IT News Week 1 Nov 2015

For week 5 of Oct 2015.

For this week / last week, here are / were the biggest news.
  • PR - Nov 4, 2015 - LinkedIn appoints Olivier Legrand as its Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region
  • PR - Nov 4, 2015 - Juniper Networks Transforms Network Economics with Industry’s Most Scalable NFV Solution
  • PR - Nov 4, 2015 - LinkedIn APAC Managing Director joins PropertyGuru Group as President
  • PR - Nov 4, 2015 - Now You Can Be A Property Guru Too!
  • PR - Nov 3, 2015 - IBM Acquires Gravitant to Boost Hybrid Cloud and Enterprise Services
  • PR - Nov 3, 2015 - Tata Comm. debuts ultra-low power connectivity solution to pave the way for the Internet of Things in India
  • PR - Nov 3, 2015 - Citrix : Staying agile and thriving in a changing world
  • Juniper Research - Nov 2, 2015 - Hampshire, UK : Active VoLTE Connections to Exceed 1 Billion by 2018, as Mobile Operator Roll-outs Intensify
  • PR - Nov 2, 2015 - OPPO Malaysia and 11street are giving away Limited Units of OPPO R7 Plus FC Barcelona Edition
  • PR - Nov 2, 2015 - Singapore's First Liberal Arts College Taps Red Hat and Dell for OpenStack-based Software-defined Datacenter
  • PR - Oct 30, 2015 - K.L - PIKOM Elects New Leadership For 2016
  • PR - Oct 30, 2015 - Young Malaysians Get Hands-on Experience with BAE Systems' Eye-Tracking Technology at KLESF 2015
  • PR - Oct 28, 2015 - K.L - Internet Tracking Exposed
  • PR - Oct 28, 2015 - 20 Malaysian Students Part of 2015 Edition of Huawei’s ‘Seeds for the Future Program’


PR - Nov 4, 2015 - LinkedIn appoints Olivier Legrand as its Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region

LinkedIn today announced the appointment of Olivier Legrand as its Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region. With this new appointment, Legrand will have a dual role, continuing to serve as Head of Marketing Solutions for LinkedIn in the region.

Olivier Legrand, M.D, APAC, LinkedIn

Singapore-based Legrand, who joined LinkedIn in 2012 to drive the Marketing Solutions business in the Asia-Pacific region, is a senior executive with more than a decade of leadership, marketing and business development experience in the region. Before joining LinkedIn, he was General Manager of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network for Asia. Legrand will succeed Hari Krishnan, who has been Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region since January 2013. Krishnan oversaw a business in the region that continues to post healthy growth, including a member base that more than doubled to 78+ million (as at Q3 2015) in less than three years. This includes 33+ million in India, 7+ million in Australia and 15+ million in S.E. Asia.

PR - Nov 4, 2015 - Juniper Networks Transforms Network Economics with Industry’s Most Scalable NFV Solution

Juniper Networks, today announced an expansion of its Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) portfolio that enables service providers to create and automatically deploy new services faster than ever before at industry-leading scale. Juniper’s new Cloud CPE, a fully automated, end-to-end network functions virtualization solution, builds on the proven ability of Juniper Networks® Contrail Networking to scale across all models – whether on-premises or in the cloud – to make service delivery from an end user’s perspective as easy as downloading a new app.

Customers now expect networks to be on-demand, personalized, and to deliver services in near real-time. Today’s rigid, hardware-centric network infrastructures, however, make this impossible; it can be months before a customer receives an ordered service. As such, global service providers are looking to software-defined networking (SDN) and NFV to automate cumbersome manual tasks and increase agility in rolling out virtually managed services at the touch of a button, resulting in greater revenue-generating opportunities, lower costs and enhanced customer satisfaction.

PR - Nov 4, 2015 - LinkedIn APAC Managing Director joins PropertyGuru Group as President

PropertyGuru Group, Asia’s leading online property group, is pleased to announce the appointment of LinkedIn executive Hari Krishnan as President and Chief Business Officer, effective 1 January 2016. In this newly-created role, Mr. Krishnan will focus on leading and accelerating regional business growth initiatives, with Country Managers and Sales Enablement teams in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia reporting directly to him.

Hari Krishnan, President, PropertyGuru

Hari is currently the Managing Director, APAC & Japan at LinkedIn, where he leads more than 1,000 employees across 10 offices to create and deliver value for more than 78 million members and clients. He joined LinkedIn as its first employee in Asia in 2009, and was its Country Manager for India before he was promoted to his current position.

PR - Nov 4, 2015 - Now You Can Be A Property Guru Too!

