloud-native rather than simple lift- and-shift migrations, while providing 24/7 managed services including proactive monitoring, performance optimization, cost management, and security incident response. Industry-specific frameworks address BFSI regulatory compliance, government data sovereignty mandates, and healthcare protection requirements under various privacy regulations. RAHUL YADAV EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RAH INFOTECH Can you share RAH Infotech's proactive stance on cyber security solutions? Rahul Yadav: Cybersecurity is our foundation, not just a solution area. With threats evolving rapidly during geopolitical instability, we've adopted proactive approaches. Our Digital Trishul launch with RiskProfiler.io offers 24/7 dark web and executive monitoring, protecting high- ranking officials from personal cyber threats like credential theft and social engineering. Through Netskope, we implement Zero Trust Access ensuring "never trust, always verify" authentication. Our comprehensive portfolio covers network security with next- gen firewalls, application security through web application firewalls, data security via Varonis partnership, identity security through Saviynt and Delinea, plus advanced endpoint protection. Our specialized government and critical infrastructure solutions, combined with SOC capabilities and AI-powered threat intelligence, enable proactive threat hunting rather than reactive responses. We architect comprehensive security postures that are globally best-in-class yet locally relevant to India's threat landscape.
Channel Chief
Veeam Software launched its VeeamON Tour India 2026 in Mumbai, bringing together enterprise leaders, government stakeholders, partners and customers to address data governance, protection and trust as AI adoption accelerates. The event focused on DPDP compliance, data localization, ransomware resilience, sovereign-ready infrastructure and AI governance, while showcasing innovations including the DataAI Command Platform and Veeam Data Platform. Speaking on the sidelines, Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Veeam Software highlighted how these solutions help organizations strengthen security, ensure compliance and enable workload portability across evolving hybrid, virtualized and containerized IT environments. AI, how does Veeam plan to help enterprises balance rapid AI adoption with strong data compliance, privacy, and security governance? One of the biggest inhibitors to AI adoption at enterprise scale has been the absence of a dedicated AI and data trust layer. Existing security frameworks from the pre-AI era were primarily designed around preventing unauthorised human access to sensitive data through perimeter-based security models such as network and application security. However, these approaches are no longer sufficient in the AI era because organisations now also need controls for AI agents, not just humans. At the same time, the unstructured data landscape is expanding rapidly. Globally, nearly 230 zettabytes of information are expected to be created, with almost 90% of it being unstructured data. In the BI era, enterprises largely operated on structured and transactional data. However, the AI era is fundamentally driven by unstructured data. This means that large volumes of enterprise data that previously remained dormant are now becoming accessible and usable through LLMs and AI agents. Alongside this, the threat landscape is becoming increasingly sophisticated. AI agents themselves are now emerging as one of the biggest threats to enterprise data security, with one in eight cyberattacks being carried out by AI agents and a significant number of attacks originating from shadow data or shadow AI environments. For enterprises, the challenge of scaling AI securely has therefore become extremely complex. The missing layer between enterprise data sources, AI models, AI control planes and industry-specific agents is the AI and data trust layer. This is precisely what Veeam is addressing through the Data AI Command Platform. Through this single platform, Veeam enables customers to manage security, compliance, governance, privacy and data resilience within one integrated framework. Traditionally, organisations would have needed multiple disconnected products to achieve these capabilities, resulting in fragmented environments and operational complexity. The Data AI Command Platform instead delivers these foundational capabilities through a unified architecture designed specifically for AI-scale environments. At the core of the platform is the Data Command Graph, which provides enterprises with complete visibility into their data estate at a granular level. This allows organisations to understand whether data is mission-critical, whether it contains PII, how frequently it is being accessed, who or what is accessing it and whether it is relevant to regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, DPDP or RBI- related compliance requirements. With the upcoming Veeam Data Platform V13.1, is Veeam seeing a clear shift from legacy hypervisors to open-source and container-based environments, and how is it capitalising on this transition? Yes, we are seeing a growing number of organisations moving even mission- critical applications away from traditional Broadcom VMware environments toward alternative hypervisors and increasingly toward containerised environments as well. Application modernisation is happening at a significant scale, particularly within the financial services industry. As enterprises modernise workloads from traditional virtualised environments into Kubernetes and other container platforms, the earlier approaches to data protection and resilience no longer remain sufficient. Organisations now require native Kubernetes backup and recovery capabilities specifically designed for these modern environments. This is an area where Veeam is helping customers through its Kasten solution, which is designed to support Kubernetes-native backup and recovery requirements. Veeam already supports a broad range of hypervisors and has been helping enterprises migrate workloads from one hypervisor platform to another. Because of the way Veeam’s backup architecture works, customers can back up workloads from virtually any virtualised platform and recover them onto another platform. This flexibility is becoming increasingly valuable as enterprises explore hypervisor portability strategies.
Channel Chief
ANIL SETHI CEO IRIS GLOBAL SERVICES IRIS 2.0 IS THE NEXT PHASE IN THE TECHNOLOGY JOURNEY THAT TRANSITIONS IRIS FROM A TRADITIONAL TECH COMPANY TO A SCALABLE, INTELLIGENT ECOSYSTEM DESIGNED FOR THE AI ERA. AT THE CENTER OF THIS VISION IS IRIS.AI, A FUTURE‑FORWARD PLATFORM DESIGNED TO SIMPLIFY AND ACCELERATE ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION. ANIL SETHI SHARES HIS VISION FOR IRIS 2.0, WHILE EXPLAINING HOW IT IS RESHAPING THE COMPANY’S IDENTITY AS WELL AS ITS OVERALL BUSINESS STRATEGY AND APPROACH. Everyone knows IRIS as a technology distribution company. Why IRIS 2.0 now? The world of technology has fundamentally changed. Businesses today are no longer looking for just products. They are looking for intelligence, speed, automation, security, and business outcomes. Earlier, technology conversations revolved around devices and infrastructure. Today, the conversation is about how organizations can become AI-ready and future-ready. IRIS 2.0 is our answer to that transformation. It is the evolution of IRIS from a traditional technology company into an intelligent enterprise ecosystem designed for the AI era. What exactly is IRIS 2.0? IRIS 2.0 is the next phase of our journey. It is a strategic transformation focused on enabling intelligent enterprises through infrastructure, AI, automation, and integrated technology experiences. At the center of this vision is Iris.ai, a future-forward platform designed to simplify and accelerate enterprise transformation. IRIS 2.0 REPRESENTS: • Smarter technology ecosystems • AI-enabled business operations • Intelligent workplace solutions • Secure and scalable infrastructure • Data-driven decision-making • Human-centered innovation The idea is simple -Technology should not just support businesses. It should rather empower businesses to think smarter and move faster. Why is AI such an important part of this transformation? AI is no longer the future. It is the present. Every organization today is under pressure to - improve efficiency, reduce complexity, increase productivity, make faster decisions, and deliver better customer experiences. AI enables all of this. But real transformation happens only when AI becomes practical, accessible, and integrated into everyday business operations. That is the vision behind IRIS 2.0. We want to make intelligent transformation real for enterprises. What does Iris.ai stand for? IRIS.AI is the intelligence layer of the IRIS 2.0 vision. It represents our commitment to building connected enterprise ecosystems powered by intelligence, automation, and innovation. IRIS.AI FOCUSES ON: • Intelligent workflows • AI-powered productivity • Smart enterprise experiences • Automation-led efficiency • Data intelligence • Future-ready business solutions More importantly, it represents a mindset shift. From reactive technology… to predictive, intelligent technology. Is IRIS changing its identity as a company? IRIS is evolving its identity. The technology industry is moving from product-led conversations to solution-led ecosystems. Organizations today do not want fragmented technology experiences. They want simplicity, integration, intelligence, and long-term value. IRIS 2.0 REFLECTS THAT EVOLUTION. We are moving from being known only as a distribution-driven organization to becoming a transformation-led technology partner focused on enterprise growth. What makes IRIS 2.0 different? What makes IRIS 2.0 different is its approach. This is not about showcasing isolated technologies. This is about creating connected experiences. Every element of IRIS 2.0 is designed around one central question - “How can technology create real business impact?” The focus is not just innovation. The focus is meaningful innovation. THAT MEANS: • Technology with purpose • AI with usability • Infrastructure with intelligence • Automation with measurable outcomes IRIS 2.0 is where technology becomes business transformation. Who is IRIS 2.0 designed for? IRIS 2.0 is designed for modern enterprises that are preparing for the next decade of business. From startups to large enterprises, every organization today is navigating - Digital acceleration AI adoption, Data growth, Workforce transformation, Security challenges and Operational complexity. IRIS 2.0 is built to support organizations through that journey. Whether the goal is scalability, agility, productivity, or innovation — the objective remains the same - Helping businesses become more intelligent and future-ready. Which industries can benefit from this vision? Every industry today is becoming technology-driven. However, sectors experiencing rapid transformation include - • Banking and financial services • Healthcare • Retail • Manufacturing • Education • Government • Enterprise services Each of these industries is looking for smarter operations, intelligent automation, predictive capabilities, and seamless digital experiences. IRIS 2.0 is designed to help enterprises adapt to this new reality. What does “Powered by IRIS.AI” truly mean? It means intelligence becomes the foundation of every experience. “Powered by IRIS.AI” is not just a tagline. It is a philosophy. IT REPRESENTS A FUTURE WHERE ‑ • Systems become smarter • Workflows become faster • Decisions become data-driven • Businesses become more adaptive • Technology becomes more human- centric The goal is not simply to digitize businesses. The goal is to intelligently transform them. How will customers and partners benefit from IRIS 2.0? The biggest benefit is simplification. Technology ecosystems today are often fragmented and difficult to manage. IRIS 2.0 brings together intelligence, infrastructure, innovation, and enterprise enablement into one connected ecosystem. FOR CUSTOMERS, THIS MEANS ‑ • Faster transformation • Better efficiency • Smarter operations • Improved scalability • Reduced complexity For partners, it creates opportunities to move beyond transactional business models and become strategic transformation enablers. Is IRIS 2.0 just an event or a long- term vision? IRIS 2.0 is a long-term strategic vision. This is not a campaign. This is not a trend. This is the future direction of IRIS. Technology is entering a new era where intelligence will define competitiveness. The companies that succeed tomorrow will be the ones that can combine – Technology, Intelligence, Automation, Innovation and Human experience. IRIS 2.0 is our commitment to building that future. What is the one message people should take away from tonight? The future of business will not be driven by technology alone. It will be driven by intelligent ecosystems. The next era belongs to organizations that can think faster, adapt quicker, automate smarter, and innovate continuously. IRIS 2.0 represents the beginning of that journey. A journey from distribution to intelligence. From systems to ecosystems. From technology to transformation. WELCOME TO IRIS 2.0.
Channel Chief
Veeam Software launched its VeeamON Tour India 2026 in Mumbai, bringing together enterprise leaders, government stakeholders, partners and customers to address data governance, protection and trust as AI adoption accelerates. The event focused on DPDP compliance, data localization, ransomware resilience, sovereign-ready infrastructure and AI governance, while showcasing innovations including the DataAI Command Platform and Veeam Data Platform. Speaking on the sidelines, Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Veeam Software highlighted how these solutions help organizations strengthen security, ensure compliance and enable workload portability across evolving hybrid, virtualized and containerized IT environments. AI, how does Veeam plan to help enterprises balance rapid AI adoption with strong data compliance, privacy, and security governance? One of the biggest inhibitors to AI adoption at enterprise scale has been the absence of a dedicated AI and data trust layer. Existing security frameworks from the pre-AI era were primarily designed around preventing unauthorised human access to sensitive data through perimeter-based security models such as network and application security. However, these approaches are no longer sufficient in the AI era because organisations now also need controls for AI agents, not just humans. At the same time, the unstructured data landscape is expanding rapidly. Globally, nearly 230 zettabytes of information are expected to be created, with almost 90% of it being unstructured data. In the BI era, enterprises largely operated on structured and transactional data. However, the AI era is fundamentally driven by unstructured data. This means that large volumes of enterprise data that previously remained dormant are now becoming accessible and usable through LLMs and AI agents. Alongside this, the threat landscape is becoming increasingly sophisticated. AI agents themselves are now emerging as one of the biggest threats to enterprise data security, with one in eight cyberattacks being carried out by AI agents and a significant number of attacks originating from shadow data or shadow AI environments. For enterprises, the challenge of scaling AI securely has therefore become extremely complex. The missing layer between enterprise data sources, AI models, AI control planes and industry-specific agents is the AI and data trust layer. This is precisely what Veeam is addressing through the Data AI Command Platform. Through this single platform, Veeam enables customers to manage security, compliance, governance, privacy and data resilience within one integrated framework. Traditionally, organisations would have needed multiple disconnected products to achieve these capabilities, resulting in fragmented environments and operational complexity. The Data AI Command Platform instead delivers these foundational capabilities through a unified architecture designed specifically for AI-scale environments. At the core of the platform is the Data Command Graph, which provides enterprises with complete visibility into their data estate at a granular level. This allows organisations to understand whether data is mission-critical, whether it contains PII, how frequently it is being accessed, who or what is accessing it and whether it is relevant to regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, DPDP or RBI- related compliance requirements. With the upcoming Veeam Data Platform V13.1, is Veeam seeing a clear shift from legacy hypervisors to open-source and container-based environments, and how is it capitalising on this transition? Yes, we are seeing a growing number of organisations moving even mission- critical applications away from traditional Broadcom VMware environments toward alternative hypervisors and increasingly toward containerised environments as well. Application modernisation is happening at a significant scale, particularly within the financial services industry. As enterprises modernise workloads from traditional virtualised environments into Kubernetes and other container platforms, the earlier approaches to data protection and resilience no longer remain sufficient. Organisations now require native Kubernetes backup and recovery capabilities specifically designed for these modern environments. This is an area where Veeam is helping customers through its Kasten solution, which is designed to support Kubernetes-native backup and recovery requirements. Veeam already supports a broad range of hypervisors and has been helping enterprises migrate workloads from one hypervisor platform to another. Because of the way Veeam’s backup architecture works, customers can back up workloads from virtually any virtualised platform and recover them onto another platform. This flexibility is becoming increasingly valuable as enterprises explore hypervisor portability strategies.
