Tech write-up by Gurmeet

 

 

 

These days economy is in turbulence. The businesses are getting wiped off with sales reduced, revenues not meeting expectations, professionals facing retrenchment, and many more. By definition, 'Retrenchment ' means to cut down, reduce, or diminish; expenses or to economize expenses. Thought pink slips are the flavor of the season, especially in the technology industry due to global economic slowdown. Every second company is on he way of layoff and freezing job options. But, by viewing the other side of the coin, I have find some tech titans, which are not affected by economic slowdown and inspires me to get a review of the hiring policies with companies and here I am going to enlist certain hiring plans of tech biggies.

Microsoft is known as World's largest software maker has added thousands of new jobs this year. Earlier, the company has announced a hiring freeze. But, now they are saying that after reviewing its hiring plans in light of the tough economic conditions, there is no need to go for lay-offs. As per the market reports, Microsoft has more than 91,000 employees worldwide, has been on a hiring fling, adding more than 20,000 employees in the last two years. The above statistics shows that the company is not moving on the way of retrenchment as many others.

One of India's largest IT companies with over 100,306 professionals as of Sep 30, 2008 beat market expectations with a 30.2 per cent rise in quarterly profit, has become the second technology firm in the country to cross the one-lakh employee mark. The company is looking forward to hire 25,000 people in fiscal year 2009, while 11,000 employees have already joined this year; another 18,700 are expected to join before year-end. In the last quarter Infosys has given chance to 3,192 new employees. The data gives you an idea that the company is effectively facing the economic crises and enriching their human capital.

The country’s fourth largest software firm Satyam Computers too claims to be optimistic on hiring although the company was delayed on showing appraisals. As per states Satyam will recruit 14,000-15,000 people up to the end of this fiscal year. The total employee strength including subsidiaries and joint ventures stood at 52,865 and during the second quarter ended September 30, 2008, Satyam reported a gross addition of 1,814 employees, including 221 trainees.

This is not the end of the story, Wipro Technologies; India's top-selling computer maker company too claims to have put no freeze on hiring. The company is pursuing campus programmes in India and in other countries like US and UK. The company is already running a program named as Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) which will help graduates learn while they work on projects with the company. According to recent market reports, Wipro had 97,552 employees as of September 30, 2008 that includes 75,748 employees in IT business, while 21,804 employees in BPO business.

In the conclusive note, I can say that yet many companies are facing downturn in economy, there are still many companies in India and in the world who are hiring recruits. So, instead of seeing the darker side, you need to review the novel opportunities given by above-mentioned companies.

 

                     

 

 

 

 

In literary meanings, Pink slip refers to the term to being fired from one's personnel department, of including a discharge notice (may or may not be printed on pink paper) in an employee's pay envelope to notify the worker of his or her termination of employment or layoff. These days many companies are trying to cut costs by downsizing workforce and if you are one of the victims of any warning slip, you need to worry or disheartened, here in this feature you are offered with some useful tips to cope with the current challenging economic environment.

Refresh your CV with time: It is a good option to brush your CV (Curriculum Vitae) with time to put your best across the prospective employer. You can do it easily with help of resume designing web sites that that guide you how to best frame the right covering letter and resume for that 'perfect' job. This can also be done with the help of placement consultants. They can possibly guide you what an employer looks for in a resume, especially in the current times.

Develop secondary skills: You should always be aware of the information about the jobs that are the most in requirement or demand. This way you could be able to brush up your skills for those profiles and streamline your approach on the way. Peripheral options like IT management or IT trainers are other fine options.

Acquire newer qualifications: Another better option to cope up with pink slips is that you should always try to acquire newer and higher qualification, it can really open doors for better profile to impress your employer. Secondly, it will further strengthen your experience. In reality, “Education in an investment which always pays”.

Increase savings & reduce costs: Misfortune can anytime knock your door, so you should be prepared for any worst condition. Investing in gold or real estate may be wise options with recent trends, but you should always go with latest market reports. Investing in stocks or mutual funds is another risky but good options, so you first consult a portfolio manager as he may give you a clear market picture.

Distress yourself: Things like Yoga, Reiki, Pranayam, wellness courses, dancing, reading clubs, sports etc can be really helpful in distressing you adequately. Sitting and brooding will never take you to heights so, you need to gear with up new ideas to distress yourself so that you can think about alternatives in life that you may have wanted to pursue for a long time.

