The Loop: Vol.3 Issue 1
Transcription
The Loop: Vol.3 Issue 1
HEADLINES Malayan Bank Upgrades Core Banking System with IP-Converge IP-Converge Data Center, Inc. (IP-Converge) has signed a contract with Malayan Bank Savings & Mortgage Bank, Inc. (Malayan Bank) for the implementation of a complete banking solution to enhance the latter’s operations. The project is in conjunction with Malayan Bank’s branch expansion and product diversification program to generate new business opportunities, and expand its customer base. IP-Converge will deploy a complete banking solution product from Nucleus Software Inc. Malayan Bank’s Senior Vice President Philip S. Madrigal sees the implementation of the banking solution an opportune time as the Bank prepares for rapid expansion to double its branch network in the next three years. “IP-Converge offered the most appropriate service offerings In photo are <left to right>: Daniel Viray, VP Financial Systems IP-Converge, Rene Huergas, President IPthat augurs well with our plans of moving forward,” says Converge, Ricardo Berza, Chief Financial Officer Malayan Bank, Philip Madrigal, EVP Operations, Malayan Bank Madrigal. “The on-line core banking solution will give us “We are delighted to be part in the expansion plans of Malayan Bank,” technological edge in offering world-class products and services which says Viray. “Our knowledge and experience in the implementation of will lead to growth and stability while preserving our primary thrust of the core banking solutions, and our partnership with Nucleus ensures providing our clients with YSL – yield, security, and liquidity.” a quality and timely delivery of the full system to Malayan, thus allowing them to achieve their goals within its desired timeframe at Built on the Oracle platform, the Nucleus software portfolio is an the least possible costs.” integrated suite of applications designed to support the typical business offerings of Banks and Financial Institutions. The Financial Suite IP-Converge is the local system integrator of Nucleus Software Inc. and provides a solution that address the asset, as well as, the liability side other world leading financial systems providers allowing it to offer a of business, core financial accounting and customer service. complete suite of Financial Solutions from core banking, loan modules, credit card products, including risk and treasury management. The core banking solution consists of CAS (customer acquisition system), LMS (loan management system), GL (general ledger) & Formed in 1996, Malayan Bank is owned jointly by the principal Deposits and Collections modules. The complete banking solution will shareholders of GMA Network Inc.; Majalco Group; LINQ Information integrate the Front-Middle-Back office functions and speed up turn- Entertainment Quadrant Corp, a subsidiary of Philippine Daily Inquirer, around time of operations resulting in higher banking efficiency and and Liberty Flourmills enhanced customer relationships. Daniel Viray, IP-Converge Vice President for Financial Systems, is confident that the flexible and scalable core banking solution will address the operational and security needs of the respective operating groups across the bank and provide more value to their services. For comments and/or suggestions, email theloop@ip-converge.com Rene Huergas Managing Editor Niño Valmonte Editor in Chief / Writer Voltaire Wycoco Associate Editor / Writer Sheila Rada Associate Editor/ WRITER Erica Cortez CONTRIBUTOR Brian Casorla PAGE DESIGNER IP-CONVERGE CORE VALUES Vision Shaping the IP landscape for the communities we serve Mission Our corporate mission is directed to the specific communities that we serve. • Enable better business practices for our customers • Promote mutual growth among partners • Ensure career fulfilment for employees • Ensure maximum value on shareholders investments • Corporate Social Responsibility: Provide opportunities to develop ICT expertise for qualified marginalized youth. Quality Policy Our commitment to our Quality Management System as a Managed Data Services & Business Solutions provider is to ensure Customer Satisfaction and develop long term partnerships through our distinct “boutique” approach. With a keen understanding of our Customers, precision alignment of resources, and effective design and provisioning of solutions, we empower our Customers in the IP landscape. THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 3 ALLIANCES Eastern uses Salesforce.com to better serve clients This meticulous planning methodology will ensure better synchronization for technical audits, credit checking, pre-sales marketing and service fulfillment. This aims to improve hit rates as well as win more quality clients. “Salesforce.com is a comprehensive and customizable selling tool,” said Edwin Domingo, marketing and business development head of Eastern Communications. “This application will empower us to monitor and manage our sales processes more effectively. In photo are <left to right> Edwin Domingo, Marketing and Business Development Head, Eastern Communications; Mario J. Locsin, President, Eastern Communications; Reynaldo Huergas, President IP-Converge; Mimi Dizon Director for Business Development – CRM, IPConverge Eastern Communications, the country’s pioneer telecommunications company, is enhancing its systems to better serve its clients. It has recently subscribed to Salesforce.com On-Demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications from IP-Converge Data Center, Inc., Select Consulting Partner of Salesforce.com in the Philippines. The sales force automation project will be an integral part of the company’s efforts to further improve its customer relations and automate its Sales-to-Delivery process. Salesforce.com will be used primarily by Eastern’s sales and customer service departments. In addition, the on-demand application will also help support its credit and collection facilities, product management, as well as its finance and audit departments. The project is in line with Eastern’s vision of being the best wherever its services are present through better understanding of its clients’ needs, automation of lead generation, improvement of responsiveness to client requests, and by gaining insight on what initiatives really drive customer satisfaction and operational effectiveness. He added, “Salesforce.com is the logical choice to systematize and automate Eastern’s sales process. Last year, we worked towards assessing and planning for the improvement of our internal procedures. In 2009, our approach is to systematically execute those plans. Our vision for the sales force automation project for Eastern is that each Account Manager will be able to manage a list of clients that they will call on the entire year. Each client’s requirements have been profiled through research and their prospects have been detailed and calendared