Channel Chief
ANIL SETHI CEO IRIS GLOBAL SERVICES IRIS 2.0 IS THE NEXT PHASE IN THE TECHNOLOGY JOURNEY THAT TRANSITIONS IRIS FROM A TRADITIONAL TECH COMPANY TO A SCALABLE, INTELLIGENT ECOSYSTEM DESIGNED FOR THE AI ERA. AT THE CENTER OF THIS VISION IS IRIS.AI, A FUTURE‑FORWARD PLATFORM DESIGNED TO SIMPLIFY AND ACCELERATE ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION. ANIL SETHI SHARES HIS VISION FOR IRIS 2.0, WHILE EXPLAINING HOW IT IS RESHAPING THE COMPANY’S IDENTITY AS WELL AS ITS OVERALL BUSINESS STRATEGY AND APPROACH. Everyone knows IRIS as a technology distribution company. Why IRIS 2.0 now? The world of technology has fundamentally changed. Businesses today are no longer looking for just products. They are looking for intelligence, speed, automation, security, and business outcomes. Earlier, technology conversations revolved around devices and infrastructure. Today, the conversation is about how organizations can become AI-ready and future-ready. IRIS 2.0 is our answer to that transformation. It is the evolution of IRIS from a traditional technology company into an intelligent enterprise ecosystem designed for the AI era. What exactly is IRIS 2.0? IRIS 2.0 is the next phase of our journey. It is a strategic transformation focused on enabling intelligent enterprises through infrastructure, AI, automation, and integrated technology experiences. At the center of this vision is Iris.ai, a future-forward platform designed to simplify and accelerate enterprise transformation. IRIS 2.0 REPRESENTS: • Smarter technology ecosystems • AI-enabled business operations • Intelligent workplace solutions • Secure and scalable infrastructure • Data-driven decision-making • Human-centered innovation The idea is simple -Technology should not just support businesses. It should rather empower businesses to think smarter and move faster. Why is AI such an important part of this transformation? AI is no longer the future. It is the present. Every organization today is under pressure to - improve efficiency, reduce complexity, increase productivity, make faster decisions, and deliver better customer experiences. AI enables all of this. But real transformation happens only when AI becomes practical, accessible, and integrated into everyday business operations. That is the vision behind IRIS 2.0. We want to make intelligent transformation real for enterprises. What does Iris.ai stand for? IRIS.AI is the intelligence layer of the IRIS 2.0 vision. It represents our commitment to building connected enterprise ecosystems powered by intelligence, automation, and innovation. IRIS.AI FOCUSES ON: • Intelligent workflows • AI-powered productivity • Smart enterprise experiences • Automation-led efficiency • Data intelligence • Future-ready business solutions More importantly, it represents a mindset shift. From reactive technology… to predictive, intelligent technology. Is IRIS changing its identity as a company? IRIS is evolving its identity. The technology industry is moving from product-led conversations to solution-led ecosystems. Organizations today do not want fragmented technology experiences. They want simplicity, integration, intelligence, and long-term value. IRIS 2.0 REFLECTS THAT EVOLUTION. We are moving from being known only as a distribution-driven organization to becoming a transformation-led technology partner focused on enterprise growth. What makes IRIS 2.0 different? What makes IRIS 2.0 different is its approach. This is not about showcasing isolated technologies. This is about creating connected experiences. Every element of IRIS 2.0 is designed around one central question - “How can technology create real business impact?” The focus is not just innovation. The focus is meaningful innovation. THAT MEANS: • Technology with purpose • AI with usability • Infrastructure with intelligence • Automation with measurable outcomes IRIS 2.0 is where technology becomes business transformation. Who is IRIS 2.0 designed for? IRIS 2.0 is designed for modern enterprises that are preparing for the next decade of business. From startups to large enterprises, every organization today is navigating - Digital acceleration AI adoption, Data growth, Workforce transformation, Security challenges and Operational complexity. IRIS 2.0 is built to support organizations through that journey. Whether the goal is scalability, agility, productivity, or innovation — the objective remains the same - Helping businesses become more intelligent and future-ready. Which industries can benefit from this vision? Every industry today is becoming technology-driven. However, sectors experiencing rapid transformation include - • Banking and financial services • Healthcare • Retail • Manufacturing • Education • Government • Enterprise services Each of these industries is looking for smarter operations, intelligent automation, predictive capabilities, and seamless digital experiences. IRIS 2.0 is designed to help enterprises adapt to this new reality. What does “Powered by IRIS.AI” truly mean? It means intelligence becomes the foundation of every experience. “Powered by IRIS.AI” is not just a tagline. It is a philosophy. IT REPRESENTS A FUTURE WHERE ‑ • Systems become smarter • Workflows become faster • Decisions become data-driven • Businesses become more adaptive • Technology becomes more human- centric The goal is not simply to digitize businesses. The goal is to intelligently transform them. How will customers and partners benefit from IRIS 2.0? The biggest benefit is simplification. Technology ecosystems today are often fragmented and difficult to manage. IRIS 2.0 brings together intelligence, infrastructure, innovation, and enterprise enablement into one connected ecosystem. FOR CUSTOMERS, THIS MEANS ‑ • Faster transformation • Better efficiency • Smarter operations • Improved scalability • Reduced complexity For partners, it creates opportunities to move beyond transactional business models and become strategic transformation enablers. Is IRIS 2.0 just an event or a long- term vision? IRIS 2.0 is a long-term strategic vision. This is not a campaign. This is not a trend. This is the future direction of IRIS. Technology is entering a new era where intelligence will define competitiveness. The companies that succeed tomorrow will be the ones that can combine – Technology, Intelligence, Automation, Innovation and Human experience. IRIS 2.0 is our commitment to building that future. What is the one message people should take away from tonight? The future of business will not be driven by technology alone. It will be driven by intelligent ecosystems. The next era belongs to organizations that can think faster, adapt quicker, automate smarter, and innovate continuously. IRIS 2.0 represents the beginning of that journey. A journey from distribution to intelligence. From systems to ecosystems. From technology to transformation. WELCOME TO IRIS 2.0.
Data Centre
Everpure , the company revolutionizing storage and data management, today announced it has been recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure Platform Consumption Services for the second year in a row. This year, Everpure was positioned highest in Execution and furthest in Vision. Everpure believes the recognition marks the company’s best performance to date, demonstrating strong momentum as enterprise demand accelerates for platform-centric, outcome-based infrastructure models. “Customers need the flexibility to build their infrastructure strategy around their businesses, and not the other way around. The Everpure Platform focuses on SLA based outcomes that helps customers simplify operations, improve efficiency, and get more value from their infrastructure and data,” said Prakash Darji , General Manager, Digital Experience, Everpure. According to the Gartner report, “The primary role of IPCS is to provide scalable, platform-managed infrastructure for hybrid-cloud environments, enabling organizations to shift from capital expenditure and in-house management toward a consumption-based operating model. This approach allows IT operations to focus on managing workloads rather than physical hardware, with vendors assuming responsibility and risk management for infrastructure performance and reliability. IPCS delivers benefits such as cost optimization, improved productivity, enhanced cyber resilience and accelerated innovation — driven by automation, continuous workload optimization and product-centric service features. 2 ” Everpure believes its positioning validates a broader industry shift toward this model. The infrastructure landscape is evolving as enterprises manage increasingly distributed environments, growing AI workloads, and rising demands for cyber resilience and operational efficiency. The Everpure Platform provides a unified architecture and operating model designed to simplify how organizations manage data and infrastructure across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Guided by its Data Primacy vision, Everpure helps organizations manage data as a trusted asset through a global data plane and intelligent control plane. Recent innovations include: Everpure Data Intelligence™: Makes fragmented data usable for AI by discovering, classifying, contextualizing, and governing data at the source across Everpure, cloud, SaaS, and third-party environments. Enterprise Data Cloud Enhancements: Unifies data, policy, and semantics across hybrid estates to streamline operations and enforce consistent governance. AI Data Stream: Automates data discovery, preparation, and delivery pipelines, making real-time information immediately accessible to AI applications. Cyber Resilience Innovations: Strengthens protection and speeds recovery from cyber threats to ensure continuous business resilience. Everpure believes its recognition in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant reflects the growing importance of a platform-based approach to infrastructure consumption. By combining infrastructure, data management, intelligent automation, and flexible consumption within a unified platform, Everpure helps organizations reduce operational complexity while improving resilience, governance, and asset productivity.
Data Centre
The Invenia-brand digital infrastructure firm's new subsidiary will build connectivity infrastructure and secure telecom licences to serve hyperscalers, data-center operators and enterprises as part of its broader expansion plans. STL Networks Limited, a leading digital infrastructure services company operating under the Invenia brand, has approved the incorporation of a wholly-owned subsidiary for its data-center connectivity business. The proposed subsidiary is intended to support the company's data-center expansion plans and address the growing connectivity requirements of hyperscalers, data-center operators and enterprises. Part of a broader data-center push The move forms part of STL Networks' wider plan to expand its presence in the data-center market. As data-center campuses grow in scale and complexity, the ability to connect them reliably with cloud, enterprise and telecom networks is becoming an increasingly important part of customer requirements, the company said. Chandrasekhara Rao Battula, Whole Time Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invenia-STL Networks Limited, said: “Data-center customers are looking for partners who understand both the build and the network behind it. We have built a strong foundation in digital infrastructure. This is the next step in extending that capability into connectivity, where we see a meaningful opportunity to support data-center operators, hyperscalers and enterprises as their requirements grow.” Building infrastructure and securing licences The wholly-owned subsidiary will build and own the digital infrastructure and obtain the relevant telecom licences needed to deliver connectivity services to customers. This is expected to add a dedicated services platform for data-center connectivity, enabling the company to develop an integrated offering for customers and take greater ownership of delivery across the infrastructure and connectivity lifecycle. The subsidiary is expected to strengthen STL Networks' presence across the AI data-center ecosystem and create a focused platform to pursue connectivity-led opportunities alongside its existing infrastructure business.
Data Centre
Everpure , the company revolutionizing storage and data management, today announced it has been recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure Platform Consumption Services for the second year in a row. This year, Everpure was positioned highest in Execution and furthest in Vision. Everpure believes the recognition marks the company’s best performance to date, demonstrating strong momentum as enterprise demand accelerates for platform-centric, outcome-based infrastructure models. “Customers need the flexibility to build their infrastructure strategy around their businesses, and not the other way around. The Everpure Platform focuses on SLA based outcomes that helps customers simplify operations, improve efficiency, and get more value from their infrastructure and data,” said Prakash Darji , General Manager, Digital Experience, Everpure. According to the Gartner report, “The primary role of IPCS is to provide scalable, platform-managed infrastructure for hybrid-cloud environments, enabling organizations to shift from capital expenditure and in-house management toward a consumption-based operating model. This approach allows IT operations to focus on managing workloads rather than physical hardware, with vendors assuming responsibility and risk management for infrastructure performance and reliability. IPCS delivers benefits such as cost optimization, improved productivity, enhanced cyber resilience and accelerated innovation — driven by automation, continuous workload optimization and product-centric service features. 2 ” Everpure believes its positioning validates a broader industry shift toward this model. The infrastructure landscape is evolving as enterprises manage increasingly distributed environments, growing AI workloads, and rising demands for cyber resilience and operational efficiency. The Everpure Platform provides a unified architecture and operating model designed to simplify how organizations manage data and infrastructure across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Guided by its Data Primacy vision, Everpure helps organizations manage data as a trusted asset through a global data plane and intelligent control plane. Recent innovations include: Everpure Data Intelligence™: Makes fragmented data usable for AI by discovering, classifying, contextualizing, and governing data at the source across Everpure, cloud, SaaS, and third-party environments. Enterprise Data Cloud Enhancements: Unifies data, policy, and semantics across hybrid estates to streamline operations and enforce consistent governance. AI Data Stream: Automates data discovery, preparation, and delivery pipelines, making real-time information immediately accessible to AI applications. Cyber Resilience Innovations: Strengthens protection and speeds recovery from cyber threats to ensure continuous business resilience. Everpure believes its recognition in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant reflects the growing importance of a platform-based approach to infrastructure consumption. By combining infrastructure, data management, intelligent automation, and flexible consumption within a unified platform, Everpure helps organizations reduce operational complexity while improving resilience, governance, and asset productivity.
Data Centre
The Invenia-brand digital infrastructure firm's new subsidiary will build connectivity infrastructure and secure telecom licences to serve hyperscalers, data-center operators and enterprises as part of its broader expansion plans. STL Networks Limited, a leading digital infrastructure services company operating under the Invenia brand, has approved the incorporation of a wholly-owned subsidiary for its data-center connectivity business. The proposed subsidiary is intended to support the company's data-center expansion plans and address the growing connectivity requirements of hyperscalers, data-center operators and enterprises. Part of a broader data-center push The move forms part of STL Networks' wider plan to expand its presence in the data-center market. As data-center campuses grow in scale and complexity, the ability to connect them reliably with cloud, enterprise and telecom networks is becoming an increasingly important part of customer requirements, the company said. Chandrasekhara Rao Battula, Whole Time Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer, Invenia-STL Networks Limited, said: “Data-center customers are looking for partners who understand both the build and the network behind it. We have built a strong foundation in digital infrastructure. This is the next step in extending that capability into connectivity, where we see a meaningful opportunity to support data-center operators, hyperscalers and enterprises as their requirements grow.” Building infrastructure and securing licences The wholly-owned subsidiary will build and own the digital infrastructure and obtain the relevant telecom licences needed to deliver connectivity services to customers. This is expected to add a dedicated services platform for data-center connectivity, enabling the company to develop an integrated offering for customers and take greater ownership of delivery across the infrastructure and connectivity lifecycle. The subsidiary is expected to strengthen STL Networks' presence across the AI data-center ecosystem and create a focused platform to pursue connectivity-led opportunities alongside its existing infrastructure business.
E-Commerce
Amazon’s decision to block Meta’s new Muse AI agent from shopping on its platform signals a much bigger battle over who controls customers, credentials and commerce in the agentic-AI era. Amazon says Meta did not notify it that Muse would access Amazon, the agent did not identify itself while browsing, and its handling of customer credentials raised security and privacy concerns. Meta, meanwhile, says Muse stores credentials securely and cannot see users’ passwords or payment details. Key Highlights: # Amazon blocks Muse over authorization, identification and security concerns # User consent may not equal merchant consent # AI agents threaten traditional e-commerce interfaces # Agent identity and authentication could become mandatory # Zero-Trust for AI agents could emerge as the next cybersecurity layer The dispute exposes a fundamental question: does a customer’s permission automatically authorize an AI agent to transact with another company? Amazon says third-party agents should identify themselves and respect a service provider’s decision on whether to participate. Its 2026 agent policy similarly requires AI agents accessing Amazon services to clearly identify themselves. The commercial implications are equally important. AI agents can potentially bypass product pages, recommendations, sponsored listings and other parts of the traditional shopping journey. Amazon generated more than $68 billion from advertising in 2025, giving it a strong incentive to retain control over product discovery and customer interaction. Technologically, the confrontation could accelerate development of an identity layer for AI agents. Websites may increasingly demand machine-readable credentials identifying which agent is visiting, who authorized it, what permissions it has and whether it can browse, retrieve account information or execute transactions. This could produce an “Agent Zero Trust” architecture: authenticate every agent, authorize every action, enforce least privilege, record transactions and require explicit approval for sensitive activities. Agent passports, signed requests, scoped tokens and auditable consent could become standard infrastructure. The industry is therefore likely to move away from unrestricted browser automation toward permission-based agent commerce. Amazon’s earlier dispute with Perplexity shows the issue extends beyond Meta. Retailers, payment companies, browsers and AI developers will increasingly need interoperable rules governing agent identity, consent, data access and liability. The next internet battle may not be human versus AI—but platform versus agent.
E-Commerce
Tazapay announced the opening of its Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru - its largest facility in India to date and a strategic global capability hub. The centre marks a significant expansion of its India presence and strengthens its role in the company’s next phase of technology, product innovation and growth. The new CoE, located at 315 Work Avenue, Koramangla is spread across 11,000 sq. ft, and currently houses 60 employees. Tazapay plans to expand this team to 150+ over the next 18 months, with hiring focused across Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations - talent that will help build and scale complex global payment infrastructure to serve businesses across the markets Tazapay operates in. Tazapay's engineering, product and treasury teams work on the layers of a cross-border payment that a business never sees: the routing that picks a path for each transaction, whether it runs on traditional fiat or stablecoin rails, the compliance and licensing checks that clear it, the funding and settlement that move the money, and the reconciliation that confirms it landed. Agentic payments are one of the newer workloads that will run on this infrastructure. In a regulated industry, Tazapay expects AI to augment its teams, with human oversight, governance and judgment remaining central. The company currently enables 1,000 enterprises and fintechs across 30 countries to collect, hold, convert and move money across borders through a single regulated platform, with access to local payment methods across 80+ countries, named virtual accounts in 40+ currencies and payout capabilities across 100+ currencies. Tazapay's platform is designed to help businesses expand internationally without establishing local entities or managing multiple payment providers. It also gives fintechs and platforms the underlying infrastructure to offer white-labeled cross-border collections and payouts under their own brand. Tazapay’s Bengaluru expansion builds on an established presence in India. The company has an engineering centre in Chennai since 2020, a payments and compliance operational base in Delhi, and a Corporate office in Bengaluru. Chennai continues to play an important role in building the technology backbone of Tazapay’s global payments infrastructure, while Bengaluru brings together a broader mix of Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations. The two centres will operate as complementary capabilities supporting Tazapay’s global technology and product roadmap. The expansion comes as Tazapay scales following the close of its $36 million Series B in March 2026, led by Circle Ventures, with participation from CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Ripple, Norinchukin Capital, GMO Venture Partners, January Capital, ARC180 and RTP Global. The funding is supporting Tazapay’s global expansion, including licensing, go-to-market growth and the development of next-generation payment infrastructure. Rahul Shinghal, Co-founder and CEO, Tazapay , said at the formal opening of the CoE - “An important part of building global payment infrastructure is bringing together the people and capabilities that can make that complexity invisible to the businesses using our platform. That is what makes Bengaluru strategically important for Tazapay. We have engineering depth in Chennai, and Bengaluru allows us to bring Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations closer together in one environment, so that the people building the infrastructure are working alongside the teams responsible for how money actually moves. As cross-border payments evolve to include stablecoins, AI and autonomous agents alongside traditional fiat networks, this combination of technology, product and operational expertise will become increasingly important. We see Bengaluru playing a growing role in building that future for Tazapay and for the businesses we serve globally.”
