Computers Today, October, 2001; Country Buzz, [pg1]

October, 2001 COUNTRY BUZZ

Computers Today, October, 2001

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COMPUTER BUSINESS
Firms ground mobile computing
The lure of mobile computing no longer holds for NIIT and Silverline, who have decided to wind up their wireless app development ventures

For major players of the IT industry, a wireless products and solutions development centre concentrating on R&D activity has suddenly become a no-no. Thanks to the hype and craze around the wireless and mobile Internet space, many had ventured into this arena. With wireless Internet not really taking off and WAP not standing up to the industry's expectations, today most of these companies are either winding up their wireless computing centres or diversifying their teams into other new areas.

Raju:"The wireless computing industry will take some time to mature"

Wireless woes
ť NIIT plans to convert its Bangalore centre into a bioinformatics facility
ť Silverline has transformed its wireless computing centre into a Linux competency one
ť Satyam Computer Services, despite its wireless apps development centre, is yet to announce a single product/application

Among those that have abandoned their wireless projects are NIIT Ltd and Silverline Technologies. NIIT's wireless centre in Bangalore is yet to come out with a product or an application after nearly a year of operations. The centre is proposed to diversify into bioinformatics, company sources said. Likewise, Silverline Technologies in Hyderabad had set up a wireless solutions centre for developing products and applications. Of late, the centre has been converted into a Linux competency centre. Similarly, Satyam Computer Services Ltd had formed a wireless and 3G applications development centre. According to company sources, not much development activity is happening at this centre too.

"We had started work on developing a WAP gateway and other wireless applications. However, we found it more profitable to shift to Linux," said Arjun Mukerjee, head of Linux Competency Centre, Silverline. Earlier, he was heading a 50-member team on wireless applications.

Firms like VisualSoft, Kshema Technologies and TCS too had made their plans public of developing specific wireless applications and products but are yet to launch any in the market. "At this juncture, it is almost impossible to push mobile Internet and mobile computing in the country. I think we will have to give wireless computing some more time to mature," observes D.V.S. Raju of VisualSoft Technologies Ltd.

SCO morphs into Caldera
But, for growth, the challenge lies in unifying SCO's existing Unix business channels, applications and customer bases with those of Linux

Caldera International, a leader in unifying Unix with Linux, wants to push its open source operating system initiative in the country. Caldera, at the time of merger with Unix OS provider Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) last August, had said that its business in India is expected to grow exponentially in the next couple of years. It had hoped to ride piggyback on SCO's huge Unix installations in the country.

For Caldera India, which now comprises all assets of the erstwhile SCO, the challenge lies in unifying the existing Unix business channels, applications and customer bases with those of Linux. There are over 60,000 Unix server installations in India. In fact, SCO had grown with an average of over 100 per cent every consecutive year. Caldera now hopes to be able to unify a good number of these Unix servers with Linux. "The reception to Linux in the country is excellent, though its adoption till date has been less than expected. So there is a great opportunity," said Kenneth Bergenthal, managing director, Asia-Pacific, Caldera International. "India is our biggest market in the Asia-Pacific region and it is growing very fast," he said.

Bergenthal:"Upbeat over Linux uptake in the country"

The conversion market
ť With over 60,000 Unix servers in the country, Caldera sees a huge market in unifying these with Linux
ť It expects to grow 2-3 times in the next two years in the country
ť Caldera proposes to lay stress on specialised vertical markets such as finance, banking and government
ť It has already provided Unix-Linux combination for the Andhra Pradesh government's stamps and registration department and district courts

For its India-specific foray, Bergenthal says, "We will make communications a key point of our marketing strategy. Linux has gone down well in specialised vertical markets such as finance, banking and government. It is these areas that we will focus on."

The firm has already had success with the Andhra Pradesh government's stamps and registration department in offering the Unix-Linux combination. "Public sector insurance company LIC and many banks were customers of SCO. We are hopeful that most of them would go in for unifying their Unix servers with Linux," he says.

Linux's penetration into the server market is based on its simplicity and the ability to adapt to existing circumstances. According to Bergenthal, such flexibility is a major advantage compared to the intransigent nature of commercial networking software and offerings such as Windows where vendor-provided drivers are still the norm and usually a necessity. To overcome Linux's lack of network management tools, Caldera

plans to launch its Volution, a package that can effectively manage a variety of networking functions, including software distribution.

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