In promoting greater market intelligence and helping consumers make better property related decisions, PropertyGuru, the region’s leading property portal, is in search for Malaysia’s next Property Guru. Think you have what it takes? Then join the “Be Malaysia’s Next Property Guru” Challenge and stand a chance to win RM60,000 Philips Home Makeovers in total. The goal of the Challenge is to demystify the often nebulous world of property and to make it more accessible to the layman; and to help everyone become their own property guru to make the best decisions possible for their own real estate aspirations.

PR - Nov 3, 2015 - IBM Acquires Gravitant to Boost Hybrid Cloud and Enterprise Services

IBM today announced that it has acquired Gravitant, Inc., a privately held company that develops cloud-based software to enable organizations to easily plan, buy and manage, or “broker,” software and computing services from multiple suppliers across hybrid clouds. With such capabilities, mixed environments of private and public clouds can begin to be integrated and digitally managed as one for greater performance and efficiency.

With the Gravitant solutions everyone from IT managers to authorized employees can review and purchase compute and software services from different suppliers, as well as compare capabilities and pricing, all through a single, central console. Once purchased, the technology can be offered as a service and managed from the same console for greater efficiency and visibility into how the services are being used.

PR - Nov 3, 2015 - Tata Comm. debuts ultra-low power connectivity solution to pave the way for the Internet of Things in India

Tata Communications today announces the successful trials of a new Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), based on LoRa TM technology for connected devices and cutting edge Internet of Things (IoT) applications across Mumbai and Delhi. These trials will bolster the successful deployment of IoT applications in India, as part of the 4.9 billion connected devices and appliances globally in 2015, based on Gartner forecasts; a figure that is expected to reach 25 billion by 2020 - more than three times the number of people on earth today.

LoRaTM, a wireless communication technology dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT) / Machine to Machine (M2M) communications networks, will be rolled out by Tata Communications across India with full coverage starting in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, with the first phase covering 400 million people across Tier 1, 2, 3 and 4 cities. The new network ensures a super low-power, secure, bi-directional, communication solution which any organisation can use to connect objects and innovative applications simply and energy efficiently, overcoming high power consumption challenges with existing wireless solutions.

Tata Communications’ LPWAN wireless network is adaptable to serve the needs of both rural and urban residents. It supports communications in deep water and up to 50 metres underground while also penetrating up to seven walls inside buildings, making it suitable for use in underground train stations and car parks. Its 15km range also helps to ensure that people working or living in rural areas always remain connected.

PR - Nov 3, 2015 - Citrix: Staying agile and thriving in a changing world

Tight global markets and intense pressure on the bottom line pushes companies to learn to work more efficiently and more economically. Furthermore, tightening requirements around cost, security, government regulations, and industry standards all add another layer of complexity.

Fortunately, many organizations have come to realize that flexibility is the first order of business for every IT organization. They also understand that a whole new approach to technology is needed – one that is based on the assumption that the right answers found today might not be the right answers tomorrow. In short, infrastructure lock-in is death.

Today, an enterprise IT strategy needs to revolve around designing for the ‘change mandate’, a core principle of the software-defined workplace.

Juniper Research - Nov 2, 2015 - Hampshire, UK - Active VoLTE Connections to Exceed 1 Billion by 2018, as Mobile Operator Roll-outs Intensify

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the number of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) connections is anticipated to reach 2 billion by 2020, rising from an estimated 123 million in 2015. According to the research, the marked improvement in voice quality enabled by VoLTE is likely to spur increased adoption of the technology.

The research, found that direct revenues from VoLTE will be limited at first, with increased availability of compatible handsets driving adoption of the technology. It argued that network operators will initially focus on experience and quality of service, rather than monetisation, with failure to deliver a high quality offering at the outset potentially resulting in churn to rival operators.

The new research, ‘Future Voice Strategies: mVoIP, Carrier OTT, WebRTC, HD Voice & Video Calling 2015-2020’, also claimed that to remain competitive, operators will also need to ensure that their communications offerings match those of leading OTT providers. It cited the example of Facebook Messenger, which recently launched free HD (High Definition) VoIP call services over cellular and Wi-Fi networks. With this in mind, it argued that an operator HD Voice service proposition would be a critical element.

PR - Nov 2, 2015 - OPPO Malaysia and 11street are giving away Limited Units of OPPO R7 Plus FC Barcelona Edition

OPPO Malaysia and 11street are giving away Limited Units of RM 2,988 worth of R7 Plus FC Barcelona Edition by either participating in the SHOCKING BID program or by purchasing any OPPO product on 11street from the period between 13th November 2015 to 12th December 2015.