E-Commerce
Amazon’s decision to block Meta’s new Muse AI agent from shopping on its platform signals a much bigger battle over who controls customers, credentials and commerce in the agentic-AI era. Amazon says Meta did not notify it that Muse would access Amazon, the agent did not identify itself while browsing, and its handling of customer credentials raised security and privacy concerns. Meta, meanwhile, says Muse stores credentials securely and cannot see users’ passwords or payment details. Key Highlights: # Amazon blocks Muse over authorization, identification and security concerns # User consent may not equal merchant consent # AI agents threaten traditional e-commerce interfaces # Agent identity and authentication could become mandatory # Zero-Trust for AI agents could emerge as the next cybersecurity layer The dispute exposes a fundamental question: does a customer’s permission automatically authorize an AI agent to transact with another company? Amazon says third-party agents should identify themselves and respect a service provider’s decision on whether to participate. Its 2026 agent policy similarly requires AI agents accessing Amazon services to clearly identify themselves. The commercial implications are equally important. AI agents can potentially bypass product pages, recommendations, sponsored listings and other parts of the traditional shopping journey. Amazon generated more than $68 billion from advertising in 2025, giving it a strong incentive to retain control over product discovery and customer interaction. Technologically, the confrontation could accelerate development of an identity layer for AI agents. Websites may increasingly demand machine-readable credentials identifying which agent is visiting, who authorized it, what permissions it has and whether it can browse, retrieve account information or execute transactions. This could produce an “Agent Zero Trust” architecture: authenticate every agent, authorize every action, enforce least privilege, record transactions and require explicit approval for sensitive activities. Agent passports, signed requests, scoped tokens and auditable consent could become standard infrastructure. The industry is therefore likely to move away from unrestricted browser automation toward permission-based agent commerce. Amazon’s earlier dispute with Perplexity shows the issue extends beyond Meta. Retailers, payment companies, browsers and AI developers will increasingly need interoperable rules governing agent identity, consent, data access and liability. The next internet battle may not be human versus AI—but platform versus agent.
E-Commerce
Tazapay announced the opening of its Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru - its largest facility in India to date and a strategic global capability hub. The centre marks a significant expansion of its India presence and strengthens its role in the company’s next phase of technology, product innovation and growth. The new CoE, located at 315 Work Avenue, Koramangla is spread across 11,000 sq. ft, and currently houses 60 employees. Tazapay plans to expand this team to 150+ over the next 18 months, with hiring focused across Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations - talent that will help build and scale complex global payment infrastructure to serve businesses across the markets Tazapay operates in. Tazapay's engineering, product and treasury teams work on the layers of a cross-border payment that a business never sees: the routing that picks a path for each transaction, whether it runs on traditional fiat or stablecoin rails, the compliance and licensing checks that clear it, the funding and settlement that move the money, and the reconciliation that confirms it landed. Agentic payments are one of the newer workloads that will run on this infrastructure. In a regulated industry, Tazapay expects AI to augment its teams, with human oversight, governance and judgment remaining central. The company currently enables 1,000 enterprises and fintechs across 30 countries to collect, hold, convert and move money across borders through a single regulated platform, with access to local payment methods across 80+ countries, named virtual accounts in 40+ currencies and payout capabilities across 100+ currencies. Tazapay's platform is designed to help businesses expand internationally without establishing local entities or managing multiple payment providers. It also gives fintechs and platforms the underlying infrastructure to offer white-labeled cross-border collections and payouts under their own brand. Tazapay’s Bengaluru expansion builds on an established presence in India. The company has an engineering centre in Chennai since 2020, a payments and compliance operational base in Delhi, and a Corporate office in Bengaluru. Chennai continues to play an important role in building the technology backbone of Tazapay’s global payments infrastructure, while Bengaluru brings together a broader mix of Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations. The two centres will operate as complementary capabilities supporting Tazapay’s global technology and product roadmap. The expansion comes as Tazapay scales following the close of its $36 million Series B in March 2026, led by Circle Ventures, with participation from CMT Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Ripple, Norinchukin Capital, GMO Venture Partners, January Capital, ARC180 and RTP Global. The funding is supporting Tazapay’s global expansion, including licensing, go-to-market growth and the development of next-generation payment infrastructure. Rahul Shinghal, Co-founder and CEO, Tazapay , said at the formal opening of the CoE - “An important part of building global payment infrastructure is bringing together the people and capabilities that can make that complexity invisible to the businesses using our platform. That is what makes Bengaluru strategically important for Tazapay. We have engineering depth in Chennai, and Bengaluru allows us to bring Engineering, Product and Treasury Operations closer together in one environment, so that the people building the infrastructure are working alongside the teams responsible for how money actually moves. As cross-border payments evolve to include stablecoins, AI and autonomous agents alongside traditional fiat networks, this combination of technology, product and operational expertise will become increasingly important. We see Bengaluru playing a growing role in building that future for Tazapay and for the businesses we serve globally.”
Data Privacy
A new privacy controversy around Meta AI is highlighting how artificial intelligence can transform years of scattered social-media posts into surprisingly detailed personal profiles. The issue emerged after mother-of-two Kalie Robins posted a Facebook video featuring her daughter and Meta AI suggested asking, “Who is the child passenger?” Key Highlights AI aggregation creates a new privacy risk Children’s historical posts can reveal extensive information Meta acknowledged its suggested prompts were inappropriate Accessible data can become more sensitive when AI connects it AI platforms need stronger child-privacy safeguards After selecting the prompt, Robins said Meta AI surfaced information about her children, including names, birth details, videos and photographs gathered from historical family posts. She also claimed the results included an image she had previously deleted, although Meta says its AI surfaces information that the requesting user is permitted to access. The concern escalated when Meta AI suggested another question about where Robins lived. According to her account, the system connected information from older and newer posts to infer details about her location. The episode demonstrates how AI can make fragmented personal information dramatically easier to aggregate and interpret . Meta acknowledged that the suggested questions were inappropriate. A company spokesperson told The Verge that the feature had “missed the mark” and said Meta fixed the problem responsible for generating prompts involving sensitive personal topics. The larger issue extends beyond one Meta AI feature. Information that may appear relatively harmless when distributed across individual posts can become significantly more sensitive when AI automatically connects faces, family relationships, dates, locations and historical content into a coherent picture. Children present a particularly important challenge because parents, relatives and friends can collectively create a digital footprint for a child long before that child can meaningfully decide how their information should be shared. The incident therefore raises a fundamental question for the AI era: Does permission to access individual posts automatically justify AI-driven aggregation and profiling? Social platforms may increasingly need stronger protections around minors, clearer AI disclosures, purpose limitations and controls preventing personal information from being assembled in unexpected ways.
Data Privacy
Meta’s new personal AI agent, Muse , is facing scrutiny after a technology columnist reported that the assistant accessed information from his private Apple Messages database in a way he says he neither expected nor knowingly authorized. The episode raises an important question: how much access should an AI agent receive simply because a user grants broad system permissions? According to columnist Jason Aten, Muse initially told him that it could only see incoming notification previews and could not access his Messages history. His investigation, however, indicated that Muse had synchronized information from the local Messages database. Meta’s David Singleton subsequently said Muse’s explanation of how it obtained the information was incorrect and that access depended on permissions enabled by the user. The controversy therefore appears less about proven covert surveillance and more about meaningful consent and transparency. Giving an application “Full Disk Access” may technically authorize extensive access, but users may not understand that this could expose years of messages to an AI agent. Meta says Muse was designed around user control. The company says users choose which applications to connect and how much access Muse receives. It also says Muse operates inside a dedicated Secure VM, protects credentials separately, maintains an audit trail and seeks approval before certain sensitive actions. The broader concern extends beyond Meta. Personal AI agents increasingly require access to emails, calendars, documents, messages, financial services and other sensitive information to become genuinely useful. The more autonomous agents become, the greater the consequences of ambiguous permissions or excessive data access. The Muse episode highlights an emerging principle for the agentic-AI era: permission should not automatically equal informed consent. AI platforms will increasingly need granular permissions, purpose limitation, transparent data mapping and continuous auditing so users know exactly what their AI can see, why it needs that information, and what it does with it.
Data Privacy
A new privacy controversy around Meta AI is highlighting how artificial intelligence can transform years of scattered social-media posts into surprisingly detailed personal profiles. The issue emerged after mother-of-two Kalie Robins posted a Facebook video featuring her daughter and Meta AI suggested asking, “Who is the child passenger?” Key Highlights AI aggregation creates a new privacy risk Children’s historical posts can reveal extensive information Meta acknowledged its suggested prompts were inappropriate Accessible data can become more sensitive when AI connects it AI platforms need stronger child-privacy safeguards After selecting the prompt, Robins said Meta AI surfaced information about her children, including names, birth details, videos and photographs gathered from historical family posts. She also claimed the results included an image she had previously deleted, although Meta says its AI surfaces information that the requesting user is permitted to access. The concern escalated when Meta AI suggested another question about where Robins lived. According to her account, the system connected information from older and newer posts to infer details about her location. The episode demonstrates how AI can make fragmented personal information dramatically easier to aggregate and interpret . Meta acknowledged that the suggested questions were inappropriate. A company spokesperson told The Verge that the feature had “missed the mark” and said Meta fixed the problem responsible for generating prompts involving sensitive personal topics. The larger issue extends beyond one Meta AI feature. Information that may appear relatively harmless when distributed across individual posts can become significantly more sensitive when AI automatically connects faces, family relationships, dates, locations and historical content into a coherent picture. Children present a particularly important challenge because parents, relatives and friends can collectively create a digital footprint for a child long before that child can meaningfully decide how their information should be shared. The incident therefore raises a fundamental question for the AI era: Does permission to access individual posts automatically justify AI-driven aggregation and profiling? Social platforms may increasingly need stronger protections around minors, clearer AI disclosures, purpose limitations and controls preventing personal information from being assembled in unexpected ways.
Data Privacy
Meta’s new personal AI agent, Muse , is facing scrutiny after a technology columnist reported that the assistant accessed information from his private Apple Messages database in a way he says he neither expected nor knowingly authorized. The episode raises an important question: how much access should an AI agent receive simply because a user grants broad system permissions? According to columnist Jason Aten, Muse initially told him that it could only see incoming notification previews and could not access his Messages history. His investigation, however, indicated that Muse had synchronized information from the local Messages database. Meta’s David Singleton subsequently said Muse’s explanation of how it obtained the information was incorrect and that access depended on permissions enabled by the user. The controversy therefore appears less about proven covert surveillance and more about meaningful consent and transparency. Giving an application “Full Disk Access” may technically authorize extensive access, but users may not understand that this could expose years of messages to an AI agent. Meta says Muse was designed around user control. The company says users choose which applications to connect and how much access Muse receives. It also says Muse operates inside a dedicated Secure VM, protects credentials separately, maintains an audit trail and seeks approval before certain sensitive actions. The broader concern extends beyond Meta. Personal AI agents increasingly require access to emails, calendars, documents, messages, financial services and other sensitive information to become genuinely useful. The more autonomous agents become, the greater the consequences of ambiguous permissions or excessive data access. The Muse episode highlights an emerging principle for the agentic-AI era: permission should not automatically equal informed consent. AI platforms will increasingly need granular permissions, purpose limitation, transparent data mapping and continuous auditing so users know exactly what their AI can see, why it needs that information, and what it does with it.
Cloud Computing
Blue Cloud Softech Solutions announced that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Global Impx, has received a signed Statement of Work from IBM Cloud Inc for AI Infrastructure Design, Deployment and Support Services, at a fixed fee of US$15.5 million (approximately ₹147 crore). The Statement of Work is issued under a Master Services Agreement between the two companies dated 21 August 2026. Work commenced on 24 September 2026, and fees are payable against five milestones running from project kick-off to production go-live. The engagement GIX will deliver a scalable, secure, high-performance environment for the client’s AI and machine-learning workloads, covering model development, training, fine-tuning and inference. The work spans four stages: • Design: assessment of AI workloads and existing infrastructure, followed by the high-level architecture and detailed design; • Build: GPU compute clusters, high-performance storage and networking, AI/ML platforms and Kubernetes-based orchestration, with model training and inference environments; • Secure and operate: identity and access controls, network segmentation, encryption, monitoring, backup and disaster recovery; • Validate and hand over: performance testing, documentation, knowledge transfer and production handover, followed by a stabilisation and support period. The project runs to defined service levels, including infrastructure and GPU availability of at least 99.5 per cent, critical alerts within 15 minutes and response to critical incidents within 30 minutes. Why it matters Enterprises are moving AI from pilots into production, and that shift depends on GPU infrastructure that is designed, secured and operated to production standards. This order places Blue Cloud at the centre of that work for a global technology client and strengthens the Company’s AI infrastructure business in the United States, its largest market. Tejesh Kumar Kodali, Group Chairman, Blue Cloud Softech Solutions, said, “AI is moving out of the lab and into production, and that move runs on infrastructure. Winning this mandate from IBM Cloud within three months of GIX joining Blue Cloud shows that our US platform can compete for, and deliver, the most demanding AI infrastructure work. This is the high-value, repeatable business we set out to build when we brought GIX into the group.” Vinod Babu Bollikonda, Managing Director and Group CEO, said, “Our teams have already mobilised. We will deliver against clear milestones and service levels, including 99.5 per cent availability, and we aim to earn a long-term relationship with the client that extends well beyond this engagement.”
Cloud Computing
Akamai Technologies announced a significantly expanded relationship with Anthropic for $11.6 billion of contractual commitment over seven years. The multi-year commitment will support Anthropic's accelerating CPU workload demands by leveraging Akamai Cloud's distributed AI infrastructure and software. The deal adds to the more than $2.8 billion in multi-year Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) commitments across Akamai’s customer base previously announced this year. These agreements underscore a growing demand for Akamai to enable customers to build, deploy and operate AI workloads at scale. As part of the increased strategic alignment between Akamai and Anthropic, Akamai has issued a warrant to Anthropic for the purchase of non-voting convertible Series B Preferred Stock representing 7.7 million shares of Akamai’s common stock on an as-converted basis, or up to approximately 5% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding, at an exercise price of $111.33 per share of common stock. A portion of the warrant representing approximately 2% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding is expected to vest in connection with today’s announced $11.6 billion commitment. The remaining approximately 3% would vest throughout the successful expansion of the commitment up to an additional $9 billion within the seven-year term of the warrant. Each additional $3 billion purchase of cloud services, at mutually agreed upon terms, will result in the vesting of approximately 1% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding. "Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, co-founder and CEO, Akamai. “Akamai has an unparalleled reputation for helping our customers achieve their business-critical goals and build the future. Our expanding global footprint, combined with our years of experience serving the world’s largest enterprises, positions us to be the infrastructure provider for secure and responsible AI applications and workloads.” Akamai Cloud supports a continuum of compute from core to edge, with a vastly distributed network spanning thousands of points of presence. The platform is built with diversified hardware to enable customers to build and run applications and optimize how they are served to their users and agents. Akamai's global infrastructure enables the full lifecycle of applications in the AI era, and ensures they are fast, reliable and secure. Total capital expenditures related to today’s $11.6 billion commitment are estimated to be approximately $5.5 billion. Akamai anticipates no impact to the company's 2026 revenue guidance, and an increase of approximately $1.7 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 to secure and pre-purchase critical supply chain components, including memory.
Cloud Computing
Blue Cloud Softech Solutions announced that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Global Impx, has received a signed Statement of Work from IBM Cloud Inc for AI Infrastructure Design, Deployment and Support Services, at a fixed fee of US$15.5 million (approximately ₹147 crore). The Statement of Work is issued under a Master Services Agreement between the two companies dated 21 August 2026. Work commenced on 24 September 2026, and fees are payable against five milestones running from project kick-off to production go-live. The engagement GIX will deliver a scalable, secure, high-performance environment for the client’s AI and machine-learning workloads, covering model development, training, fine-tuning and inference. The work spans four stages: • Design: assessment of AI workloads and existing infrastructure, followed by the high-level architecture and detailed design; • Build: GPU compute clusters, high-performance storage and networking, AI/ML platforms and Kubernetes-based orchestration, with model training and inference environments; • Secure and operate: identity and access controls, network segmentation, encryption, monitoring, backup and disaster recovery; • Validate and hand over: performance testing, documentation, knowledge transfer and production handover, followed by a stabilisation and support period. The project runs to defined service levels, including infrastructure and GPU availability of at least 99.5 per cent, critical alerts within 15 minutes and response to critical incidents within 30 minutes. Why it matters Enterprises are moving AI from pilots into production, and that shift depends on GPU infrastructure that is designed, secured and operated to production standards. This order places Blue Cloud at the centre of that work for a global technology client and strengthens the Company’s AI infrastructure business in the United States, its largest market. Tejesh Kumar Kodali, Group Chairman, Blue Cloud Softech Solutions, said, “AI is moving out of the lab and into production, and that move runs on infrastructure. Winning this mandate from IBM Cloud within three months of GIX joining Blue Cloud shows that our US platform can compete for, and deliver, the most demanding AI infrastructure work. This is the high-value, repeatable business we set out to build when we brought GIX into the group.” Vinod Babu Bollikonda, Managing Director and Group CEO, said, “Our teams have already mobilised. We will deliver against clear milestones and service levels, including 99.5 per cent availability, and we aim to earn a long-term relationship with the client that extends well beyond this engagement.”