for the entire year. Salesforce.com provides the right systems fit to our process change.” This endeavor will allow Eastern to integrate silos of information and efficiently deliver the four key objectives of its Customer Service group: •Provide customer assistance on products and services, promotions, applications, service delivery and billing •Alert the appropriate departments of product, technical, application, servicing and billing inquiries or issues/faults •Follow up assigned Field Sales activities •Conduct selling efforts on exclusively inside-sales clients (continued on page 17) IP-Converge and ComClark form Strategic Partnership IP Converge Data Center Inc. (IP-Converge), the IT and telecommunications division of IPVG Corp., and Pampanga-based telecommunications provider ComClark Network and Technology Corporation (ComClark) have forged a partnership to enable both companies to leverage on each other’s network infrastructure. Through this alliance, IP-Converge can offer internet connectivity services to a wider customer base using ComClark’s widest fiber-optic coverage and superb backhaul facilities. ComClark’s strategically located nodes – in major parts of Central Luzon and Metro Manila and very soon in the Visayas region – make them an ideal partner for expanding market reach. In turn, ComClark can now leverage on IP-Converge’s robust Asia-Pacific network to enhance its solutions offerings to its target market. “We see a vast potential in our partnership with IP-Converge wherein we both maximize our technological investments that we can parlay into good cash flow and make our businesses stronger not only for this period but also in the future,” says Dennis Anthony Uy, President and CEO of ComClark. The partnership complements IP-Converge’s plans to expand its reach locally and make the Internet more accessible to a larger number of businesses across the country, and for ComClark to further strengthen its position in the ISP arena, in terms of offering cost-effective and reliable network solutions to its customers in light of the current economic downturn. “ComClark shares the same technical expertise, reliable and redundant infrastructure, and carrier-neutrality which assures our clients of utmost service quality and customer support,” says Reynaldo Huergas, President of IP-Converge. “We look forward to exploring more avenues with ComClark to further strengthen each other’s service offerings to customers.” 4 | THE LOOP In photo are <left to right>: Vanessa Beldia, Senior Account Manager IP-Converge, Percival de los Reyes, Senior Vice-President Sales, IP-Converge, Dennis Uy, President and Chief Executive Officer, ComClark, Nitz Rimando, Head – Business Solutions Division, Comclark ComClark is the first and only Internet service provider in Pampanga operating and maintaining a full fiber optic cable network in Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ). The company also introduced the first ever Fiber to the Building (FTTB) technology in the industry. ComClark will begin rolling out new services in 2009 when it launches its internet data centers in Clark, Pampanga and Libis in Pasig City. IP-Converge operates internet data center facilities in Makati City, Singapore and Hong Kong. Through strategic alliances with major internet exchanges, the company boasts of a resilient, high-speed network with multiple routes out of the Philippines and to major network hubs in Asia, allowing them to provide continuous service in the event of a disaster. IP-Converge becomes the Philippines’ Official Reseller Partner of UltraDNS and Webmetrics IP-Converge Data Center Inc., the information technology and telecommunications division of publicly-listed IPVG Corp. announces that it has signed a memorandum-of-agreement (MOA) to become an official reseller partner of Neustar subsidiaries UltraDNS Corp. and Webmetrics. Through this partnership, IP-Converge adds Neustar’s UltraDNS suite and Webmetrics to its current menu of services which will help customers enhance their business through improved internet performance and security. “We strive to offer the best services and set performance standards for internet operations in the region by ensuring high availability and reliability of our customers’ webbased applications,” says Herns Hermida, IP-Converge AVP for Product Development. “This partnership allows our customers to leverage on Neustar’s UltraDNS worldwide network which reduces the distance DNS requests and responses have to travel across the Internet resulting in a better user experience for customers accessing their website.” “Each time a URL is entered, the Domain Name server will search the web for its corresponding IP address,” adds Hermida. “Without an efficient service that will direct and manage the request, it will go from one domain name server to another until the correct IP address is returned. With the millions of IP addresses in the internet, UltraDNS bypasses this cumbersome process.” Aside from managed DNS services, UltraDNS infrastructure has inherent DDoS mitigation capabilities which ensure that customers will be able to parry DDoS attacks at the DNS level. Neustar’s UltraDNS utilizes advanced routing technology where DNS requests are directed and responded to immediately by the geographically closest node. This results in minimal traffic loss. Moreover, UltraDNS has Geo-traffic shaping and disaster recovery mechanisms that can balance incoming traffic load and mangae traffic across cutomers’ different web infrastructures across different locations and backup sites ensuring quick response to the requests even in the event of a disaster. This can replace or complement hardware based load balancing solutions. In a complex worldwide network, Neustar’s UltraDNS makes customers’ websites faster to find and more accessible to the market. (continued on page 17) IP-Converge and Blue Media Communications Form Strategic Alliance New Partnership to Boost Wireless Infrastructure Blue Media Communications and IP Converge Data Center, Inc., the information technology & telecommunications division of publicly listed IPVG Corp. (PSE:IP), announced today a strategic partnership focused on the fast-growing wireless communications and security market. The partnership covers two key agreements – Resellership and Licensing. As Channel partners, IPC and Blue Media will be able to promote and resell each company’s bandwidth and internet connectivity services. IPC will leverage on Blue Media’s Broadband Wireless technology to address varying customer needs. Blue Media, on the other hand, shall capitalize on IP-Converge’s high bandwidth and redundant IP network to enhance internet solutions offerings to its customers. Under the licensing agreement, IP-Converge will be able to offer Blue Media’s wireless broadband and security systems to its customers. Its advanced security technology uses the