Develop Entrepreneurship in yourself: You should take the recession as a positive obsession, don't lose hope in any situation because there is sliver lining to every cloud. The need is to develop a positive spirits to get ready to rise up from recession. There are so many examples of tech czars like Microsoft, IBM, HCL etc, who have risen from the wreckage of some of the most difficult recessions. More so, you must channelize your positive energy to bring out more entrepreneurs within you.

At the conclusive note, I can say that you should be always prepared to cope up with the horrific period in your life. In spite, one always learns more from the defeats than from the victories.

                     

 

 

 

With New Year many new things start, many new resolutions are made and plans for new investments are made at business point. But this year, the problem that will take the centre stage with SMB’s is the need of data recovery and the solutions to cope with it. Many SMB’s are planning to increase their IT budget; the main area being the data protection and the techniques that can ensure better recovery services.

As SMB’s are growing and the future prospects for their growth are considered far better than any other biggies, the need for data protection is increasing. With growth, data is also increasing and so the data that needs to be secure is increasing manifolds. As the technology advents, the mean to secure data is also becoming more complex. In earlier times, data protection was considered as a very easy job, but now…the time has changed. Gone are those days when data recovery included a backup system and some backup tools and utilities. With virtualization as the latest trend, usage of laptops more than PC’s, and increased recovery point objectives data protection has become a more complex process.

It was a time when backup process just needed a piece of software but now companies have to care about the hardware factor. They are more concerned about the compatibility and scalability factor associated with related software and hardware. They have to keep pace with the latest technologies like disk-to-disk backup, replication, snapshots, email archiving, data encryption and security….with much more new options coming at their services.

If surveys and studies are to be believed, the best option for SMB’s is to go with Total Solution approach…the driving force being the trend of doing more with less. To use the best of products for the best productivity and results is the need of hour. Similarly, adoption of less complex methods of data protection and storage is what SMB’s need today. They need an automated solution that is pre-designed to address all data-storage and protection functionality which is usually called an “appliance” in SMB’s mode of notation. This approach saves time, human and system resources that SMB’s usually lack in investing. They have a very short time of a day with them to address small problems…they have to face much bigger challenges.

Mostly the vendors that deal in providing the storage and protection software do not understand the problems of the companies in depth and they give different products that are specific to a particular problem…a huge trade off basically. But the vendor that is providing with the appliance software picks up a software that roots out all the data related problems of SMB’s at once. This vendor takes the whole sole responsibility of this software and enters into a long term relationship with the concerned firm. The vendor provides a software that addresses to all the data protection and storage problems of the SMB…he comes up with a total solution. This type of approach is more convenient to upgrade with the changing requirements.

After all this inputs of what is required by SMB’s to address their basic data storage and protection problem the next thing that tops the list is…How to select an efficient Total Solution Appliance. When you are selecting a data protection and storage solution, the must know things are:

· The appliance should be easy to purchase, install, manage and support.

· It should be able to optimize backups, archives, and restores, disaster recovery and electronic discovery to meet the recovery time objectives.

· It should be in full compliance with regulated retention policies.

· It should automate daily functions that reduce the manual hours spent on administration.

· It should provide an adaptable and scalable base for the future needs of data protection and storage.

At the note of conclusion the last thing to say that SMB’s should look forward to the recovery solutions to skip the ill effects of enormous data changes with the coming years and trends.

                     

The netbook is one of the most interesting gadgets in the market. These tiny machines are very useful for students as well as businessmen. You can get a netbook in price range of $500 to $700. The market has an overwhelming array of low-cost but highly portable and efficient little laptops and chief companies dealing in netbooks are Asus Eee PC, HP Mini-Note, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One etc. Other than these, more companies are also trapping their hands in netbooks like Lenovo announced their Ideapad S10 and Dell is expected to enter the souk with a small Inspiron model. You need not to be confused by a range of good products in the market. But, be wise while choosing a netbook for you. My article will definitely help you in this regard. So, here are some significant tips.