Cloud Computing
Akamai Technologies announced a significantly expanded relationship with Anthropic for $11.6 billion of contractual commitment over seven years. The multi-year commitment will support Anthropic's accelerating CPU workload demands by leveraging Akamai Cloud's distributed AI infrastructure and software. The deal adds to the more than $2.8 billion in multi-year Cloud Infrastructure Services (CIS) commitments across Akamai’s customer base previously announced this year. These agreements underscore a growing demand for Akamai to enable customers to build, deploy and operate AI workloads at scale. As part of the increased strategic alignment between Akamai and Anthropic, Akamai has issued a warrant to Anthropic for the purchase of non-voting convertible Series B Preferred Stock representing 7.7 million shares of Akamai’s common stock on an as-converted basis, or up to approximately 5% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding, at an exercise price of $111.33 per share of common stock. A portion of the warrant representing approximately 2% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding is expected to vest in connection with today’s announced $11.6 billion commitment. The remaining approximately 3% would vest throughout the successful expansion of the commitment up to an additional $9 billion within the seven-year term of the warrant. Each additional $3 billion purchase of cloud services, at mutually agreed upon terms, will result in the vesting of approximately 1% of Akamai’s common stock outstanding. "Anthropic is advancing the AI revolution and we are thrilled they chose Akamai’s capabilities for building and operating AI infrastructure at scale,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, co-founder and CEO, Akamai. “Akamai has an unparalleled reputation for helping our customers achieve their business-critical goals and build the future. Our expanding global footprint, combined with our years of experience serving the world’s largest enterprises, positions us to be the infrastructure provider for secure and responsible AI applications and workloads.” Akamai Cloud supports a continuum of compute from core to edge, with a vastly distributed network spanning thousands of points of presence. The platform is built with diversified hardware to enable customers to build and run applications and optimize how they are served to their users and agents. Akamai's global infrastructure enables the full lifecycle of applications in the AI era, and ensures they are fast, reliable and secure. Total capital expenditures related to today’s $11.6 billion commitment are estimated to be approximately $5.5 billion. Akamai anticipates no impact to the company's 2026 revenue guidance, and an increase of approximately $1.7 billion in capital expenditures in 2026 to secure and pre-purchase critical supply chain components, including memory.
Gaming
Clash of Clans and WWE reunite for their second collaboration with six WWE Superstars reimagined as Clash of Clans characters, and a worldwide hunt for Cena's in-game village. Clash of Clans, which has over two billion lifetime downloads, is back with WWE for a second collaboration; and this time, the rivalry is personal. WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes and WWE Legend John Cena are best known for what they do in the ring, but their competition didn't start there. Both are long-time players of Clash of Clans, and this shared gaming history has become locker room legend. Now, Rhodes, a decade-long player, has recruited the Clash of Clans community – plus fellow WWE Superstars – to help him hunt down John Cena's base, taking a decade-long battle out of the ring and into their in-game villages. Beginning today, September 1st, through September 30th, Cena’s loot-filled base is waiting for Clash of Clans players to discover throughout the course of their daily raids. The more players raid, the higher the chance they have of locating the elusive WWE Legend and earning a one-time-only Cody Rhodes statue for their village – but only if their raid is a success. It’s not like a 17-time WWE World Champion is going to have a rookie base. Meanwhile, to beef up the search party, Rhodes has enlisted the support of The Undertaker, IYO SKY and a whole host of other WWE Superstars who will be rallying their own fans online to join the hunt. “People think this started in the ring with Cody. It didn’t. It started when I out-raided him in the game and he threw me off his team," says Cena. “Ten years later he still needs help. This time he’s asking millions of you to take on my base. That’s fine. As I have always said - if you want some, come get some.” Beyond Cena’s base, the in-game crossover presents six WWE Superstars reimagined as iconic Clash of Clans Hero characters, including the return of Cody Rhodes as The Barbarian King. The lineup include: ● Cody Rhodes as “Barbarian King” ● Alexa Bliss as “Archer Queen” ● The Undertaker as “Grand Warden” ● IYO SKY as “Royal Champion” ● Jey Uso as “Minion Prince” ● Kane as “Dragon Duke” Players can also experience WWE-themed features throughout the event, from temporary troops to a branded village theme that’s designed around WW E Money in the Bank , taking place in New Orleans on October 10th. WWE chests hold a series of rewards too, with returning favorites like Action Figure Equipment, plus Challenge Tickets and a guaranteed Cody Rhodes Skin. Download Clash of Clans for iOS or Google Play today to help Rhodes in his Search for Cena until September 30th.
Gaming
Russia witnessed a spectacular display of coordination and athleticism as 430 breakdancers performed the iconic “windmill” simultaneously in Kazan, setting a new world record for the mass breaking performance. The record was created at Kazan’s Central Stadium as part of the 18th COMBOnation International Tournament of breaking and street art. The performance also celebrated 40 years of breaking culture in Tatarstan. To achieve the feat, all 430 participants performed 10 consecutive windmill rotations together. The technically demanding move requires dancers to continuously rotate their bodies across the shoulders and upper torso while keeping their legs extended. What made the achievement particularly impressive was the diversity of participants. Dancers between eight and 50 years old took part, demonstrating how breaking has evolved into a culture connecting multiple generations. Participants travelled from 127 cities across Russia, while dancers from Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Kazakhstan also joined the record attempt, giving the performance an international character. The achievement reflects the transformation of breaking from an underground street culture into a globally recognized competitive discipline combining creativity, strength, balance and extraordinary physical control. Large international events such as COMBOnation are also making the breaking ecosystem increasingly competitive, giving young dancers opportunities to train, perform and compete alongside established international talent. But beyond competition, the Kazan performance demonstrated something equally powerful: 430 individual performers moving as one team . The record proves that when talent, discipline and synchronization come together, even an individual art form can become an extraordinary demonstration of collective achievement.
Gaming
Clash of Clans and WWE reunite for their second collaboration with six WWE Superstars reimagined as Clash of Clans characters, and a worldwide hunt for Cena's in-game village. Clash of Clans, which has over two billion lifetime downloads, is back with WWE for a second collaboration; and this time, the rivalry is personal. WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes and WWE Legend John Cena are best known for what they do in the ring, but their competition didn't start there. Both are long-time players of Clash of Clans, and this shared gaming history has become locker room legend. Now, Rhodes, a decade-long player, has recruited the Clash of Clans community – plus fellow WWE Superstars – to help him hunt down John Cena's base, taking a decade-long battle out of the ring and into their in-game villages. Beginning today, September 1st, through September 30th, Cena’s loot-filled base is waiting for Clash of Clans players to discover throughout the course of their daily raids. The more players raid, the higher the chance they have of locating the elusive WWE Legend and earning a one-time-only Cody Rhodes statue for their village – but only if their raid is a success. It’s not like a 17-time WWE World Champion is going to have a rookie base. Meanwhile, to beef up the search party, Rhodes has enlisted the support of The Undertaker, IYO SKY and a whole host of other WWE Superstars who will be rallying their own fans online to join the hunt. “People think this started in the ring with Cody. It didn’t. It started when I out-raided him in the game and he threw me off his team," says Cena. “Ten years later he still needs help. This time he’s asking millions of you to take on my base. That’s fine. As I have always said - if you want some, come get some.” Beyond Cena’s base, the in-game crossover presents six WWE Superstars reimagined as iconic Clash of Clans Hero characters, including the return of Cody Rhodes as The Barbarian King. The lineup include: ● Cody Rhodes as “Barbarian King” ● Alexa Bliss as “Archer Queen” ● The Undertaker as “Grand Warden” ● IYO SKY as “Royal Champion” ● Jey Uso as “Minion Prince” ● Kane as “Dragon Duke” Players can also experience WWE-themed features throughout the event, from temporary troops to a branded village theme that’s designed around WW E Money in the Bank , taking place in New Orleans on October 10th. WWE chests hold a series of rewards too, with returning favorites like Action Figure Equipment, plus Challenge Tickets and a guaranteed Cody Rhodes Skin. Download Clash of Clans for iOS or Google Play today to help Rhodes in his Search for Cena until September 30th.
Gaming
Russia witnessed a spectacular display of coordination and athleticism as 430 breakdancers performed the iconic “windmill” simultaneously in Kazan, setting a new world record for the mass breaking performance. The record was created at Kazan’s Central Stadium as part of the 18th COMBOnation International Tournament of breaking and street art. The performance also celebrated 40 years of breaking culture in Tatarstan. To achieve the feat, all 430 participants performed 10 consecutive windmill rotations together. The technically demanding move requires dancers to continuously rotate their bodies across the shoulders and upper torso while keeping their legs extended. What made the achievement particularly impressive was the diversity of participants. Dancers between eight and 50 years old took part, demonstrating how breaking has evolved into a culture connecting multiple generations. Participants travelled from 127 cities across Russia, while dancers from Japan, Taiwan, Germany and Kazakhstan also joined the record attempt, giving the performance an international character. The achievement reflects the transformation of breaking from an underground street culture into a globally recognized competitive discipline combining creativity, strength, balance and extraordinary physical control. Large international events such as COMBOnation are also making the breaking ecosystem increasingly competitive, giving young dancers opportunities to train, perform and compete alongside established international talent. But beyond competition, the Kazan performance demonstrated something equally powerful: 430 individual performers moving as one team . The record proves that when talent, discipline and synchronization come together, even an individual art form can become an extraordinary demonstration of collective achievement.
Security & Surveillance
July's cyber threat landscape was shaped by pressure across multiple fronts. Global cyber attacks continued to rise, ransomware activity broke from the more stable pattern seen earlier in the year, and GenAI exposure became a clearer operational risk as employees used more tools and generated more prompts across the enterprise. Cyber Attacks Keep Climbing The global attack curve continued upward in July. Organizations faced an average of 2,336 weekly cyber attacks, up 3% from June and 16% from July 2025. While the monthly rise was more moderate than June's rebound, the broader trend remains clear: average weekly attacks per organization have increased by 13.7% since May, signaling sustained pressure rather than a temporary spike. Education Remains the Top Target Education remained the most targeted sector, averaging 4,848 weekly attacks per organization, up 14% year over year. Government ranked second with 3,044 weekly attacks, up 11%, followed by Telecommunications at 2,927, up 6%. Energy and Utilities moved into fourth place with 2,759 weekly attacks, up 20%, while Hospitality, Travel and Recreation entered the top five with 2,614 attacks, up 28%, possibly reflecting higher exposure during the summer travel period. Latin America Leads in Volume as Europe Sees a Sharp Rise Regionally, Latin America continued to face the highest attack volume, with 3,561 weekly attacks per organization on average, up 19% from July 2025. APAC followed with 3,316 weekly attacks, while Africa ranked third despite a 5% year-over-year decline. Europe stood out for its growth rate, with attacks up 18% year over year, while North America rose 9%. GenAI Risk Moves from Theory to Daily Business Reality GenAI risk is becoming a daily business issue. The main concern is not only how AI tools are used, but what employees enter into them, from customer records and internal documents to infrastructure, legal, financial, or HR information. July's data shows how quickly that exposure can scale: · 1 in every 36 prompts from enterprise networks carried a high risk of sensitive data leakage. · 88% of regular GenAI-using organizations were affected by high-risk prompt activity. · 22% of prompts contained potentially sensitive information. · Organizations used an average of 8 GenAI tools, while the average user generated 95 prompts during the month. This makes GenAI both a governance and security issue, especially as adoption moves faster than policies, training, and controls. Exposure was highest in Latin America and North America, while Europe and APAC were slightly below the global average. By industry, Business Services and Healthcare and Medical recorded the highest risk, followed by Information Technology and Government. The type of information being exposed is also important. Personal data remained the most common sensitive category, appearing in 70% of organizations. Financial Data and Network and IT Infrastructure followed at 68% each, while Legal and Regulatory content appeared in 63% and Employee and HR data in 62%. The issue is not limited to one team, use case, or document type. It cuts across the core information organizations rely on every day. Email Remains a Key Entry Point for Cyber Risk Despite growing focus on newer attack surfaces, email remained a high-volume risk channel in July. One in every 128 emails, or 0.78%, was classified as phishing, while another 20% fell into unwanted or risky categories such as graymail, spam, and suspicious messages, adding to the daily burden security teams need to filter and investigate. Africa recorded the highest phishing rate, with one in every 106 emails classified as phishing, followed by North America at one in every 117. Beyond the regional differences, the trend reinforces email's role as a common starting point for broader attack chains, from credential theft and malware delivery to business email compromise. In July, that escalation was most visible in ransomware activity. Ransomware Breaks the Pattern * This ransomware data draws from ransomware “shame sites” operated by double-extortion groups, which publicly disclose victim information. While these sources have inherent biases, they provide valuable insight into the ransomware landscape. The clearest shift in July came from ransomware. Reported attacks reached 964, up 87% from July 2025 and 49% from June. This marked a decisive break from the first half of 2026, when monthly ransomware activity averaged around 672 incidents. The increase was broad, touching multiple regions and industries, but Business Services remained the most affected sector, accounting for almost one third of reported victims. North America remained the most affected region, accounting for 45% of reported ransomware incidents. Europe followed at 28%, while APAC accounted for 17%. At country level, the United States continued to dominate the victim count with 39.4% of reported attacks, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The Gentlemen and Qilin Lead as the Ransomware Landscape Shifts The Gentlemen and Qilin were the most prevalent ransomware groups in July, each responsible for 14% of published attacks. DeadLock climbed to the top three, with 10% and 97 reported victims. · The Gentlemen: A fast-growing Ransomware-as-a-Service operation launched in mid-2025. The group combines ransomware operations with initial access brokering, helping it scale quickly in a short period of time. · Qilin: An established Ransomware-as-a-Service group with victim disclosures dating back to 2022. Its mature affiliate model and renewed recruitment activity have helped it increase victim listings and regain momentum. · DeadLock: A group first observed in July 2025. It has gained attention for using blockchain-based techniques to rotate command-and-control proxy addresses, alongside the use of legitimate remote management tools. What July Tells Us July's threat landscape was defined by accumulation rather than a single dominant risk. Global attacks kept rising, ransomware accelerated sharply, and GenAI exposure became more visible as part of routine business activity. For security teams, the message is clear: prevention cannot be limited to one layer or one threat category. Organizations need coordinated protection across network, cloud, endpoint, email, and AI usage, supported by the visibility to understand where sensitive data and attacker activity are moving next.
Security & Surveillance
The CP PLUS CarKam 4G Series, featuring the CP-H27 and CP-H27B, goes beyond conventional dashcam recording with 4G connectivity, Full HD imaging, GPS tracking, and intelligent vehicle-monitoring capabilities. Designed to transform a car into a connected security system, the dashcams can be accessed and monitored remotely through the ezyLiv+ mobile application. The CP-H27 is designed for drivers requiring front-facing road coverage with remote connectivity. It features a 2MP Full HD front camera, built-in GPS, two-way talk, motion detection, collision detection, G-Sensor, and support for parking and time-lapse recording when used with a compatible Type-C hardwire kit. The CP-H27B extends coverage with a dual-channel configuration, combining a 2MP Full HD front camera and a 2MP Full HD rear camera for simultaneous recording in both directions. It offers the connected capabilities of the series while providing front-and-rear awareness. Both models support 4G/5G SIM connectivity and allow users to remotely access the dashcam, view live surroundings, and check the vehicle's location through the ezyLiv+ app. They also feature HDR capability, H.265 video compression, and support microSD cards up to 1TB. Additional features include built-in GPS, two-way talk, motion detection, collision detection, parking monitoring, and time-lapse recording support. Aditya Khemka, Managing Director, CP PLUS , said, “With the CarKam 4G Series, CP PLUS brings connected surveillance capabilities into the mobility space. Featuring 4G connectivity, GPS tracking, Full HD imaging and remote access through the ezyLiv+ app, the CP-H27 and CP-H27B combine journey documentation, remote vehicle visibility and intelligent security.” With the CP-H27 and CP-H27B, CP PLUS brings its connected surveillance capabilities into the mobility space, combining remote vehicle visibility, journey documentation, and intelligent security in a connected dashcam solution. The CP-H27 is priced at ₹7,599, while the CP-H27B is priced at ₹11,699. Both models are available for purchase.