internet, among others, as one of its transport medium to transmit security footage and images to a Command and Control Center in real-time while providing 100% video recording of all cameras. Available either vehicle-mounted or stand-alone, this technology offers greater mobility and wider area coverage. “Telecommunications customers have very specific requirements so it is imperative for us to provide more options that suit their budget and operational needs,” says Percival de los Reyes, SVP-Managed Data Services, IP-Converge. “Our partnership with Blue Media will help us implement our go-to-market strategy by diversifying our product line and promote wireless technology.” Blue Media is engaged in the provisioning of services specifically designed for government entities, large enterprises, and services networking communities using new and reliable wireless technology. In photo are <left to right>: Anthony Dy, SVP Operations, Blue Media Communications; Gary Gonzales, SVP Marketing, Blue Media Communications; Rico Abarentos, President and CEO, Blue Media Communications; Percival De los Reyes, SVP-Managed Data Services, IP-Converge; Fina Canapi, Account Manager IP-Converge; Helena Alonso, Channels Manager, IP-Converge According to Rico Abarentos, President and CEO of Blue Media Communications, “Market demand for high quality, wireless broadband and security service is growing and the combined expertise of IPConverge and Blue Media raises the bar on excellence and service for the industry. This partnership represents a great opportunity to benefit our communities and growth for both businesses.” IP-Converge is a regional data center whose core competency is managed data services particularly server co-location, connectivity services, network security and Disaster recovery with data centers in Makati, Singapore and Hong Kong and points-of-presence in the United States and United Kingdom. IPC is the only wholly-owned Filipino company with direct peering with the Hong Kong Internet Exchange (HKIX) and multiple routes to Singapore. THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 5 sfdc news Salesforce.com launches year-round CRM Mini Seminars with IP-Converge IP-Converge and Salesforce.com, the world’s leader in on-demand business services and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions launches a series of CRM Mini Seminars and Powerstart Workshops in Manila that will be held in select locations and will go on from March until the end of 2009. The seminars and workshops will be conducted by certified salesforce.com resource speakers from Singapore and IP-Converge. Mimi Dizon, IP-Converge’s Director for Business Development CRM believes that business owners who want better control and visibility into their business, sales, marketing or business development managers who would like to connect between demand generation and deal closure, or customer relationship managers looking for ways to improve customer experience should attend these seminars and workshops. Q1 CRM Mini Seminar Powerstart Workshop March 18 Mar, Wed - April May Q2 June July “This collaboration gives business owners and sales managers the unique opportunity to learn how an affordable enterprise solution can drive success in terms of sales and operational efficiency without the high cost of hardware, space, utilities, software and a technical team,” says Dizon. August Q3 IP-Converge is the go-to-market partner in the Philippines and one of the authorized training centers of salesforce.com in the Asia Pacific Region. The Salesforce.com Mini Seminar and Powerstart Workshops are free of charge. However, seats are limited and interested parties are encouraged to reserve their seats early. For inquiries, please contact Sheryn Chan on +6563025707 or email her at apac_marketing@ salesforce.com. Month September October Q4 November December 2 Apr, Thu 16 Apr, Thu 7 May, Thu 21 May, Thu 11 Jun, Thu 25 Jun, Thu 9 Jul, Thu 23 Jul, Thu 6 Aug, Thu 20 Aug, Thu 10 Sep, Thu 24 Sep, Thu 8 Oct, Thu 22 Oct, Thu 5 Nov, Thu 19 Nov, Thu 10 Dec, Thu 17 Apr, Fri 22 May, Fri 26 Jun, Fri 24 Jul, Fri 21 Aug, Fri 25 Sep, Fri 23 Oct, Fri 20 Nov, Fri 11 Dec, Fri Economic crunch to accelerate growth prospects of SaaS model By MARY ANN L. REYES Printed on Monday, February 9, 2009 Philippine Star The harsh economic climate will actually accelerate the growth prospects for the software as a service (SaaS) model as vendors position offerings as right-sized, zero-capital expenditure alternatives to on-premise applications. According to research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), buyers will opt for easy-to-use subscription services that meter current use, not future capacity, and vendors and partners will look for new products and recurring revenue streams. The percentage of US firms which plan to spend at least 25 percent of their information technology budgets on SaaS applications will increase from 23 percent in 2008 to nearly 45 percent in 2010. IDC noted that this market’s growth prospects will accelerate the shift to SaaS for the whole value chain as the promise of a recurring revenue stream, and the opportunity to tap operating expenses and project-related dollars, will benefit the whole SaaS ecosystem. As such, IDC has increased its SaaS growth projection from 36 percent to 40.5 percent for 2009. The same study revealed that while demand for SaaS is strongest in North America, new contracts from customers in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) also look particularly positive. “With a broad slowdown across IT sectors, businesses are increasingly bearish about their short-term ability to invest, whether for stability, growth or cost savings down the road,” according to Robert Mahowald, IDC director for on-demand and SaaS research. IDC expects that by the end of 2009, nearly 35 percent of worldwide revenue will be earned outside of the US. He added that SaaS services have benefited from the perception that they are tactical fixes which allow for relatively easy expansion during hard times, and several key vendors finished the year very strong, reporting stable financials and inroads into new customer sets. On the downside, IDC interviews with SaaS providers highlighted several issues, such as cashflow shortfalls related to slow-paying current clients, liquidity challenges stemming from tight credit at lenders, and on the horizon, limited resources to scale up with expanded infrastructure to support new customers and new service offerings. The IDC study also showed that by the end of 2009, 76 percent of US organizations will use at least one SaaS-delivered application for business use. 6 | THE LOOP After a breakthrough 2008, will cloud computing go mainstream this year? By MELVIN G. CALIMAG Printed on Monday, January 5, 2009 Manila Bulletin Unlike netbooks and touch-screen phones that captured the imagination of