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Shri P.K Jena, IAS, Secretary (IT) & CMD, IDCO; Shri Vishal Dev,IAS, Commissioner BMC and Shri Manas Panda, Addl. Director, STPI- Bhubaneswar; felicitating the Man of the Match of The VARINDIA Cup.
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In the Eastern India market, after Kolkata, Bhubaneswar offers vast scope for all IT vendors, investors, distributors and resellers. Odisha has created the necessary infrastructure which has motivated many companies to undertake several IT activities in the State.
The State of Odisha has come a long way when it comes to development, and the way it is developing in the field of IT and ITeS is really praiseworthy. In fact, this is due to the enormous potential of the State, and the corporates are eyeing the State for its brilliant prospectives. Thus, to fuel this fire of IT development further, Kalinga Digital Media organized its Fifth Odisha Information Technology Fair (OITF) - 2012.
The mega conclave was marked by the presence of Government PSUs, corporates, academicians and IT experts. The Fair was inaugurated by Shri C. J. Venugopal, IAS, CMD, IPICOL, Government of Odisha; Rohit Srivastwa, Cyber Expert - India; A. K. Mohanty, Managing Director, Tatwa Technologies; and Debabrata Panigrahi, Managing Director, IQEMS Pvt. Ltd., by lighting the traditional ceremonial lamp.
The 2nd VARINDIA Cup, an Indispensable part of OITF, was organized among 16 top IT corporates in Odisha. It was graced by Shri P. K Jena, IAS, Secretary - IT, Government of Odisha; Shri Vishal Dev, IAS, Commissioner, BBSR Municipality; Shri Madhu Sudan Padhi, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, F.S & C.W., Government of Odisha. The other dignitaries who were part of OITF included Dr Gopal Krishna Nayak, Director, IIIT, Bhubaneswar; Anirudh Singh Rautela, Security Lead, Microsoft; Shashi Kanth Singh, Business Manager - East, ESSN, HP India; and Prof. A. K. Panda, MBA Department, Centre for IT Education, Bhubaneswar.
The event was supported by IT majors like HP, Microsoft, Infosys, D-Link, Kaspersky, Railtel, PGCIL, OCAC, STPI, Powergrid, ITAO, IDCO, Invest Bhubaneswar, Maple and Team Odisha.

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Shashi Kanth Singh
Business Manager - East, ESSN, HP India, talked about HP's product offerings in the Security domain. |
Shri C. J. Venugopal
IAS, CMD, IPICOL, Government of Odisha, talked about the enormous opportunities in the state. |
Shri Anirudh Singh Rautela
security lead, Microsoft, shared his views on the concern over data security and its solutions. |
Shri Ajit Dash
Manager-Solution Support, D-Link, talked about the connection between cyber security and cloud computing |
Addressing the audience and outlining the opportunities in the State, Shri C. J. Venugopal, IAS, CMD, IPICOL, said, "Apart from being known as the temple city, we are now also well known for IT and ITeS. A lot of investment is coming to our State. There are huge investments in natural resources and mineral-based industries. However, they are all finite in their development and there is always a limit to which these can grow. But non-mineral-based industries like IT and ITeS' potential to grow is infinite."
Throwing light on the objective of the Fifth OITF - 2012, Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, said, "With globalization, the world is becoming smaller and the market is becoming more competitive. Cloud Computing, explosion of mobile devices and social networking in enterprises are some of the big trends that will thrive in the next decade. What enterprises need today is a secure, reliable and an easy way to connect to everyone's device of choice. So, enterprises require integrated solutions that can provide a broad range of capabilities including secure connections, secure protections, and device management for a broad range of devices. For all these, secure cloud will bring in better productivity."

The event comprised of cerebral presentations by IT corporates and thought-provoking Panel Discussion on "Cyber Security in Cloud Computing". In the panel discussion, Dr Gopal Krishna Nayak, Director, IIIT, Bhubaneswar, opined that the knowledge about security is missing and that is what actually leads to security problems.
Speaking on Cloud Technology, A. K. Panda, MBA Department, Centre for IT Education, Bhubaneswar, said that cloud technology has evolved over the years and it is a convergence of many technologies like virtualization, service-oriented architecture, utility computing and other such technologies.
Anirudh Singh Rautela, Security Lead, Microsoft, pointed out that the top concern that comes up when it comes to embracing cloud computing is security of data. He further portrayed through his presentation how Microsoft's offerings can combat security threats both in the public and private domain.

The panel discussion was a confluence of thoughts and views across a spectrum of industry leaders on "Cyber Security in Cloud Computing". Dr Gopal Krishna Nayak opined that Security products are like cosmetic offering to customers. They scare the people by saying that, if they don't use their products, they will have ugly results. Rohit srivastava complimented Dr Nayak's views as he said that there is an apprehension in the minds of the people that storing the data on cloud will bring in security threats. There persists a lot of fear about the certainty of data. Thus, people should have the right mindset to accept technology.
Propelling the panel discussion further, A. K. Panda, MBA Department, Centre for IT Education, said that cloud computing is a convergence of many technologies. Each of the components of cloud computing had its own issues in terms of security. When technologies combine together, some issues get automatically resolved and other new issues emerge. Thus, cloud computing has brought in a lot of advantages. Adding to this, Anirudh Singh Rautela of Microsoft explained that cloud is like a room on rent where infrastructure is done by others and you can pay as you use it. He further added, "The weakest links in security are the people. People should understand its significance."
A. K. Mohanty, Managing Director, Tatwa Technologies, underlined the significance of "Cyber Security in Cloud Computing" for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Further, Shashi Kanth Singh of HP said that within the cloud framework they have developed a lot of technology which can handle current infrastructure of any organization.
Emphasizing on the significance of data security, Shashi Kanth Singh, Business Manager - East, ESSN, HP India, said that this is the evolving phase of IT. Almost every business decision is happening through IT and to handle that there are a lot of advancements in technology. He further added, "We talk about Facebook, we talk about smartphones, we have data everywhere from our pocket, to office, to home. Every business decision today triggers an IT activity and that results in one fundamental thing which is data. And all these data needs to be managed, stored and protected for the future requirement."
Ajit Dash, Manager - Solution Support, D-Link, spoke on the link between cloud computing and security and how it is going to benefit and secure our future.
Abhijit Dasgupta, Manager - Solutions Architect, SEA Infonet, spoke at length about endpoint security and various ways of protecting data.
The event concluded with the prize distribution ceremony for the Cricket Tournament organized by Kalinga Digital Media. Besides the Man of the Series, Man of the Match and the runners-up team award, the most-awaited award for the winning team of the tournament was bagged by the defending champions STPI. All in all, the event was an attempt to enable IT companies and vendors to reach out to the Channel community of Odisha in its entirety. Not only was the event attended by vendors, SIs, IT experts and resellers across the State but also by the academicians and IT heads of engineering colleges and various departments of the Government of Odisha. The event spelled networking, business and amusement for all.

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