Security & Surveillance
July's cyber threat landscape was shaped by pressure across multiple fronts. Global cyber attacks continued to rise, ransomware activity broke from the more stable pattern seen earlier in the year, and GenAI exposure became a clearer operational risk as employees used more tools and generated more prompts across the enterprise. Cyber Attacks Keep Climbing The global attack curve continued upward in July. Organizations faced an average of 2,336 weekly cyber attacks, up 3% from June and 16% from July 2025. While the monthly rise was more moderate than June's rebound, the broader trend remains clear: average weekly attacks per organization have increased by 13.7% since May, signaling sustained pressure rather than a temporary spike. Education Remains the Top Target Education remained the most targeted sector, averaging 4,848 weekly attacks per organization, up 14% year over year. Government ranked second with 3,044 weekly attacks, up 11%, followed by Telecommunications at 2,927, up 6%. Energy and Utilities moved into fourth place with 2,759 weekly attacks, up 20%, while Hospitality, Travel and Recreation entered the top five with 2,614 attacks, up 28%, possibly reflecting higher exposure during the summer travel period. Latin America Leads in Volume as Europe Sees a Sharp Rise Regionally, Latin America continued to face the highest attack volume, with 3,561 weekly attacks per organization on average, up 19% from July 2025. APAC followed with 3,316 weekly attacks, while Africa ranked third despite a 5% year-over-year decline. Europe stood out for its growth rate, with attacks up 18% year over year, while North America rose 9%. GenAI Risk Moves from Theory to Daily Business Reality GenAI risk is becoming a daily business issue. The main concern is not only how AI tools are used, but what employees enter into them, from customer records and internal documents to infrastructure, legal, financial, or HR information. July's data shows how quickly that exposure can scale: · 1 in every 36 prompts from enterprise networks carried a high risk of sensitive data leakage. · 88% of regular GenAI-using organizations were affected by high-risk prompt activity. · 22% of prompts contained potentially sensitive information. · Organizations used an average of 8 GenAI tools, while the average user generated 95 prompts during the month. This makes GenAI both a governance and security issue, especially as adoption moves faster than policies, training, and controls. Exposure was highest in Latin America and North America, while Europe and APAC were slightly below the global average. By industry, Business Services and Healthcare and Medical recorded the highest risk, followed by Information Technology and Government. The type of information being exposed is also important. Personal data remained the most common sensitive category, appearing in 70% of organizations. Financial Data and Network and IT Infrastructure followed at 68% each, while Legal and Regulatory content appeared in 63% and Employee and HR data in 62%. The issue is not limited to one team, use case, or document type. It cuts across the core information organizations rely on every day. Email Remains a Key Entry Point for Cyber Risk Despite growing focus on newer attack surfaces, email remained a high-volume risk channel in July. One in every 128 emails, or 0.78%, was classified as phishing, while another 20% fell into unwanted or risky categories such as graymail, spam, and suspicious messages, adding to the daily burden security teams need to filter and investigate. Africa recorded the highest phishing rate, with one in every 106 emails classified as phishing, followed by North America at one in every 117. Beyond the regional differences, the trend reinforces email's role as a common starting point for broader attack chains, from credential theft and malware delivery to business email compromise. In July, that escalation was most visible in ransomware activity. Ransomware Breaks the Pattern * This ransomware data draws from ransomware “shame sites” operated by double-extortion groups, which publicly disclose victim information. While these sources have inherent biases, they provide valuable insight into the ransomware landscape. The clearest shift in July came from ransomware. Reported attacks reached 964, up 87% from July 2025 and 49% from June. This marked a decisive break from the first half of 2026, when monthly ransomware activity averaged around 672 incidents. The increase was broad, touching multiple regions and industries, but Business Services remained the most affected sector, accounting for almost one third of reported victims. North America remained the most affected region, accounting for 45% of reported ransomware incidents. Europe followed at 28%, while APAC accounted for 17%. At country level, the United States continued to dominate the victim count with 39.4% of reported attacks, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The Gentlemen and Qilin Lead as the Ransomware Landscape Shifts The Gentlemen and Qilin were the most prevalent ransomware groups in July, each responsible for 14% of published attacks. DeadLock climbed to the top three, with 10% and 97 reported victims. · The Gentlemen: A fast-growing Ransomware-as-a-Service operation launched in mid-2025. The group combines ransomware operations with initial access brokering, helping it scale quickly in a short period of time. · Qilin: An established Ransomware-as-a-Service group with victim disclosures dating back to 2022. Its mature affiliate model and renewed recruitment activity have helped it increase victim listings and regain momentum. · DeadLock: A group first observed in July 2025. It has gained attention for using blockchain-based techniques to rotate command-and-control proxy addresses, alongside the use of legitimate remote management tools. What July Tells Us July's threat landscape was defined by accumulation rather than a single dominant risk. Global attacks kept rising, ransomware accelerated sharply, and GenAI exposure became more visible as part of routine business activity. For security teams, the message is clear: prevention cannot be limited to one layer or one threat category. Organizations need coordinated protection across network, cloud, endpoint, email, and AI usage, supported by the visibility to understand where sensitive data and attacker activity are moving next.
Security & Surveillance
The CP PLUS CarKam 4G Series, featuring the CP-H27 and CP-H27B, goes beyond conventional dashcam recording with 4G connectivity, Full HD imaging, GPS tracking, and intelligent vehicle-monitoring capabilities. Designed to transform a car into a connected security system, the dashcams can be accessed and monitored remotely through the ezyLiv+ mobile application. The CP-H27 is designed for drivers requiring front-facing road coverage with remote connectivity. It features a 2MP Full HD front camera, built-in GPS, two-way talk, motion detection, collision detection, G-Sensor, and support for parking and time-lapse recording when used with a compatible Type-C hardwire kit. The CP-H27B extends coverage with a dual-channel configuration, combining a 2MP Full HD front camera and a 2MP Full HD rear camera for simultaneous recording in both directions. It offers the connected capabilities of the series while providing front-and-rear awareness. Both models support 4G/5G SIM connectivity and allow users to remotely access the dashcam, view live surroundings, and check the vehicle's location through the ezyLiv+ app. They also feature HDR capability, H.265 video compression, and support microSD cards up to 1TB. Additional features include built-in GPS, two-way talk, motion detection, collision detection, parking monitoring, and time-lapse recording support. Aditya Khemka, Managing Director, CP PLUS , said, “With the CarKam 4G Series, CP PLUS brings connected surveillance capabilities into the mobility space. Featuring 4G connectivity, GPS tracking, Full HD imaging and remote access through the ezyLiv+ app, the CP-H27 and CP-H27B combine journey documentation, remote vehicle visibility and intelligent security.” With the CP-H27 and CP-H27B, CP PLUS brings its connected surveillance capabilities into the mobility space, combining remote vehicle visibility, journey documentation, and intelligent security in a connected dashcam solution. The CP-H27 is priced at ₹7,599, while the CP-H27B is priced at ₹11,699. Both models are available for purchase.
Cyber Crime
Microsoft has disrupted EvilTokens , an AI-powered cybercrime platform that demonstrates how artificial intelligence is transforming online fraud from manual social engineering into an increasingly automated business model. Key Highlights 12,000+ inboxes compromised across 10,000+ organizations. AI analyzed relationships and financial opportunities , not just phishing language. Cybercrime-as-a-service lowere d the expertise required for sophisticated fraud. Identity and session security become critical defences against AI-powered attacks. Launched in February 2026, EvilTokens was linked by Microsoft to more than 12,000 compromised email inboxes across over 10,000 organizations worldwide , with significant victim activity in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, India and France. Its significance lies in how AI was used. Instead of merely generating convincing phishing emails, EvilTokens could analyze compromised inboxes, understand conversations, identify financial relationships and determine which employees had authority over payments. The platform could locate vendor invoices and wire-transfer discussions, identify organizational “money movers,” map trusted relationships and recommend people to impersonate. AI effectively helped attackers determine who to target, how to approach them and where financial opportunities existed. Attackers reportedly obtained mailbox access through device-code phishing. Victims completed authentication through Microsoft’s legitimate sign-in process but unknowingly granted criminals account access. Importantly, stolen sessions or tokens could remain usable even after password changes unless revoked. EvilTokens then automated work that traditionally required experienced cybercriminals to manually analyze thousands of emails. AI could summarize conversations, translate content and identify promising fraud scenarios. The economics are equally concerning. Microsoft said EvilTokens was marketed through Telegram for a $1,500 initiation fee plus a $500 recurring subscription, effectively packaging identity compromise, intelligence gathering and fraud preparation as a service. Investigators also found evidence that portions of EvilTokens itself were “vibe coded” using AI , illustrating a dangerous multiplier effect: AI can help criminals both build attack platforms and operate them more effectively. Microsoft and partners ultimately seized 50 websites and disabled more than 150 associated domains. UK authorities also arrested two men in connection with the alleged operation; they were subsequently released on police bail while investigations continued. The larger warning for CISOs is that identity compromise is becoming business-context compromise. Defences must therefore extend beyond passwords to phishing-resistant authentication, session and token protection, behavioral monitoring, identity intelligence and rapid revocation. As AI gives criminals greater contextual understanding, security teams increasingly need equally intelligent and coordinated defences.
Cyber Crime
Frontier AI models are rapidly changing cybersecurity economics. Tasks that once required skilled researchers weeks or months—discovering vulnerabilities, analyzing code and developing exploits—can increasingly be accelerated through AI-assisted automation. This creates a particularly serious challenge for network infrastructure . Routers, firewalls, VPN gateways, switches and other edge devices sit at the core of enterprise connectivity and often possess highly privileged access. An attacker who compromises this layer may gain visibility into network traffic, credentials, connected systems and security architecture. A single infrastructure vulnerability can therefore potentially provide a pathway to multiple enterprise assets. AI further compresses the vulnerability window. Models can assist with code analysis, vulnerability discovery, exploit development and attack adaptation, reducing the time defenders have between vulnerability disclosure and attempted exploitation. The security model must consequently shift from patch-and-react toward continuous exposure management . Organizations need faster vulnerability prioritization, automated patching, segmentation and real-time monitoring of infrastructure behavior. AI must also fight AI. Defensive models can continuously identify anomalies, prioritize exploitable weaknesses and accelerate incident response before attackers achieve persistence. The emerging cybersecurity reality is a machine-speed contest between attack and defence . When vulnerabilities can potentially be operationalized rapidly, resilience will depend on detecting, validating and mitigating weaknesses equally fast.
Cyber Crime
Microsoft has disrupted EvilTokens , an AI-powered cybercrime platform that demonstrates how artificial intelligence is transforming online fraud from manual social engineering into an increasingly automated business model. Key Highlights 12,000+ inboxes compromised across 10,000+ organizations. AI analyzed relationships and financial opportunities , not just phishing language. Cybercrime-as-a-service lowere d the expertise required for sophisticated fraud. Identity and session security become critical defences against AI-powered attacks. Launched in February 2026, EvilTokens was linked by Microsoft to more than 12,000 compromised email inboxes across over 10,000 organizations worldwide , with significant victim activity in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, India and France. Its significance lies in how AI was used. Instead of merely generating convincing phishing emails, EvilTokens could analyze compromised inboxes, understand conversations, identify financial relationships and determine which employees had authority over payments. The platform could locate vendor invoices and wire-transfer discussions, identify organizational “money movers,” map trusted relationships and recommend people to impersonate. AI effectively helped attackers determine who to target, how to approach them and where financial opportunities existed. Attackers reportedly obtained mailbox access through device-code phishing. Victims completed authentication through Microsoft’s legitimate sign-in process but unknowingly granted criminals account access. Importantly, stolen sessions or tokens could remain usable even after password changes unless revoked. EvilTokens then automated work that traditionally required experienced cybercriminals to manually analyze thousands of emails. AI could summarize conversations, translate content and identify promising fraud scenarios. The economics are equally concerning. Microsoft said EvilTokens was marketed through Telegram for a $1,500 initiation fee plus a $500 recurring subscription, effectively packaging identity compromise, intelligence gathering and fraud preparation as a service. Investigators also found evidence that portions of EvilTokens itself were “vibe coded” using AI , illustrating a dangerous multiplier effect: AI can help criminals both build attack platforms and operate them more effectively. Microsoft and partners ultimately seized 50 websites and disabled more than 150 associated domains. UK authorities also arrested two men in connection with the alleged operation; they were subsequently released on police bail while investigations continued. The larger warning for CISOs is that identity compromise is becoming business-context compromise. Defences must therefore extend beyond passwords to phishing-resistant authentication, session and token protection, behavioral monitoring, identity intelligence and rapid revocation. As AI gives criminals greater contextual understanding, security teams increasingly need equally intelligent and coordinated defences.
Cyber Crime
Frontier AI models are rapidly changing cybersecurity economics. Tasks that once required skilled researchers weeks or months—discovering vulnerabilities, analyzing code and developing exploits—can increasingly be accelerated through AI-assisted automation. This creates a particularly serious challenge for network infrastructure . Routers, firewalls, VPN gateways, switches and other edge devices sit at the core of enterprise connectivity and often possess highly privileged access. An attacker who compromises this layer may gain visibility into network traffic, credentials, connected systems and security architecture. A single infrastructure vulnerability can therefore potentially provide a pathway to multiple enterprise assets. AI further compresses the vulnerability window. Models can assist with code analysis, vulnerability discovery, exploit development and attack adaptation, reducing the time defenders have between vulnerability disclosure and attempted exploitation. The security model must consequently shift from patch-and-react toward continuous exposure management . Organizations need faster vulnerability prioritization, automated patching, segmentation and real-time monitoring of infrastructure behavior. AI must also fight AI. Defensive models can continuously identify anomalies, prioritize exploitable weaknesses and accelerate incident response before attackers achieve persistence. The emerging cybersecurity reality is a machine-speed contest between attack and defence . When vulnerabilities can potentially be operationalized rapidly, resilience will depend on detecting, validating and mitigating weaknesses equally fast.