consumers in 2008, a quiet —” almost invisible”— technology trend called cloud computing also made its mark in the IT world last year. Cloud computing, defined as something that is delivered over the Internet (in network diagrams, the Internet is represented by a cloud), was finally adopted on a massive scale, at least among enterprises, with the likes of Salesforce.com setting the agenda. afford the expensive cost of acquiring a conventional CRM (customer relationship management) or even an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution. The cloud computing model, wherein services or offered online instead of the traditional software software is installed in a computer, has been floated numerous forms and names, though they may had respects. This could also be a reason why Salesforce.com, the most prominent bearer of cloud computing model, is entering its growth phase while the rest of the industry is feeling fidgety on the gloomy economy. applications are setup in which or tried before in differed in some During the IT boom in the early 2000s, cloud computing was known as ASP or application service provider. Although most of the IT vendors vigorously pushed the model, it somehow didn’t flourish perhaps because it was ahead of its time. Later on, with companies such as Google posting some success in providing over-the-Internet software like Google Docs, terms like “on-demand” and “software-as-a-service” or (SaaS) came up in the technology vocabulary. In its current form, cloud computing is gaining some headway in the US, but is surprisingly less popular in developing countries like the Philippines. But with the financial crisis threatening to shrink the IT spending of companies, cloud computing might just get the break it badly needs, particularly to price-conscious enterprises which can no longer In fact, research firm IDC has forecast cloud computing as one of the few bright spots expected to shine in 2009 amidst the specter of global economic slowdown. At its annual Dreamforce convention held last November in San Francisco, the “enterprise cloud computing company” proclaimed that its flagship CRM offering is now serving 47,700 companies and about 1.1 million subscribers. Among these customers are blue chip firms Dell Computers and Amazon.com. It also audaciously unveiled during the same event its mobile strategy which it said it would push to executives to allow them to access their applications on their mobile devices. Already, there had been about 50,000 downloads made from the Application Exchange, Salesforce. com’s apps platform, on the iPhone alone. With the US now leading the pack, it’s perfectly possible that the rest of the world would catch up. In the Philippines, the obligation of realizing that task seems to fall on the shoulders of technology conglomerate IPVG, the local partner of Salesforce.com. The reality, however, is that anyone, including home-bred tech firms, has the equal chance to cash in on this opportunity. THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 7 IPVG news IPVG 2007 Annual Report bags Anvil Award of Excellence Set up to be one of the fastest growing companies in the Philippines, IPVG released the IPVG 2007 Annual Report and shared how the company executed against its plan and strengthened its position in the communications, online gaming, and BPO business sectors. With the theme Making A Difference, IPVG’s 2007 Annual Report shared how IPVG revolutionized industries, empowered customers, and shaped lives, through a business model that helped position the Philippines, as an outsourced service provider for technology and human resource, in the global IT map. A section was also devoted to IPVG’s outlook for the succeeding years, explaining how the company’s success will serve as motivation for conquering even more mountains in the future. Photo shows (L-R): Anvil Committee Chairperson Maria Lourdes L. Espina, Anvil Awards Jury Member Jose Ma. Fernandez, IPVG Chief Executive Officer Enrique Y. Gonzalez, IPVG Deputy Chairman Roger Stone, IPVG Board Member Srini Polishetty, and PRSP President Jones T. Campos. Publicly listed technology company IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) received its first ever Anvil Award during the recently concluded 44th Anvil Awards “Gabi ng Parangal” held at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. The company received the Anvil Award of Excellence for the IPVG 2007 Annual Report – Making A Difference, under the Public Relation Tools Category (Publications – Annual Reports). The Anvil Awards is presented annually by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, the country’s premiere organization of public relations professionals. The program recognizes and honors excellence in public relations in the Philippines. It is awarded by a distinguished multi-sectoral jury to outstanding public relations programs and tools. The award categories are Anvil Award of Recognition, Anvil Award of Merit, Anvil Award of Excellence, the Bronze Anvil Award, and the Grand Anvil Award. IPVG Chief Receives IT Executive of the Year Award After steering IPVG to unprecedented heights, IPVG Chief Executive Officer Enrique Y. Gonzalez was named IT Executive of the Year during the first CyberPress IT Choice Awards held last December 2008. The Cyberpress IT Choice Awards was held alongside the Christmas party of Cyberpress, the country’s organization of IT reporters. Under the bold leadership of Gonzalez, IPVG has risen to the top as a major provider of online games, call center and data center services, mobile content development and payment service offerings. Gonzalez was chosen over fellow A-list nominees that included Marife Zamora of Convergys, Manuel Wong of Acer, and G2VC’s Damarillo. The awards aimed to honor the persons, entities, and technologies that made their mark in the local market for 2008. Other than the IT Executive of the Year Award, other categories included IT StartUp of the Year, IT Company of the Year, Gadget of the Year, and Newsmaker of the Year. TOP IT EXECUTIVE. IPVG chief executive officer Enrique Gonzales receives the award for IT Executive of the Year during the first CyberPress IT Choice Awards. Flanking him are former CyberPress president Melvin Calimag, IPVG Corporate Communications Manager Sheila Rada, and current CyberPress president Jing Garcia. 