· Choose your operating system wisely. The operating system is the chief component of a computer. Depending on the vendor, netbooks are usually offered with Linux variants, Windows XP or Windows Vista. Each operating system has its own features. Like Linux devices are cheaper for being an open source operating system and they're usually loaded with open-source software, like an office suite, instant-messaging client and other applications. But it is really a tedious job to add additional applications to these machines. Even, it is sometimes difficult to work with Windows Vista because of its complexity and memory requirements. The third popular operating system is fully tried and tested Windows XP. Users find this operating system most reliable and efficient to use.

· Screen size. There are a variety of products in the market with different screen sizes like 7 or 8 inches or more. But, the thing that should be considered is that data displayed on the screen must be readable to the users well. So, it is advisable to use screen at least 10 inch wider with resolution at least 1,024-x-600. Windows can run well with this screen resolution.

· SSD over HDD. In many netbooks, SSDs are being used instead of magnetic media. But, the noticeable fact is that the cost of using an SSD (Solid-State Drive) is much more that HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The SSD equipped netbooks booted up significantly faster than that of HDD. Secondly, its battery also lasted almost an extra hour. More so, applications on the SSD launched almost instantaneously, while the HDD took several extra seconds to do the same tasks, but the price tag is too high for most people and it makes your system little slow. SSD is the best choice for those who don’t mind their relatively small capacities and high price tags. The SSD is well suited for users who need quick access while on the move.

· Look for six-cell instead of three-cell batteries. The cell number is directly proportional to back-up time of the netbook. Most three-cell batteries will last around three hours, with reasonable screen brightness and wireless use, while a six-cell battery extends for the whole office hour. So, if you need good back up for yourself, then go for a six-cell battery.

In the crux, the above said points are general guidelines to opt for a specific operating system and I hope these would be helpful for you.

                     

Technology and the costs, these are two things that can unexpectedly defeat any budget boundaries. These two terms are directly dependent upon each other, if you compromise on cost, you will have to suffer somewhere making choice of the technology. Whether your business small or big, these tips can help you slash costs, accumulate capital, and let you focus on what's really vital for your business.

1. Use of Open Source and Free Software: A very simple tip to reduce cost is by using open source and free software. Freeware and low-cost software are termed as pleasant surprise in terms of robustness and functionality. There are many free software alternatives for commercial software like OpenOffice and Google Docs for MS-Office (office suit), Grisoft and AntiVir for Nortan and McAfee (Anti-viruses), MySql and Ingres for MS-Access and SQL (database software), Krita and GIMP for Adobe and Photoshop (Graphics and Image Editor), Mozilla Firefox and Opera for Internet Explorer (Web Browser) etc. The list has numerous entries in this list.

2. On-line meetings: Meetings can be held on-line by using the concept of videoconferencing. The requirements for videoconferencing are videoconferencing software, a webcam, a PC and Internet connection. The set-up can substitute money not only on travel costs, but also on long-distance as well. Even the money can be saved with the use of free video conferencing software, such as Skype and WebEx. GoToMeeting is another solution that offers VoIP, supports meetings with up to 15 attendees, and lets you give presentations, collaborate, or provide training from your desktop. Second Life allows you to create an avatar for free and meet video presentations and hold virtual meetings or training sessions.

3. Telecommunication: This is another significant method to reduce cost. It is actually a work arrangement in which employees enjoy flexibility in working location and hours. In other words, the daily commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Wikis are the best option to meet the requirement and make it simple to post text or documents so that a group can make comments or changes. Some wikis are free and public, while others are more enterprise-focused with advanced features. For example Pbwiki offers three flavors: Business, Academic, and Personal. VPN (virtual private network), services like LogMeIn promises easy setup using peer-to-peer technology to access shared files.

4. Use of Virtualization Software: Virtualization software offers many cost-saving benefits, such as consolidating servers and reducing backup and recovery time. Virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. VMware is an industry standard workstation used for running multiple operating systems on a single computer. Microsoft's free Virtual Server and Virtual PC allow you to use virtualization. Another example is Parallels is one of the better-known Mac-friendly solutions that run on Windows and Linux based operating system.

5. Outsourcing: Outsourcing is the concept of involving a third party in a business to accomplish a specific job and this is a significant method to reduce cost substantially. Many businesses lack a full-time IT professional. Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and of an entire business function to an external service provider and under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. There are many outsourcing companies in India like IBM, InfoSys, Wipro, Hcl, TCS etc.