Technology Disruption
In its October special edition, VARINDIA sought to understand how channel-friendly policies have helped drive corporate success and spur growth in India’s technology sector, highlighting the viewpoints of 40 Channel Chiefs. In continuation of this initiative of identifying, featuring and eventually honoring India’s most influential Channel Chiefs in the tech industry, we present the views of the remaining 10 Channel Chiefs who share their insights on how instrumental channel programs are for their organizations. So what we have known so far – Corporates are increasingly turning to channel partner programs as a way to expand their reach, tap into new markets, and accelerate their growth. Partner programs can be incredibly effective in helping companies achieve their business goals, and many multi-billion dollar tech companies have invested heavily in developing and implementing successful partner programs. Corporates are seen investing heavily in their channel partner programs to expand their business and reach new markets. By investing in their channel partner programs, corporates can also achieve significant benefits, including increased revenue, expanded market reach, and reduced costs. As a result, corporations are expected to continue to invest heavily in their channel partner programs in the years to come. In nutshell, in a channel partner ecosystem, partners work together to create a seamless customer experience. They share information and resources, and they collaborate on marketing and sales initiatives. This can result in a more efficient and effective go-to-market strategy for the manufacturer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HPE unlocks new growth and specialization with new integrated Partner Ready program SIMON EWINGTON SVP WORLDWIDE CHANNEL & PARTNER ECOSYSTEM, HPE Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced the launch of the first-phase of its newly integrated HPE Partner Ready Vantage program. The new program streamlines multiple legacy programs into a single, integrated framework, empowering partners to deliver comprehensive edge-to-cloud solutions. A STRUCTURED PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR EASE The HPE Partner Ready Vantage Program is structured around three dedicated Centers—Compute, Hybrid Cloud, and Networking—to support specialization while offering partners the flexibility to resell the entire HPE portfolio, whether through traditional CapEx or OpEx as-a-service models like HPE GreenLake. In 2026 and 2027, HPE will continue to integrate additional programs, including the Juniper Networks Partner Advantage program, into one HPE partner program for the channel. Within this framework, HPE has introduced the Triple Platinum Plus program, an exclusive recognition tier for elite partners who demonstrate pan-HPE expertise across all three core technology centers, rewarding their comprehensive proficiency with expanded benefits and opportunities. Partners will continue to enjoy the valuable benefits they receive today from HPE, now with the added advantage of maximizing those benefits more easily through a single, unified program. HPE’s Partner Ready Vantage Program represents a forward-looking approach to channel collaboration, offering unified access, streamlined processes, and expanded opportunities for growth and specialization. This initiative reflects HPE’s commitment to supporting its partners and driving customer success in a rapidly changing technology landscape. We are committed to continuously enhance the program. The path ahead for HPE and our partners is unified, empowered, and primed for growth, and we are excited to shape it together. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DigiCert keeps its Channel Strategy flexible by matching Global Goals with Local Needs SAGAR SURANGALIKAR CHANNEL MANAGER – SOUTH ASIA & ASEAN, DIGICERT DigiCert is a leading global provider of digital trust, enabling individuals and businesses to engage online with the confidence that their footprint in the digital world is secure. DigiCert ONE, the platform for digital trust, provides organizations with centralized visibility and control over a broad range of public and private trust needs, securing websites, enterprise access and communication, software, identity, content and devices. DigiCert pairs its award-winning software with its industry leadership in standards, support and operations, and is the digital trust provider of choice for leading companies around the world. When it comes to balancing corporate goals with evolving partner needs, it is always about balance. Corporate goals define our direction, but partners make that vision real. In regions like SAARC and ASEAN, every market is different — so flexibility is essential. At DigiCert, we focus on listening to partners, simplifying engagement, and ensuring our programs drive mutual growth and profitability. Our channel strategy stays agile, aligning global priorities with local realities. STRENGTHENING TRUST & LEGACY Trust grows through consistency and transparency. We are investing in clear communication, predictable incentives, and co- selling opportunities. Equally important is partner enablement — through certifications, workshops, and marketing support. When partners see that DigiCert is committed to their long-term success, it naturally strengthens loyalty. In SAARC and ASEAN, partners are our growth engines. They understand local markets, regulations, and customer needs better than anyone. Their reach across verticals — from BFSI to public sector — helps us expand faster and deeper. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaspersky building a vibrant Partner ecosystem while enhancing India’s Cybersecurity landscape PL SUBRAMANIAN (SUBBU), HEAD OF CHANNEL FOR INDIA, KASPERSKY Kaspersky is a channel-driven organization. Our policies are designed to align our corporate growth objectives with the evolving needs of our partners. We have established key B2B partnerships in India through our Technology Alliance Distributor, Technobind, which help us extend our reach across Enterprise segments. These collaborations enable us to offer scalable, on-demand, and managed cybersecurity services to customers nationwide. Our partnerships with leading system integrators ensure that we remain well-positioned for large-scale government and enterprise opportunities, while providing partners with greater flexibility, profitability, and technological support. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT At Kaspersky, strengthening partner trust and loyalty starts with collaboration and enablement. We work closely with our partners by providing them with tools, training, and programs that help them create awareness and deliver customized security solutions to customers. In 2024, we restructured our partner program to better support different partner profiles and enable them to leverage discounts, solutions, and offers more efficiently. Moving into 2025, we have enhanced our support for managed service providers (MSPs) and technology alliance partners by introducing innovative rebate structures and Solution Advisory Services, ensuring our partners are fully equipped to maximize their business growth and service capabilities. Our partners are instrumental in expanding Kaspersky’s presence across India, particularly in emerging markets and tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They act as trusted brand extensions, understanding local cybersecurity needs and designing tailored solutions for customers. To strengthen this reach, we have expanded our channel sales team in smaller cities to support partners and customers on the ground. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versa Networks redefines Channel Growth with 100% Partner-led strategy VENKATA SR DATLA HEAD - CHANNEL SALES – INDIA & SAARC, VERSA NETWORKS Versa is a 100% channel-first organization. Our corporate goals are designed to move in lockstep with our partners’ success. Every go-to-market motion begins and ends with the partner. Our policies emphasize enablement, transparency, and shared profitability rather than control. We provide partners with complete access to account intent data, engagement analytics, and pipeline visibility so that Versa and partner sales teams can collaborate seamlessly. Incentive programs, MDF allocation, and deal registration are directly aligned with partner success metrics. When our partners grow, Versa grows. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY Trust and loyalty are the foundation of Versa’s ACE Partner Program (Accelerate, Captivate, Engage). We invest in building true partnerships which is not transaction mindset, but through initiatives that drive mutual success: • Early Engagement: Versa’s field teams are encouraged to bring partners into every deal from the first meeting to co-create value and differentiation. • Shared Insights: We actively share buying intent, engagement, and digital signal data from our campaigns. • Co-Marketing Excellence via XAmplify: Versa provides partners access to XAmplify, a dedicated demand- generation automation platform that allows them to instantly launch Versa-branded or co-branded digital campaigns, email nurtures, and social media promotions. It gives partners ready-to-use assets, analytics, and ROI tracking, making lead generation faster, more measurable, and partner-controlled. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RP tech fosters a Resilient and Future-ready business ecosystem for its Partners RAJESH GOENKA CEO, RASHI PERIPHERALS At Rashi Peripherals (RP tech), our channel philosophy is built on two fundamentals, consistency and agility. We frame our channel policies to deliver clarity and predictability in operations, while giving partners the flexibility to respond to changing market dynamics. Our commercial policies ensure transparent margins, timely credit, and smooth claim settlements, allowing partners to operate with complete confidence. At the same time, we continuously refine operational processes, from digital order management to returns and warranty, to enhance ease of business. Regional autonomy through an extensive branch network and faster decision-making helps us align our growth priorities with the practical realities of the market. BUILDING TRUST & LOYALTY Partner trust has been our biggest asset for over three decades. Every initiative at RP tech is designed to create mutual success. The Channel Business Forum (CBF) is one of our flagship programs that connects directly with partners across India, enabling learning, networking and future business collaboration opportunities. We also invest in efficient logistics and credit programs that make business seamless. When partners experience consistent service, transparent communication, and opportunities for skill growth, loyalty becomes a natural outcome. Partners are the true growth drivers of RP tech. Their strong local connections and deep market understanding help us reach emerging demand pockets in Tier II and III cities. Together, we are enabling the availability of next-generation devices, including AI-enabled laptops, peripherals, and consumer technology, in markets that are defining India’s next wave of consumption. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trellix views the Channel as a Strategic Extension of its Customer Value Chain SAURABH PATANKAR CHANNEL LEAD - INDIA, TRELLIX At Trellix, our channel strategy centers on shared growth, recognizing that our success is tied to our partners. We focus on delivering advanced cybersecurity outcomes through our platform while ensuring partner profitability and long-term sustainability. We have shifted from rigid programs to an outcome-based engagement model, allowing partners to choose paths that fit their business, such as solution integration or managed services. Regular feedback, regional engagements, and clear structures ensure our policies adapt to partner needs and market changes. BUILDING PARTNER TRUST Trust and loyalty in our ecosystem come from consistency, transparency, and co-creation. We’ve invested significantly in partner enablement programs, joint business planning, and co- marketing initiatives that go beyond transactions to build long- term collaboration. Our partner enablement framework includes tailored trainings, hands-on labs, and solution workshops led by our India-based experts. Additionally, our Trellix Partner Portal provides unified visibility into deal registration, training, rebates, and incentives ensuring transparency and faster engagement. We also conduct periodic Partner Advisory Boards in India to hear directly from our top partners, helping us refine programs and respond faster to market changes. Partners are at the centre of our go-to-market strategy and play a crucial role in helping us scale across India and the SAARC region. Through their local relationships and domain expertise, our partners open doors to verticals such as BFSI, government, critical infrastructure, healthcare, and manufacturing, where trust and compliance are key. We have also seen growing traction with managed security service providers (MSSPs) and cloud-native integrators who are leveraging the Trellix Security platform to build recurring revenue models. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SonicWall stands firm on the foundation of its Partner community SANJEEV KUMAR REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR - INDIA & SAARC REGION, SONICWALL SonicWall has increased partner engagement and transactions of late. It operates exclusively through channel partners to reach and serve customers globally. The company has implemented various MSP/MSSP business models that offer monthly subscriptions and service options designed to meet partners’ needs for managed services. Partner engagement activities have been updated to simplify interactions and to provide partners with training, marketing resources, and tools, aiming to improve channel efficiency and reduce business costs. SonicWall’s channel policies, including the “SecureFirst” partner program, are structured to align corporate objectives such as growth, service transformation, and channel leverage with partner requirements for flexibility, profitability, enablement, and managed service models. This alignment is achieved through tiered structures, flexible business models, investments in partner enablement, and open communication to support ongoing improvement. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES SonicWall stands strong on the foundation of its partner community and for us building a partner programme grounded in feedback, transparency and flexibility is paramount. We believe in strengthening them by giving the appropriate tools, pricing, support and incentives so their success becomes SonicWall’s success. SonicWall has introduced several initiatives designed to strengthen relationships with partners, including updates to its partner programme and engagement agenda. The SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program is intended to enhance partner experience and facilitate long-term collaboration. The program incorporates partner feedback to simplify business operations, allowing partners to join without extensive initial requirements such as training or business plans, and offering flexible levels of engagement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pure Storage driving India’s Digital Growth Story together with Partners JITHESH CHEMBIL HEAD OF CHANNELS - INDIA, PURE STORAGE Pure Storage delivers the industry's most advanced data storage platform to store, manage, and protect the world's data on any scale. With Pure Storage, organizations have ultimate simplicity and flexibility, saving time, money, and energy. From AI to archive, Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience with one unified Storage as-a-Service platform across on-premises, cloud, and hosted environments. Our platform is built on our Evergreen architecture that evolves with your business. Our customers are actively increasing their capacity and processing power while significantly reducing their carbon and energy footprint. At Pure Storage India, our channel policies are designed to balance global corporate goals with the evolving needs of our partners. We have simplified partner tiers to ensure transparency and performance- driven progression while empowering partners with autonomy through AI-driven dashboards, independent quoting tools, and predictive renewal analytics. Our approach integrates corporate objectives, like accelerating the shift to subscription-led, outcome- based storage, with partner profitability and agility in local markets, ensuring growth alignment and mutual success. EMPOWERING PARTNERS THROUGH ENGAGEMENT To strengthen partner trust and loyalty, we have localized our Pure WaveMakers program to include specialized training, co- marketing support, and market development funds across high- growth sectors such as BFSI, manufacturing, and healthcare. We host regular partner meets, technical workshops, and maintain dedicated account management to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Simplified onboarding, transparent policies, and free certification programs further reinforce partner confidence and engagement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Envisioning an AI-ready Channel Ecosystem to drive sustainable value for Customers PIYUSH SOMANI PROMOTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN, ESDS SOFTWARE SOLUTION ESDS excels in marketing our platform and products through our direct sales team, channel partners, and various free traffic sources, with a strong emphasis on our channel ecosystem's pivotal role. We are agile in adapting to evolving customer demands and preferences, proactively addressing changes in business models to enhance channel execution, align sales strategies with our strategic objectives, and reinforce our capabilities in key areas. Additionally, we continually seek opportunities to optimize our go-to- market strategy and reduce costs for an even more effective approach to success. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT & EMPOWERMENT We are empowering our channel partners by providing them with advanced digital tools, resources, and platforms to boost their efficiency and productivity. This includes access to technology solutions, training programs, and tailored marketing support, ensuring that they can deliver value to their clients. Our digital transformation initiatives streamline essential processes such as order management, lead generation, and customer support, fostering a seamless collaboration between our partners and us. Through continuous innovation, we remain committed to helping our partners thrive in a constantly evolving digital landscape, ensuring they remain competitive and agile. Driving business is a result of collaboration and collective work. Channel partners are essential to any establishment’s success when it comes to the go-to-market strategy. However, where do they stand with respect to the day-to-day business of any organization? They are critical to the success of the company, and they help with organisation representation there by market share; partners are the foundation of the business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cisco empowering Partners to Drive Profitability in an AI era TIM COOGAN SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL PARTNER SALES, CISCO Cisco has announced key elements to the Cisco 360 Partner Program launching January 25, 2026, co-designed with partners to help accelerate their profitability and deliver greater customer value. With partners expecting AI to drive the majority of their revenue within the next five years, the enhanced program incentivizes their efforts to help organizations harness this opportunity amid infrastructure constraints, data complexity, and skills gaps. The program strengthens collaboration across the global partner ecosystem and allows partners to unlock the full power of the Cisco portfolio to deliver the AI-ready data centers, future-proofed workplaces, and digital resilience their customers need to thrive in the AI era. NEW CISCO 360 PARTNER PROGRAM ELEMENTS Enhanced partner incentive tied to customer priorities: The Cisco Partner Incentive introduces the Eligible Offers list and rebate rates aligned to accelerate growth and incentivize adoption in key innovation areas— campus refresh, AI, security and premium services, adopt and renew. Partners can model profitability using the Cisco Partner Incentive Estimator and unlock two additional bonuses as they advance expertise and accelerate portfolio growth. Cross Sell Bonus – rewarding portfolio breadth; and a Next Generation Specialization Bonus – rewarding deep expertise or greater value and predictable growth. New specializations recognizing AI infrastructure expertise: In February 2026, Cisco Preferred Partners can earn two new specializations – Secure AI Infrastructure and Secure Networking – recognizing partners who deliver comprehensive solutions from design through ongoing customer engagement using Cisco’s integrated hardware, software, and services. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technology Disruption