8 | THE LOOP IPVG eyes profit growth in 2009 despite slowing global demand BY PAOLO LUIS G. MONTECILLO Printed on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 BusinessWorld – Corporate News 8/S1 LISTED INFORMATION technology (IT) company IPVG Corp. expects to grow by as much as a third this year despite a slowing global economy. Mr. Huergas said the company would try to attract new clients and retain existing ones by offering discounts and more value-added services. IPVG Corp. Chief Executive Officer Enrique Y. Gonzales told BusinessWorld via e-mail the holding firm’s businesses, which range from business process out-sourcing (BPO) to online gaming, would be sheltered from the downturn. Eagle Equities analyst Joseph Y. Roxas said double-digit profit growth for IPVG was not far-fetched since the main sectors it operates in — outsourcing, gaming and data centers — remain bright spots. “Fortunately, IPVG’s businesses are resilient, and our sectors forecast healthy organic growth rates of 20% to 30%,” he said. But the profit growth will be slower than last year, when IPVG made the transition from a local company with 252 employees into a global group with more than 2,500 workers across seven countries, Mr. Gonzales said. “I think [the IT] segment of the economy is still ok,” he said in an interview. IPVG earlier said it would take steps to cut costs by a third, including a smaller budget for advertising and marketing, travel and other expenses not related to the company’s core business. It said lower spending on acquisitions would translate into lower expenses and a better bottom line. “[Last year] was a phenomenal year for IPVG in terms of operating and financial performance,” he said. IPVG posted a net profit of P130.9 million in the third quarter, almost three-quarters higher than a year earlier. Revenues also went up more than three times to almost P1 billion already surpassing the 2007 level of P714.56 million. IPC trademark registered IPVG net profits reached P169.54 million in 2007, from a net loss of more than P100 million in 2006. Officials have said the company would buy fewer assets this year and would only consider investing in ventures with low risk and high return. Last year, IPVG bought five companies in the online content and BPO sectors for about $30 million. “We expect a slowdown in global economic growth, with many of the first world economies (US, UK and Japan) going into recession,” Mr. Gonzales said. Slowing spending in developed markets will affect exports from Asia, he added. Earlier, he said the online gaming industry was expected to grow by a third this year, as video gamers remain indifferent to a financial crisis wreaking havoc on the world economy. Meanwhile, IPVG unit IP-Converge Data Center, Inc. expects to increase revenues by a tenth this year. IP-Converge offers IT and telecommunication services to businesses and other service providers. These include Internet data center services, dedicated Internet connectivity, network security, voice over Internet protocol. “Overall, we can still expect the market to grow, though slightly curtailed due to the impact of the economic recession in the US,” IP-Converge President Reynaldo Huergas said in a separate e-mail. Companies, he added, would be cutting down on acquisitions, particularly software. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) of the Philippines recently approved the registration of the IP-Converge logo and branding device. The device, which is a “sphere encased by a winding metallic strip” as defined by the IPO, is a representation of IP-Converge’s core business and corporate values: strength, stability, reliability, flexibility, and dynamism – all in support of IP technology. And what better way to emphasize IPC’s commitment to these than by underscoring the device with its own name. THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 9 feature Prolexic Technologies Patent Granted for Anti-DDoS Service Prolexic Technologies, the global leader in managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, announced that it has been granted a patent for its unique DDoS detection and mitigation methods. This is the only DDoS-related patent granted to a security-as-a-service organization. Prolexic’s patented “in the cloud” network protection services are based around active DDoS mitigation on a globally distributed platform. The Prolexic network is designed to absorb DDoS attacks near their source, long before they reach their target. The company’s network security experts update its arsenal through rigorous and creative research and development, providing the only protection service capable of responding to truly next-generation attacks. Paul Sop, Chief Technology Officer, Prolexic states: “Determined cyber criminals aren’t resting. They’re continually evolving sophisticated and powerful techniques and can launch truly devastating attacks that can cripple online businesses. These attacks can only be stopped by security and networking experts employing even more sophisticated and powerful capabilities. “Prolexic’s key to mitigating network attacks is our systems adaptability to simultaneously mitigate a huge variety of attacks including huge 100 Gigabit or larger – and subtle, application-targeted attacks. We consider developing our intellectual property to be a strategic priority, and the ongoing development of new technologies is critical in a world of ever evolving cyber-threats.” DDoS represents one of the greatest threats to all organizations with a significant online component. In recent times it has been used as a terrorist tool with state web sites targeted, as well as the anticompetitive and extortion-led attacks against businesses. Prolexic’s unique service solutions allow its customers to be fully protected from cyber attacks without affecting normal day-to-day Internet traffic flow. The company has further patent applications pending. In the Philippines, local companies are supported by Prolexic through its sister company, IP-Converge Data Center Inc., the IT & Telecommunications subsidiary of IPVG Corp. For more information, visit www.ip-converge.com DDoS Mitigation: Leave it to the Experts The Loop: What is the ideal set up for companies wishing to have their own DDoS mitigation solution? To gain greater insight into DDoS attacks and mitigation, The Loop sat down with Egie Gutierrez AVP for Technical Operations and Customer Support who has had first hand experience battling DDoS and has worked closely with Prolexic Technologies over the past two years. The Loop: IP-Converge has had encounters with Distributed Denial of Service attacks since 2005, how has DDoS changed since then? Gutierrez: The size, frequency, depth, breadth and types of DDoS attacks are increasing more than ever. They are tougher to trace since attackers can target different network layers at a time and uses “spoofing” making it hard to determine the source of the attack and which packets are bogus or legitimate. DDoS attacks these days are not as easily mitigated. Gutierrez: Best of Breed Commercial-of-the-Shelf products, gigabits of bandwidth, a constantly trained and highly experienced team of professionals dedicated to just monitoring DDoS. The Loop: What is the big deal about DDoS? Gutierrez: DDoS is real and is a growing and increasing threat on an organization’s systems availability (2nd only to viruses). Networks can be rendered inaccessible for hours, even days. Imagine the financial losses if customers cannot access a website for services for a period of time. Aside from the money, there is loss of trust and irreparable damage to reputation. The in-house IT staff should focus on monitoring and maintaining mission-critical applications. The investment is not recommended unless a company has the spare capital to set up the infrastructure for DDoS mitigation. (continued on page 17) Total Bandwidth(MB) of DDoS Attack: Total Number of DDoS Attacks: 60000 250 50000 200 40000 150 228 100 50 0 20000 47 2007 50812.558 30000 25935.18 10000 2008 0 2007 2008 THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 13 feature Top ten predictions for Asia Pacific’s IT Printed on Thursday, January 8, 2009 XMG Global http://xmg-global.com ALTHOUGH TROUBLED ECONOMIC TIMES are in store for the global economy in 2009, global ICT research and advisory firm XMG firmly believes that the enterprise use of IT and offshoring is still the catalyst in driving business efficiency and cost savings for the region. Furthermore, IT industry economics will force alignment with the principle of complexity reduction and economizing IT budgets. As identified by the survey completed at the end of 2008, good guidance and wise investment tops the list of decision makers for 2009. 1. Top Concerns of Asia Pacific CIOs: ‘Measuring efficiency effectiveness’ and ‘Minimizing risks of ICT investments’ Top the List for 2009. In the order of priority, the top 10 concerns of ICT executives heading into 2009 are: •Measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of ICT investments. •Minimizing the risks of ICT investments. (tied for 1st) •Financial planning for ICT investments. •Establishing a strategic approach to information security that integrate principles, behaviours and adaptive solutions that map business requirements and addresses the expected increase in cyber crime due to the global financial crisis. •Improving ICT decision making. •Strengthening IT risk management through technology portfolio management to reveal vendor’s financial health and long term viability during expected economic slow down. •Developing a robust mobile security strategy and policies for an increasingly mobile workforce. •Instituting corporate governance effectively. •Investing in workforce recruitment and retention programs. •Strengthening and ensuring service levels are market competitive to improve the overall return on value from external service providers. 2. Asia Pacific will outspend other regions The Asia Pacific market is forecasted to grow an estimated 6.3%, the lowest growth estimate seen since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. However, despite the dismal forecast, the Asia Pacific region will outperform well above the global average of 2.4% in 2009. Japan continues to have the bulk share of the Asia Pacific market with a projected growth forecast of 1.4%. A distant second and third of the Asia Pacific share for IT spend continue to be China and India which XMG expects will perform well above the total Asia Pacific growth projection in 2009. 3. Offshoring to be the rare bright spot for ICT in 2009 Very few segments of the ICT industry will hold up well in 2009. However, XMG expects offshoring (offshore outsourcing and captive) to continue to be in play in 2009 with an expected 24.2% growth forecast through 2010 dominated by the major offshoring countries in the Asia Pacific region namely India , China , the Philippines , Malaysia and Vietnam . Driving the offshoring footprint will continue to be captive operations (technical support, back-end processing, collections and customer care) and third party service providers (application management, enterprise application configuration, testing, business process outsourcing and customer care). 4. Workforce evolution revolution through workplace performance Driven by the phenomenal growth of the offshore ICT segments in Asia Pacific and the high levels of attrition across captives, vendors and non-IT organizations— getting the most from the existing 14 | THE LOOP workforce and improving talent management practices— are among the top priorities in 2009. Well-tuned workforce management practices enable employers to attract, deploy, develop and retain the best talent and thereby increase the productivity and satisfaction of employees. Industry leaders will strengthen the integration of performance and compensation solutions to support performance management and broadly deploy role-based workforce information management tools such as metrics dashboards. 5. Co-location is ready for primetime Financial uncertainty brings back to the management spotlight core competency assessment, reducing complexity and being able to achieve ‘more with less’. As growth of private data center costs continue to escalate making up an average of 50 to 75% of the IT budget, XMG forecasts IT co-location to grow by 17% as companies look to optimize technology’s value contribution, increase manageability and utilization, and minimize capital expenditures. Topping the technology list syndicated in the growth of this ICT segment are the infrastructure layers of the technology stack including cloud computing, network optimization, server and storage. 6. Achieving economic resilience through mergers, acquisitions and divestitures Unlike the period of the dot-com bust, the current economic downturn reveal several IT companies with the war chest to fund and make acquisitions to dominate select and targeted market segments. After all, the IT industry continues to be the only industry in the planet that is content when the competition is annihilated. In light of the economic downturn in the capital markets, the Asia Pacific region will see a healthy movement of MAD (mergers, acquisitions and divestiture) and spin-off strategies in search of economies of scale, global presence and economic resilience. Greatest numbers of MAD activities will be centered on high tech, data center, financial and BPO acquisitions. (continued on page 17) Customer-Centric Approach: IPC promotes true Carrier and Vendor Neutrality Since its incorporation in 2005, IP-Converge has embarked on a mission to be a total solutions provider by adopting a boutique approach to help customers focus on their core competency and push the organization’s efficiency level. It has become the preferred outsourced IDC partner that utilizes the leading innovative technologies, expertise and infrastructure. IP-Converge offers services and features complementary to existing data center and internet connectivity services that make outsourcing internet data center services more cost-effective, efficient and reliable for customers. Carrier-Neutrality Through strategic partnerships with leading telecommunications and fiber loop providers, IP-Converge can offer clients more connectivity options to