For RICHARD HARBRIDGE, Microsoft MVP and migration strategist at ShareGate , the breach represents more than just a security incident—it's a clarion call for organizational transformation. "Today's Microsoft breach is a critical reminder for organizations still relying on legacy SharePoint systems," Harbridge emphasized. "If you're running SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, or SPSE and haven't patched, the first step is immediate isolation and emergency remediation." Nation-state actors and ransomware groups exploit critical flaws in Microsoft's enterprise collaboration platform, triggering an urgent modernization imperative The cybersecurity world was jolted awake in late July 2025 when researchers at Eye Security discovered something alarming: a sophisticated campaign targeting Microsoft SharePoint servers had been quietly compromising organizations worldwide. What started as routine threat hunting quickly revealed one of the most significant zero-day exploitation campaigns of the year, affecting hundreds of companies, government agencies, and critical infrastructure operators across the globe. At the heart of this digital siege was CVE- 2025-53770, a critical vulnerability with a maximum CVSS score of 9.8 that allowed attackers to execute code remotely on vulnerable SharePoint servers without any authentication. But this wasn't just another security flaw —it was a devastating bypass of patches Microsoft had released just weeks earlier, demonstrating how quickly threat actors can adapt their tactics to stay ahead of defensive measures. THE SCOPE OF DEVASTATION The numbers paint a sobering picture of the attack's reach. Eye Security tracked more than 75 breaches, including compromises at US federal and state agencies, energy companies, universities, and an Asian telecommunications provider. Reports indicate hundreds of organizations were ultimately affected, with victims spanning from European government agencies to a state legislature in the eastern United States. The breach campaign caught the attention of the highest levels of US cybersecurity leadership. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was made aware of the exploitation by a trusted partner and immediately reached out to Microsoft to take action, according to Acting Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Chris Butera. The urgency was evident when CISA added CVE-2025- 53770 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on July 20, 2025, signaling immediate risk to critical infrastructure. THE TECHNICAL ANATOMY OF TOOLSHELL 2.0 The attack campaign, dubbed " ToolShell ," represents a sophisticated evolution of exploitation techniques that security researchers first observed at the Pwn2Own hacking competition in Berlin in May 2025. CVE-2025-53770 is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2025-49704, while CVE-2025-53771 is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2025-49706—both vulnerabilities that Microsoft had patched in their July 2025 Patch Tuesday release. The attack chain operates in two devastating stages. First, attackers send a POST request to /_layouts/15/ ToolPane . aspx using a crafted Referer header to bypass authentication. Then, with authenticated access to the vulnerable endpoint, they exploit an insecure deserialization vulnerability by submitting a malicious payload in the POST body. What makes this attack particularly insidious is its persistence mechanism. The malicious activity involves delivering ASPX payloads via PowerShell, which is then used to steal the SharePoint server's MachineKey configuration, including the ValidationKey and DecryptionKey , to maintain persistent access. As cybersecurity expert Jake Williams noted, "With these keys in hand, attackers can craft forged VIEWSTATE payloads that SharePoint will accept as valid—enabling seamless remote code execution. This approach makes remediation particularly difficult—a typical patch would not automatically rotate these stolen cryptographic secrets, leaving organizations vulnerable even after they patch." STATE-SPONSORED ACTORS AND RANSOMWARE GROUPS JOIN THE FRAY The exploitation campaign attracted a rogues' gallery of threat actors that reads like a who's who of global cybercrime. Microsoft observed two named Chinese nation- state actors, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, exploiting these vulnerabilities targeting internet-facing SharePoint servers. Additionally, another China-based threat actor, tracked as Storm-2603, was observed exploiting these vulnerabilities to deploy ransomware. This convergence of nation-state actors and cybercriminals underscores the vulnerability's strategic importance. SharePoint's deep integration with Microsoft's platform, including services like Office, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook, makes it especially valuable to attackers because a compromise doesn't stay contained—it opens the door to the entire network. The ransomware angle adds another layer of urgency to the threat landscape. Security researchers have documented how Storm-2603 exploited these vulnerabilities to distribute Warlock ransomware, demonstrating how zero-day vulnerabilities can quickly become weapons in ransomware arsenals. THE MODERNIZATION IMPERATIVE For Richard Harbridge , Microsoft MVP and migration strategist at ShareGate , the breach represents more than just a security incident—it's a clarion call for organizational transformation. "Today's Microsoft breach is a critical reminder for organizations still relying on legacy SharePoint systems," Harbridge emphasized. "If you're running SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, or SPSE and haven't patched, the first step is immediate isolation and emergency remediation." Harbridge's assessment of the situation is stark: if the telltale spinstall0.aspx file is present on a system, organizations should "assume full compromise." This means taking servers offline, rotating all service credentials and machine keys, scanning for persistence tools like ToolShells , and rebuilding any machines showing signs of tampering. But Harbridge sees an opportunity in this crisis. "The cloud version of SharePoint isn't vulnerable to this," he noted. "Every hour an organization remains on-premises increases its exposure and the operational burden on IT. It's time to treat modernization as part of your incident response strategy, not just a future initiative." The migration path he advocates involves moving to SharePoint Online, which benefits from "real-time threat detection, automated logging, and continuous patch cycles that outpace adversaries." Tools like ShareGate's migration suite can facilitate this transition by moving terabytes of content with full fidelity, including metadata and permissions, with zero downtime. CYNTHIA KAISER, SVP of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and former Deputy Director of the FBI's Cyber Unit, brings a law enforcement perspective to the crisis that's particularly sobering. "Right now, people should be just as worried about what happened as what happens next," Kaiser warned. "Once these vulnerabilities are discovered, we have historically seen ransomware groups quickly operationalize them against victims." THE RANSOMWARE CONNECTION Cynthia Kaiser, SVP of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and former Deputy Director of the FBI's Cyber Unit, brings a law enforcement perspective to the crisis that's particularly sobering. "Right now, people should be just as worried about what happened as what happens next," Kaiser warned. "Once these vulnerabilities are discovered, we have historically seen ransomware groups quickly operationalize them against victims." Kaiser's concern extends beyond the immediate exploitation. "Once these criminals are in a network, they can hide, lie in wait, and cause untold damage to a company," she explained. Her recommendation focuses on behavioral detection: "Organizations should be thinking seriously about whether they have the right tools that detect and stop ransomware activity at the behavioral level before disruption occurs." This perspective aligns with broader industry observations about the evolving threat landscape. Unit 42 and other organizations, including Microsoft, have observed widespread active exploitation of these vulnerabilities, with telemetry revealing a clear evolution in the SharePoint ToolShell attack campaign progressing through two distinct phases. DETECTION AND RESPONSE CHALLENGES The SharePoint vulnerabilities present unique challenges for detection and response teams. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security noted that AMSI may not consistently offer comprehensive protection against this form of exploitation, as threat actors frequently adapt their methods to evade detection. Organizations are urged to look for specific indicators of compromise, including the presence of the file C:\PROGRA1\ COMMON1\MICROS1\WEBSER1\16\ TEMPLATE\ LAYOUTS\ spinstall0 . aspx and network logs showing scanning or exploitation attempts from specific IP addresses, particularly since July 17, 2025. Microsoft has provided detailed hunting queries for organizations using their security tools, focusing on the creation of the spinstall0.aspx file and process creations where w3wp.exe spawns encoded PowerShell involving suspicious file paths. THE BROADER SECURITY IMPLICATIONS The SharePoint breach illuminates several critical trends in the cybersecurity landscape. First, the speed at which threat actors can bypass vendor patches demonstrates the arms race between defenders and attackers. Microsoft patched CVE-2025-49704 and CVE-2025-49706 in the July 2025 Patch Tuesday release, but threat actors recently found new paths to exploit the same core logic, prompting Microsoft to assign new CVEs and release emergency fixes. Second, the incident underscores the strategic value of enterprise collaboration platforms to threat actors. SharePoint servers often serve as gateways to broader corporate networks, containing sensitive documents, user credentials, and connections to other critical business systems. Third, the involvement of multiple nation-state actors and ransomware groups in exploiting the same vulnerabilities highlights how quickly valuable exploits proliferate across different threat actor communities. MICROSOFT'S RESPONSE AND REMEDIATION Microsoft's response to the crisis evolved rapidly as the scope of the threat became clear. The company released security updates that fully protect customers using all supported versions of SharePoint affected by CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, urging customers to apply these updates immediately. The company's remediation guidance emphasizes multiple layers of protection: applying the latest security updates, configuring Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) integration in SharePoint, deploying Microsoft Defender Antivirus on all SharePoint servers, and rotating SharePoint server ASP.NET machine keys and restarting IIS. For organizations unable to immediately patch, Microsoft recommends disconnecting affected servers from the internet until updates can be applied, or implementing authentication gateways to limit unauthenticated traffic. LESSONS FOR THE INDUSTRY The SharePoint breach offers several critical lessons for organizations and the cybersecurity industry as a whole. First, the incident demonstrates that patch bypass vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated, requiring organizations to think beyond traditional patch management cycles. Second, the rapid exploitation of these vulnerabilities by multiple threat actor groups underscores the need for behavioral detection capabilities that can identify malicious activity even when using novel techniques. Third, the incident highlights the security advantages of cloud-native solutions over on-premises infrastructure, particularly for collaboration platforms that are frequent targets of attack. Looking Forward: The Cloud Imperative As organizations assess the damage and plan their response, many are reaching the same conclusion as Harbridge : the future lies in cloud migration. The SharePoint incident serves as a powerful case study in the security benefits of moving away from on-premises infrastructure that requires constant vigilance and rapid patching. Cloud-based SharePoint Online demonstrated its resilience during this crisis, remaining unaffected by vulnerabilities that devastated on-premises deployments. This immunity stems from Microsoft's ability to implement protections and patches across its cloud infrastructure more rapidly and comprehensively than individual organizations can manage on their own systems. For Chief Information Security Officers and IT leaders, the breach presents an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation initiatives that may have been progressing slowly due to cost or complexity concerns. The potential impact of a successful SharePoint compromise —including data theft, ransomware deployment, and lateral movement throughout corporate networks— may justify the investment required for cloud migration. THE BOTTOM LINE The SharePoint zero-day exploitation campaign represents more than just another cybersecurity incident—it's a fundamental challenge to how organizations think about infrastructure security and modernization. With hundreds of organizations compromised and nation-state actors actively exploiting these vulnerabilities, the incident serves as a stark reminder that legacy on-premises systems present increasingly untenable risks in today's threat landscape. For organizations still running on- premises SharePoint servers, the message from security experts is clear: immediate patching is essential, but long-term security requires a fundamental shift toward cloud- based solutions that can provide the rapid response and comprehensive protection that modern threats demand. As Harbridge noted, "It's not just about recovering from CVE- 2025-53770—it's about making sure the next zero-day doesn't land on your doorstep." The race between attackers and defenders continues to accelerate, but this incident has shown that organizations with the right architecture and response capabilities can weather even the most sophisticated attacks. The question now is whether other organizations will learn from this crisis and take the steps necessary to protect themselves against the next inevitable wave of attacks.
Technology Disruption
In its October special edition, VARINDIA sought to understand how channel-friendly policies have helped drive corporate success and spur growth in India’s technology sector, highlighting the viewpoints of 40 Channel Chiefs. In continuation of this initiative of identifying, featuring and eventually honoring India’s most influential Channel Chiefs in the tech industry, we present the views of the remaining 10 Channel Chiefs who share their insights on how instrumental channel programs are for their organizations. So what we have known so far – Corporates are increasingly turning to channel partner programs as a way to expand their reach, tap into new markets, and accelerate their growth. Partner programs can be incredibly effective in helping companies achieve their business goals, and many multi-billion dollar tech companies have invested heavily in developing and implementing successful partner programs. Corporates are seen investing heavily in their channel partner programs to expand their business and reach new markets. By investing in their channel partner programs, corporates can also achieve significant benefits, including increased revenue, expanded market reach, and reduced costs. As a result, corporations are expected to continue to invest heavily in their channel partner programs in the years to come. In nutshell, in a channel partner ecosystem, partners work together to create a seamless customer experience. They share information and resources, and they collaborate on marketing and sales initiatives. This can result in a more efficient and effective go-to-market strategy for the manufacturer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HPE unlocks new growth and specialization with new integrated Partner Ready program SIMON EWINGTON SVP WORLDWIDE CHANNEL & PARTNER ECOSYSTEM, HPE Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced the launch of the first-phase of its newly integrated HPE Partner Ready Vantage program. The new program streamlines multiple legacy programs into a single, integrated framework, empowering partners to deliver comprehensive edge-to-cloud solutions. A STRUCTURED PROGRAM DESIGNED FOR EASE The HPE Partner Ready Vantage Program is structured around three dedicated Centers—Compute, Hybrid Cloud, and Networking—to support specialization while offering partners the flexibility to resell the entire HPE portfolio, whether through traditional CapEx or OpEx as-a-service models like HPE GreenLake. In 2026 and 2027, HPE will continue to integrate additional programs, including the Juniper Networks Partner Advantage program, into one HPE partner program for the channel. Within this framework, HPE has introduced the Triple Platinum Plus program, an exclusive recognition tier for elite partners who demonstrate pan-HPE expertise across all three core technology centers, rewarding their comprehensive proficiency with expanded benefits and opportunities. Partners will continue to enjoy the valuable benefits they receive today from HPE, now with the added advantage of maximizing those benefits more easily through a single, unified program. HPE’s Partner Ready Vantage Program represents a forward-looking approach to channel collaboration, offering unified access, streamlined processes, and expanded opportunities for growth and specialization. This initiative reflects HPE’s commitment to supporting its partners and driving customer success in a rapidly changing technology landscape. We are committed to continuously enhance the program. The path ahead for HPE and our partners is unified, empowered, and primed for growth, and we are excited to shape it together. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DigiCert keeps its Channel Strategy flexible by matching Global Goals with Local Needs SAGAR SURANGALIKAR CHANNEL MANAGER – SOUTH ASIA & ASEAN, DIGICERT DigiCert is a leading global provider of digital trust, enabling individuals and businesses to engage online with the confidence that their footprint in the digital world is secure. DigiCert ONE, the platform for digital trust, provides organizations with centralized visibility and control over a broad range of public and private trust needs, securing websites, enterprise access and communication, software, identity, content and devices. DigiCert pairs its award-winning software with its industry leadership in standards, support and operations, and is the digital trust provider of choice for leading companies around the world. When it comes to balancing corporate goals with evolving partner needs, it is always about balance. Corporate goals define our direction, but partners make that vision real. In regions like SAARC and ASEAN, every market is different — so flexibility is essential. At DigiCert, we focus on listening to partners, simplifying engagement, and ensuring our programs drive mutual growth and profitability. Our channel strategy stays agile, aligning global priorities with local realities. STRENGTHENING TRUST & LEGACY Trust grows through consistency and transparency. We are investing in clear communication, predictable incentives, and co- selling opportunities. Equally important is partner enablement — through certifications, workshops, and marketing support. When partners see that DigiCert is committed to their long-term success, it naturally strengthens loyalty. In SAARC and ASEAN, partners are our growth engines. They understand local markets, regulations, and customer needs better than anyone. Their reach across verticals — from BFSI to public sector — helps us expand faster and deeper. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kaspersky building a vibrant Partner ecosystem while enhancing India’s Cybersecurity landscape PL SUBRAMANIAN (SUBBU), HEAD OF CHANNEL FOR INDIA, KASPERSKY Kaspersky is a channel-driven organization. Our policies are designed to align our corporate growth objectives with the evolving needs of our partners. We have established key B2B partnerships in India through our Technology Alliance Distributor, Technobind, which help us extend our reach across Enterprise segments. These collaborations enable us to offer scalable, on-demand, and managed cybersecurity services to customers nationwide. Our partnerships with leading system integrators ensure that we remain well-positioned for large-scale government and enterprise opportunities, while providing partners with greater flexibility, profitability, and technological support. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT At Kaspersky, strengthening partner trust and loyalty starts with collaboration and enablement. We work closely with our partners by providing them with tools, training, and programs that help them create awareness and deliver customized security solutions to customers. In 2024, we restructured our partner program to better support different partner profiles and enable them to leverage discounts, solutions, and offers more efficiently. Moving into 2025, we have enhanced our support for managed service providers (MSPs) and technology alliance partners by introducing innovative rebate structures and Solution Advisory Services, ensuring our partners are fully equipped to maximize their business growth and service capabilities. Our partners are instrumental in expanding Kaspersky’s presence across India, particularly in emerging markets and tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They act as trusted brand extensions, understanding local cybersecurity needs and designing tailored solutions for customers. To strengthen this reach, we have expanded our channel sales team in smaller cities to support partners and customers on the ground. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Versa Networks redefines Channel Growth with 100% Partner-led strategy VENKATA SR DATLA HEAD - CHANNEL SALES – INDIA & SAARC, VERSA NETWORKS Versa is a 100% channel-first organization. Our corporate goals are designed to move in lockstep with our partners’ success. Every go-to-market motion begins and ends with the partner. Our policies emphasize enablement, transparency, and shared profitability rather than control. We provide partners with complete access to account intent data, engagement analytics, and pipeline visibility so that Versa and partner sales teams can collaborate seamlessly. Incentive programs, MDF allocation, and deal registration are directly aligned with partner success metrics. When our partners grow, Versa grows. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY Trust and loyalty are the foundation of Versa’s ACE Partner Program (Accelerate, Captivate, Engage). We invest in building true partnerships which is not transaction mindset, but through initiatives that drive mutual success: • Early Engagement: Versa’s field teams are encouraged to bring partners into every deal from the first meeting to co-create value and differentiation. • Shared Insights: We actively share buying intent, engagement, and digital signal data from our campaigns. • Co-Marketing Excellence via XAmplify: Versa provides partners access to XAmplify, a dedicated demand- generation automation platform that allows them to instantly launch Versa-branded or co-branded digital campaigns, email nurtures, and social media promotions. It gives partners ready-to-use assets, analytics, and ROI tracking, making lead generation faster, more measurable, and partner-controlled. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RP tech fosters a Resilient and Future-ready business ecosystem for its Partners RAJESH GOENKA CEO, RASHI PERIPHERALS At Rashi Peripherals (RP tech), our channel philosophy is built on two fundamentals, consistency and agility. We frame our channel policies to deliver clarity and predictability in operations, while giving partners the flexibility to respond to changing market dynamics. Our commercial policies ensure transparent margins, timely credit, and smooth claim settlements, allowing partners to operate with complete confidence. At the same time, we continuously refine operational processes, from digital order management to returns and warranty, to enhance ease of business. Regional autonomy through an extensive branch network and faster decision-making helps us align our growth priorities with the practical realities of the market. BUILDING TRUST & LOYALTY Partner trust has been our biggest asset for over three decades. Every initiative at RP tech is designed to create mutual success. The Channel Business Forum (CBF) is one of our flagship programs that connects directly with partners across India, enabling learning, networking and future business collaboration opportunities. We also invest in efficient logistics and credit programs that make business seamless. When partners experience consistent service, transparent communication, and opportunities for skill growth, loyalty becomes a natural outcome. Partners are the true growth drivers of RP tech. Their strong local connections and deep market understanding help us reach emerging demand pockets in Tier II and III cities. Together, we are enabling the availability of next-generation devices, including AI-enabled laptops, peripherals, and consumer technology, in markets that are defining India’s next wave of consumption. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trellix views the Channel as a Strategic Extension of its Customer Value Chain SAURABH PATANKAR CHANNEL LEAD - INDIA, TRELLIX At Trellix, our channel strategy centers on shared growth, recognizing that our success is tied to our partners. We focus on delivering advanced cybersecurity outcomes through our platform while ensuring partner profitability and long-term sustainability. We have shifted from rigid programs to an outcome-based engagement model, allowing partners to choose paths that fit their business, such as solution integration or managed services. Regular feedback, regional engagements, and clear structures ensure our policies adapt to partner needs and market changes. BUILDING PARTNER TRUST Trust and loyalty in our ecosystem come from consistency, transparency, and co-creation. We’ve invested significantly in partner enablement programs, joint business planning, and co- marketing initiatives that go beyond transactions to build long- term collaboration. Our partner enablement framework includes tailored trainings, hands-on labs, and solution workshops led by our India-based experts. Additionally, our Trellix Partner Portal provides unified visibility into deal registration, training, rebates, and incentives ensuring transparency and faster engagement. We also conduct periodic Partner Advisory Boards in India to hear directly from our top partners, helping us refine programs and respond faster to market changes. Partners are at the centre of our go-to-market strategy and play a crucial role in helping us scale across India and the SAARC region. Through their local relationships and domain expertise, our partners open doors to verticals such as BFSI, government, critical infrastructure, healthcare, and manufacturing, where trust and compliance are key. We have also seen growing traction with managed security service providers (MSSPs) and cloud-native integrators who are leveraging the Trellix Security platform to build recurring revenue models. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SonicWall stands firm on the foundation of its Partner community SANJEEV KUMAR REGIONAL SALES DIRECTOR - INDIA & SAARC REGION, SONICWALL SonicWall has increased partner engagement and transactions of late. It operates exclusively through channel partners to reach and serve customers globally. The company has implemented various MSP/MSSP business models that offer monthly subscriptions and service options designed to meet partners’ needs for managed services. Partner engagement activities have been updated to simplify interactions and to provide partners with training, marketing resources, and tools, aiming to improve channel efficiency and reduce business costs. SonicWall’s channel policies, including the “SecureFirst” partner program, are structured to align corporate objectives such as growth, service transformation, and channel leverage with partner requirements for flexibility, profitability, enablement, and managed service models. This alignment is achieved through tiered structures, flexible business models, investments in partner enablement, and open communication to support ongoing improvement. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT INITIATIVES SonicWall stands strong on the foundation of its partner community and for us building a partner programme grounded in feedback, transparency and flexibility is paramount. We believe in strengthening them by giving the appropriate tools, pricing, support and incentives so their success becomes SonicWall’s success. SonicWall has introduced several initiatives designed to strengthen relationships with partners, including updates to its partner programme and engagement agenda. The SonicWall SecureFirst Partner Program is intended to enhance partner experience and facilitate long-term collaboration. The program incorporates partner feedback to simplify business operations, allowing partners to join without extensive initial requirements such as training or business plans, and offering flexible levels of engagement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pure Storage driving India’s Digital Growth Story together with Partners JITHESH CHEMBIL HEAD OF CHANNELS - INDIA, PURE STORAGE Pure Storage delivers the industry's most advanced data storage platform to store, manage, and protect the world's data on any scale. With Pure Storage, organizations have ultimate simplicity and flexibility, saving time, money, and energy. From AI to archive, Pure Storage delivers a cloud experience with one unified Storage as-a-Service platform across on-premises, cloud, and hosted environments. Our platform is built on our Evergreen architecture that evolves with your business. Our customers are actively increasing their capacity and processing power while significantly reducing their carbon and energy footprint. At Pure Storage India, our channel policies are designed to balance global corporate goals with the evolving needs of our partners. We have simplified partner tiers to ensure transparency and performance- driven progression while empowering partners with autonomy through AI-driven dashboards, independent quoting tools, and predictive renewal analytics. Our approach integrates corporate objectives, like accelerating the shift to subscription-led, outcome- based storage, with partner profitability and agility in local markets, ensuring growth alignment and mutual success. EMPOWERING PARTNERS THROUGH ENGAGEMENT To strengthen partner trust and loyalty, we have localized our Pure WaveMakers program to include specialized training, co- marketing support, and market development funds across high- growth sectors such as BFSI, manufacturing, and healthcare. We host regular partner meets, technical workshops, and maintain dedicated account management to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. Simplified onboarding, transparent policies, and free certification programs further reinforce partner confidence and engagement. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Envisioning an AI-ready Channel Ecosystem to drive sustainable value for Customers PIYUSH SOMANI PROMOTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHAIRMAN, ESDS SOFTWARE SOLUTION ESDS excels in marketing our platform and products through our direct sales team, channel partners, and various free traffic sources, with a strong emphasis on our channel ecosystem's pivotal role. We are agile in adapting to evolving customer demands and preferences, proactively addressing changes in business models to enhance channel execution, align sales strategies with our strategic objectives, and reinforce our capabilities in key areas. Additionally, we continually seek opportunities to optimize our go-to- market strategy and reduce costs for an even more effective approach to success. PARTNER ENGAGEMENT & EMPOWERMENT We are empowering our channel partners by providing them with advanced digital tools, resources, and platforms to boost their efficiency and productivity. This includes access to technology solutions, training programs, and tailored marketing support, ensuring that they can deliver value to their clients. Our digital transformation initiatives streamline essential processes such as order management, lead generation, and customer support, fostering a seamless collaboration between our partners and us. Through continuous innovation, we remain committed to helping our partners thrive in a constantly evolving digital landscape, ensuring they remain competitive and agile. Driving business is a result of collaboration and collective work. Channel partners are essential to any establishment’s success when it comes to the go-to-market strategy. However, where do they stand with respect to the day-to-day business of any organization? They are critical to the success of the company, and they help with organisation representation there by market share; partners are the foundation of the business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cisco empowering Partners to Drive Profitability in an AI era TIM COOGAN SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL PARTNER SALES, CISCO Cisco has announced key elements to the Cisco 360 Partner Program launching January 25, 2026, co-designed with partners to help accelerate their profitability and deliver greater customer value. With partners expecting AI to drive the majority of their revenue within the next five years, the enhanced program incentivizes their efforts to help organizations harness this opportunity amid infrastructure constraints, data complexity, and skills gaps. The program strengthens collaboration across the global partner ecosystem and allows partners to unlock the full power of the Cisco portfolio to deliver the AI-ready data centers, future-proofed workplaces, and digital resilience their customers need to thrive in the AI era. NEW CISCO 360 PARTNER PROGRAM ELEMENTS Enhanced partner incentive tied to customer priorities: The Cisco Partner Incentive introduces the Eligible Offers list and rebate rates aligned to accelerate growth and incentivize adoption in key innovation areas— campus refresh, AI, security and premium services, adopt and renew. Partners can model profitability using the Cisco Partner Incentive Estimator and unlock two additional bonuses as they advance expertise and accelerate portfolio growth. Cross Sell Bonus – rewarding portfolio breadth; and a Next Generation Specialization Bonus – rewarding deep expertise or greater value and predictable growth. New specializations recognizing AI infrastructure expertise: In February 2026, Cisco Preferred Partners can earn two new specializations – Secure AI Infrastructure and Secure Networking – recognizing partners who deliver comprehensive solutions from design through ongoing customer engagement using Cisco’s integrated hardware, software, and services. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technology Disruption
For RICHARD HARBRIDGE, Microsoft MVP and migration strategist at ShareGate , the breach represents more than just a security incident—it's a clarion call for organizational transformation. "Today's Microsoft breach is a critical reminder for organizations still relying on legacy SharePoint systems," Harbridge emphasized. "If you're running SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, or SPSE and haven't patched, the first step is immediate isolation and emergency remediation." Nation-state actors and ransomware groups exploit critical flaws in Microsoft's enterprise collaboration platform, triggering an urgent modernization imperative The cybersecurity world was jolted awake in late July 2025 when researchers at Eye Security discovered something alarming: a sophisticated campaign targeting Microsoft SharePoint servers had been quietly compromising organizations worldwide. What started as routine threat hunting quickly revealed one of the most significant zero-day exploitation campaigns of the year, affecting hundreds of companies, government agencies, and critical infrastructure operators across the globe. At the heart of this digital siege was CVE- 2025-53770, a critical vulnerability with a maximum CVSS score of 9.8 that allowed attackers to execute code remotely on vulnerable SharePoint servers without any authentication. But this wasn't just another security flaw —it was a devastating bypass of patches Microsoft had released just weeks earlier, demonstrating how quickly threat actors can adapt their tactics to stay ahead of defensive measures. THE SCOPE OF DEVASTATION The numbers paint a sobering picture of the attack's reach. Eye Security tracked more than 75 breaches, including compromises at US federal and state agencies, energy companies, universities, and an Asian telecommunications provider. Reports indicate hundreds of organizations were ultimately affected, with victims spanning from European government agencies to a state legislature in the eastern United States. The breach campaign caught the attention of the highest levels of US cybersecurity leadership. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was made aware of the exploitation by a trusted partner and immediately reached out to Microsoft to take action, according to Acting Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Chris Butera. The urgency was evident when CISA added CVE-2025- 53770 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on July 20, 2025, signaling immediate risk to critical infrastructure. THE TECHNICAL ANATOMY OF TOOLSHELL 2.0 The attack campaign, dubbed " ToolShell ," represents a sophisticated evolution of exploitation techniques that security researchers first observed at the Pwn2Own hacking competition in Berlin in May 2025. CVE-2025-53770 is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2025-49704, while CVE-2025-53771 is a bypass of the fix for CVE-2025-49706—both vulnerabilities that Microsoft had patched in their July 2025 Patch Tuesday release. The attack chain operates in two devastating stages. First, attackers send a POST request to /_layouts/15/ ToolPane . aspx using a crafted Referer header to bypass authentication. Then, with authenticated access to the vulnerable endpoint, they exploit an insecure deserialization vulnerability by submitting a malicious payload in the POST body. What makes this attack particularly insidious is its persistence mechanism. The malicious activity involves delivering ASPX payloads via PowerShell, which is then used to steal the SharePoint server's MachineKey configuration, including the ValidationKey and DecryptionKey , to maintain persistent access. As cybersecurity expert Jake Williams noted, "With these keys in hand, attackers can craft forged VIEWSTATE payloads that SharePoint will accept as valid—enabling seamless remote code execution. This approach makes remediation particularly difficult—a typical patch would not automatically rotate these stolen cryptographic secrets, leaving organizations vulnerable even after they patch." STATE-SPONSORED ACTORS AND RANSOMWARE GROUPS JOIN THE FRAY The exploitation campaign attracted a rogues' gallery of threat actors that reads like a who's who of global cybercrime. Microsoft observed two named Chinese nation- state actors, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, exploiting these vulnerabilities targeting internet-facing SharePoint servers. Additionally, another China-based threat actor, tracked as Storm-2603, was observed exploiting these vulnerabilities to deploy ransomware. This convergence of nation-state actors and cybercriminals underscores the vulnerability's strategic importance. SharePoint's deep integration with Microsoft's platform, including services like Office, Teams, OneDrive and Outlook, makes it especially valuable to attackers because a compromise doesn't stay contained—it opens the door to the entire network. The ransomware angle adds another layer of urgency to the threat landscape. Security researchers have documented how Storm-2603 exploited these vulnerabilities to distribute Warlock ransomware, demonstrating how zero-day vulnerabilities can quickly become weapons in ransomware arsenals. THE MODERNIZATION IMPERATIVE For Richard Harbridge , Microsoft MVP and migration strategist at ShareGate , the breach represents more than just a security incident—it's a clarion call for organizational transformation. "Today's Microsoft breach is a critical reminder for organizations still relying on legacy SharePoint systems," Harbridge emphasized. "If you're running SharePoint Server 2016, 2019, or SPSE and haven't patched, the first step is immediate isolation and emergency remediation." Harbridge's assessment of the situation is stark: if the telltale spinstall0.aspx file is present on a system, organizations should "assume full compromise." This means taking servers offline, rotating all service credentials and machine keys, scanning for persistence tools like ToolShells , and rebuilding any machines showing signs of tampering. But Harbridge sees an opportunity in this crisis. "The cloud version of SharePoint isn't vulnerable to this," he noted. "Every hour an organization remains on-premises increases its exposure and the operational burden on IT. It's time to treat modernization as part of your incident response strategy, not just a future initiative." The migration path he advocates involves moving to SharePoint Online, which benefits from "real-time threat detection, automated logging, and continuous patch cycles that outpace adversaries." Tools like ShareGate's migration suite can facilitate this transition by moving terabytes of content with full fidelity, including metadata and permissions, with zero downtime. CYNTHIA KAISER, SVP of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and former Deputy Director of the FBI's Cyber Unit, brings a law enforcement perspective to the crisis that's particularly sobering. "Right now, people should be just as worried about what happened as what happens next," Kaiser warned. "Once these vulnerabilities are discovered, we have historically seen ransomware groups quickly operationalize them against victims." THE RANSOMWARE CONNECTION Cynthia Kaiser, SVP of Halcyon's Ransomware Research Center and former Deputy Director of the FBI's Cyber Unit, brings a law enforcement perspective to the crisis that's particularly sobering. "Right now, people should be just as worried about what happened as what happens next," Kaiser warned. "Once these vulnerabilities are discovered, we have historically seen ransomware groups quickly operationalize them against victims." Kaiser's concern extends beyond the immediate exploitation. "Once these criminals are in a network, they can hide, lie in wait, and cause untold damage to a company," she explained. Her recommendation focuses on behavioral detection: "Organizations should be thinking seriously about whether they have the right tools that detect and stop ransomware activity at the behavioral level before disruption occurs." This perspective aligns with broader industry observations about the evolving threat landscape. Unit 42 and other organizations, including Microsoft, have observed widespread active exploitation of these vulnerabilities, with telemetry revealing a clear evolution in the SharePoint ToolShell attack campaign progressing through two distinct phases. DETECTION AND RESPONSE CHALLENGES The SharePoint vulnerabilities present unique challenges for detection and response teams. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security noted that AMSI may not consistently offer comprehensive protection against this form of exploitation, as threat actors frequently adapt their methods to evade detection. Organizations are urged to look for specific indicators of compromise, including the presence of the file C:\PROGRA1\ COMMON1\MICROS1\WEBSER1\16\ TEMPLATE\ LAYOUTS\ spinstall0 . aspx and network logs showing scanning or exploitation attempts from specific IP addresses, particularly since July 17, 2025. Microsoft has provided detailed hunting queries for organizations using their security tools, focusing on the creation of the spinstall0.aspx file and process creations where w3wp.exe spawns encoded PowerShell involving suspicious file paths. THE BROADER SECURITY IMPLICATIONS The SharePoint breach illuminates several critical trends in the cybersecurity landscape. First, the speed at which threat actors can bypass vendor patches demonstrates the arms race between defenders and attackers. Microsoft patched CVE-2025-49704 and CVE-2025-49706 in the July 2025 Patch Tuesday release, but threat actors recently found new paths to exploit the same core logic, prompting Microsoft to assign new CVEs and release emergency fixes. Second, the incident underscores the strategic value of enterprise collaboration platforms to threat actors. SharePoint servers often serve as gateways to broader corporate networks, containing sensitive documents, user credentials, and connections to other critical business systems. Third, the involvement of multiple nation-state actors and ransomware groups in exploiting the same vulnerabilities highlights how quickly valuable exploits proliferate across different threat actor communities. MICROSOFT'S RESPONSE AND REMEDIATION Microsoft's response to the crisis evolved rapidly as the scope of the threat became clear. The company released security updates that fully protect customers using all supported versions of SharePoint affected by CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771, urging customers to apply these updates immediately. The company's remediation guidance emphasizes multiple layers of protection: applying the latest security updates, configuring Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) integration in SharePoint, deploying Microsoft Defender Antivirus on all SharePoint servers, and rotating SharePoint server ASP.NET machine keys and restarting IIS. For organizations unable to immediately patch, Microsoft recommends disconnecting affected servers from the internet until updates can be applied, or implementing authentication gateways to limit unauthenticated traffic. LESSONS FOR THE INDUSTRY The SharePoint breach offers several critical lessons for organizations and the cybersecurity industry as a whole. First, the incident demonstrates that patch bypass vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly common and sophisticated, requiring organizations to think beyond traditional patch management cycles. Second, the rapid exploitation of these vulnerabilities by multiple threat actor groups underscores the need for behavioral detection capabilities that can identify malicious activity even when using novel techniques. Third, the incident highlights the security advantages of cloud-native solutions over on-premises infrastructure, particularly for collaboration platforms that are frequent targets of attack. Looking Forward: The Cloud Imperative As organizations assess the damage and plan their response, many are reaching the same conclusion as Harbridge : the future lies in cloud migration. The SharePoint incident serves as a powerful case study in the security benefits of moving away from on-premises infrastructure that requires constant vigilance and rapid patching. Cloud-based SharePoint Online demonstrated its resilience during this crisis, remaining unaffected by vulnerabilities that devastated on-premises deployments. This immunity stems from Microsoft's ability to implement protections and patches across its cloud infrastructure more rapidly and comprehensively than individual organizations can manage on their own systems. For Chief Information Security Officers and IT leaders, the breach presents an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation initiatives that may have been progressing slowly due to cost or complexity concerns. The potential impact of a successful SharePoint compromise —including data theft, ransomware deployment, and lateral movement throughout corporate networks— may justify the investment required for cloud migration. THE BOTTOM LINE The SharePoint zero-day exploitation campaign represents more than just another cybersecurity incident—it's a fundamental challenge to how organizations think about infrastructure security and modernization. With hundreds of organizations compromised and nation-state actors actively exploiting these vulnerabilities, the incident serves as a stark reminder that legacy on-premises systems present increasingly untenable risks in today's threat landscape. For organizations still running on- premises SharePoint servers, the message from security experts is clear: immediate patching is essential, but long-term security requires a fundamental shift toward cloud- based solutions that can provide the rapid response and comprehensive protection that modern threats demand. As Harbridge noted, "It's not just about recovering from CVE- 2025-53770—it's about making sure the next zero-day doesn't land on your doorstep." The race between attackers and defenders continues to accelerate, but this incident has shown that organizations with the right architecture and response capabilities can weather even the most sophisticated attacks. The question now is whether other organizations will learn from this crisis and take the steps necessary to protect themselves against the next inevitable wave of attacks.