expand their business and achieve redundancy. A truly carrier neutral company, it puts all backhaul providers on a level playing field allowing customers to choose the best available price and service for connecting their business to IPC’s global internet connectivity services. IPC provides numerous alternatives including traditional dedicated links like fiber-optic and fiber to the building (FTTB) connections, or the wireless local loop. These give clients the flexibility to use the best telco or fiber loop provider. Vendor-Neutrality Much like carrier-neutrality, IP-Converge has extensive channels agreements with world-leading IT hardware and software vendors, thus giving co-location customers a wide array of options for their equipment or hardware needs. Through these alliances, customers can avail of the leading technology and services that these companies offer through just one managed services provider, thus giving them easy and convenient access to the best equipment available for optimizing their operations. IPC has partnerships with industry leaders in networking, power management, data storage, software services, database management, and network security. To help customers further, IPC can notify qualified vendors of job orders to submit proposals. This way, customers are well-informed with the options available to them to help reach a decision in selecting the best solution that would drive their business moving forward. Professional Services IP-Converge offers a wide range of technical professional services to existing IPC Data Center and IPC ACCESS customers. It has a roster of highly skilled and experienced technical professionals with skill sets that range from data communications, LAN/WAN and TCP/IP design and management, data center design and management, as well as IT systems management - including specific skill sets around database systems, operating systems and server / networking equipment. Through this service, IPC provides customers particularly whose base is far from the facility a complementary service wherein the task of running their data center and server operations such as data backup and restore, OS patching and upgrading, database administration and even LAN/WAN administration is delegated to IPC. IP-Converge’s customer-centric and tailor-made approach integrates the provisioning, monitoring and maintenance of co-location and bandwidth services, as well as acquisition and installation of essential equipment, reporting, and quality compliance. The data center’s strong alliances with leading vendors and their professional services allows it to efficiently administer customers’ day-to-day data center responsibilities. . Customers can leverage on IPC’s service ideals to generate hard and soft savings, improve cash flow either through reduced capital expenditures and/or lower operational expenses. More importantly, customers can focus on their core business while IPConverge can worry about providing better network performance and more stable and reliable IP services. OUR VENDOR PARTNERS OUR TELECOMMUNICATIONS PARTNERS THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 15 Eastern uses Salesforce.com to better serve clients Top ten predictions for Asia Pacific’s IT (continued from page 4) (continued from page 14) Eastern selected IP Converge Data Center for its IP-based solutions and services in the region. IP Converge Data Center operates telcograde internet data center and network facilities in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Mimi Dizon, Director of Business Development and CRM for IP-Converge, said, “One of the key features of Salesforce.com is that it is on-demand and web-based, making it cost efficient since users like Eastern won’t need to buy infrastructure and servers. It’s savings that they can pass on to their consumers.” 7. Business continuity plan gaps will continue to put asia pacific operations at risk IP-Converge becomes the Philippines’ Official Reseller Partner of UltraDNS and Webmetrics (continued from page 5) NeuStar’s UltraDNS is a global network that manages authoritative directories and acts as a worldwide registry gateway. There are fourteen strategically distributed and redundant network nodes across five continents that have up-to-date directory information that makes DNS resolution faster. UltraDNS technology and services allow enterprises to seamlessly migrate their entire DNS infrastructures without any additional hardware or software deployments. IP-Converge is also authorized to resell Neustar’s Webmetrics services under this partnership. Customers can utilize Webmetrics’ Globalwatch to test, measure and monitor the performance of their web-based applications, web services and streaming media. Webmetrics ensures performance integrity, 24/7 uptime and positive end-user experience. Contact an IP-Converge Sales representative at 632-8873171 or www.ip-converge.com for more information about NeuStar’s UltraDNS suite of managed services in the Philippines. DDos Mitigation: Leave it to the experts (continued from page 13) Preparing for and handling an actual DDoS attack should be left to a team experienced in dealing with DDoS and invests resources investigating the trends and emerging methods of DDoS attacks. IPConverge is the only Data Center in the Philippines that has DDoS mitigation services and the only company, through its partnership with Prolexic, to successfully mitigate more than 250 DDoS attacks on its networks in 2007 and 2008. The Loop: What Techniques does IP-Converge employ to Mitigate DDoS attacks? Gutierrez: Merely using COTS hardware and merely depending on the ISP to mitigate them is not enough. As DDoS attacks grow in sophistication, the more human involvement is needed to mitigate them - hardware and bandwidth alone does not solve the problem in the long term. When we deal with DDoS, we combine best of breed hardware, Gigs of bandwidth, and a focused team - mitigating the attack as they happen. With the recent geopolitical events (Mumbai terror attack November 2008, Bangalore bombing July 2008) and the geophysical prone characteristics of several Asia Pacific countries and urban centers (the Philippines, China, Indonesia), XMG forecasts an increase in the number of business continuity belt tightening activities since many DRP and BCPs are largely developed in isolation and unrealistically addresses and factor such risks. Even with the heightened interest and focus on business continuity and disaster recovery in the region after the Tsunami devastation, many organizations fail to address complete planning, implementation and execution options. Furthermore, several offshoring service providers and captive operations will require more granular levels of continuity services to provide adequate safety for its large employee base. 8. Threat and vulnerability takes center stage as the ‘above ground economy’ deflates and the ‘underground economy’ inflates With the expected increase in economic crimes due to several IT professionals that will be losing their jobs from the financial and insurance industries, cyber crime and the number of malicious software plaguing the internet will increase at unprecedented levels. Threat and vulnerability management integration will accelerate through 2009 with considerable focus on technology problems of intrusion control and improved detection, correlation and prevention capabilities. Demand for management security services such as security monitoring will increase. 9. Downturn in semiconductor market will see job losses across the region XMG economic analysts forecast the semiconductor industry to continue its decline and bottom out 1H2009 with an expected 1.9% growth forecast. Recovery of the semiconductor industry is expected to be sluggish throughout 2H2009 with a rebound not expected until 2010. With over investment and excessive capacity, job losses are expected namely in countries such as Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam. 10. Current state of the economy is an ‘opening’ for open source Open source software will continue to expand in several Asia Pacific enterprises and continue to find its way into corporate developer use and become the underlying foundation of commercial software. With the global economy in a recession, the use of open source software will become a standard part of several enterprises in Asia Pacific (particularly those utilizing Java in its enterprise architecture, SAAS). Open source versions of standard application server software will continue to gain credibility and market share as viable alternatives to traditional vendor offerings (i.e. Microsoft) in enterprise implementations. XMG expects this trend to continue well into 2010 and organizations must establish specific policies to control how open source is utilized. Moreover, when there are no attacks, GRE tunnels should be continuously monitored so they remain connected to Prolexic mitigation centers (when a tunnel is disconnected, it “flaps”). It is also important for the customer to inform Prolexic or IPC of any changes to their environment so Prolexic can make adjustments as well. This includes: new applications or changes to applications, changes in IP addresses or ports, network changes, new ISPs, etc. DDoS protection and mitigation is a 24/7 occupation. THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF IP-CONVERGE | 17 proFILES Percival de los Reyes Senior Vice President, Managed Data Services Percival de los Reyes, or Butch, is the Senior Vice President for Managed Data Services at IP-Converge. A grizzled veteran in the Information technology and Telecommunications industry, Sir Butch has shown he is as dynamic and as progressive as the various communications technologies he has handled and sold up to this day. Apart from his expertise, he was also voted “Best-Dressed Man” of IPVG during the conglomerate’s annual Christmas Party. Butch is a favourite among IPC clients, partners and employees due to his wit and endearing personality. In fact, during his tenure in leading Telecommunications companies such as PhilCom, Globe Telecom and now IP-Converge, he never fails to be a “Ninong” for a wedding or the baptism of a subordinate’s first born. One can’t get enough of PCRs stories (especially when he gets on a roll). Let him share with you a part of his life. To me, the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry in the Philippines --- will flourish despite the gloomy state of the world economy and I even see it helping businesses recover because of the inherent benefits it brings such as wider market reach, accessibility for customers and more efficient operations. My favourite IP-Converge experience --- I’m just really happy to witness and be part of the astounding growth of this company. To make my day --- I need to see my team meeting their quotas and closing a big sale. I want the company to recognize the efforts of my sales team. Their success means the success of the company overall. Apart from being SVP Sales, I am a(n) --- a loving father, a proud grand father, true friend, confidant, mentor, golf buddy, willing companion, advisor, and entrepreneur. Outside of work, I like to spend a lot of time --- at home. I have grand kids who I look forward to seeing. There’s one more in the states who unfortunately I don’t see as often as I would like. I don’t want the growth of my family to just pass me by. My job is fun because --- of all the people I work with. I encounter different attitudes, different semantics, and different perspectives from a group of people with diverse backgrounds – “sosyal”, ultra-conservative, aggressive, self-centric, easygoing, serious, and not-so-serious. It’s fun just trying to work through all of that. I would like to see --- my current and former staff succeeding in their careers and their lives. It’s never too late to --- catch up with an old friend, take up a new hobby or get a good massage. Gilbert de Leon Senior Technical Consultant, CRM Gilbert joined IP-Converge in April 2008 as a Software Engineer for Salesforce.com. IP-Converge is the Philippine Select Partner as well as the local systems integrator and services provider of Salesforce. com. He has recently been promoted to Senior Technical Consultant for CRM. His role is focused on delivering and managing technical projects or initiatives of the CRM Group. This includes technical project assessment and estimates, development and testing of systems to complement Salesforce.com for customers. The position also calls for him to develop the technical team to support and complement the Sales and Functional Teams of the CRM Group. According to Mimi Dizon, Director for Business Development CRM, this promotion is in line with the CRM group’s strategy to focus on services specifically on Salesforce development projects for local and regional customers. “Our growth strategy for this year is to be a preferred services provider for salesforce.com for users in the South East Asia and AustraliaOceana regions. Gilbert has proven he’s ready to play a major role in our plans after having successfully handled Technical Projects and 18 | THE LOOP Integration of Salesforce.com for companies like Del Monte Philippines and Sun Life Hong Kong,” says Dizon. As part of his work, he spends a significant amount of time at a client’s office customizing and integrating salesforce.com to their current operations set up. Often times, his work hours are highly irregular. “Our work hours depend on our client. If it’s a BPO client, we have to conform to their schedule, then on another day we go to a client with a different schedule and so on,” says De leon. “The guys at the office greet me with a – “Oh I thought you resigned” – when I walk into the office because they hardly see me there.”