These offers are available under:

PR - Nov 2, 2015 - Singapore's First Liberal Arts College Taps Red Hat and Dell for OpenStack-based Software-defined Datacenter

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, and Dell today announced that Yale-NUS College, Singapore's first liberal arts college, has created a hybrid cloud – one of the region's first – based on Red Hat and Dell solutions. With Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, a comprehensive solution that supports organizations on their journey from traditional datacenter virtualization to OpenStack-powered clouds – running on a certified platform of Dell PowerEdge servers and Dell Networking, Yale-NUS College has created a hybrid cloud platform to gives its researchers, students and administrators access to automated, self-service processes for server requests and enable faster deployment.

The solution enables its researchers, students and administrators access to automated, self-service processes for server requests and enable faster deployment.

As a result of this transition, Yale-NUS has reduced the complexity of their datacenters so much that their IT infrastructure only requires nine managing engineers, who are able to use their background knowledge of Linux to run the hybrid clouds. With the combined Red Hat-Dell OpenStack-based cloud, Yale-NUS College has reduced application deployment time by 80 percent and brought greater agility to Yale-NUS College's IT operations.

Yale-NUS College was established in 2011 as a collaboration between Yale University and the National University of Singapore (NUS) to provide a new model for liberal arts colleges in Asia. Yale-NUS College's IT Infrastructure and Services team was tasked with creating an IT infrastructure that could support the growing liberal arts college's students, researchers and staff with limited IT staff resources.

PR - Oct 30, 2015 - K.L - PIKOM Elects New Leadership For 2016

At the recently held 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM), the National ICT Association of Malaysia (PIKOM) announced the appointment of its new Chairman and Office Bearers as well as Councillors for 2016. Chin Chee Seong of Galasys Solutions (MSC) Sdn Bhd, who was previously Deputy Chairman, was elected PIKOM Chairman, while Ganesh Kumar Bangah of HT Consulting (ASIA) Sdn Bhd was elected as Deputy Chairman. Danny Lee of Epson Malaysia who was previously Treasurer will now serve as Secretary with Bimbit.com’s Sean Seah completing the line-up as Treasurer.

All Office Bearers were elected uncontested to their positions and will serve a term of one year.


Seated L-R: Cheah Kok Hoong (Immediate Past Chairman), Ganesh Kumar Bangah (Deputy Chairman), Chin Chee Seong (Chairman), Danny Lee (Secretary), Sean Seah (Treasurer)

Standing (L-R): PIKOM Councillors: Christopher Chan, Jeffrey Ooi, Stan Singh-Jit, Carol Wong, Ong Chin Seong, and Eric Wong

PR - Oct 30, 2015 - Young Malaysians Get Hands-on Experience with BAE Systems' Eye-Tracking Technology at KLESF 2015

BAE Systems, the global defence, security and aerospace company, showcased its new eye-tracking technology at Kuala Lumpur Engineering and Science Fair 2015 (KLESF) this week, stimulating interest and curiosity in young minds.

School children try a mind-bender  at BAE Systems stand at KLESF

As part of BAE Systems’ initiative to inspire Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) among school students, the company showcased its eye-tracking technology for the first time in Malaysia. Designed to keep the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet at the cutting-edge for decades to come and with potential applications in a Formula One cockpit, the technology reads human eye movements to help pilots perform actions quickly, efficiently and safely. It measures naturally and subconsciously-occurring Saccadic eye movements to help perform a task, such as selecting a displayed cockpit entity based on a pilot’s or driver’s gaze.

PR - Oct 28, 2015 - K.L - Internet Tracking Exposed

F-Secure introduced a new feature today for their Freedome VPN that lets people take control and see who’s watching them online. The new feature is a visualization tool called Tracker Mapper that shows users how websites and online tracking work together to create data collection networks that watch people as they browse the web.

Tracker Mapper was released to beta testers in July, and was developed in response to Freedome users’ interest in online tracking. Tracking has become a prominent part of the Internet – over half of the top 100 domains on the World Wide Web exist entirely to provide advertising and tracking services.

And a recent survey conducted amongst people beta testing Tracker Mapper found that 87 percent of respondents were worried or concerned about online tracking.

F-Secure’s Janne Pirttilahti, Director, Next Gen Security, said that Freedome users want more information on how tracking works because it’s a part of their online experience that’s difficult to understand.

PR - Oct 28, 2015 - 20 Malaysian Students Part of 2015 Edition of Huawei’s ‘Seeds for the Future Program’

Following the success of the pilot ‘Seeds for the Future’ Program in 2014, Huawei is once again sponsoring 20 students from public and private higher learning institution across Malaysia on a study trip to China this October. The objective of this program is to expose students to practical work experience in the field of electronic engineering and computer science and cultural interchange in China. Malaysian Ambassador to China, Dato’ Zainuddin Yahya, officiated the opening ceremony of this year’s program recently in Beijing.


Modeled after its global skill development initiative that started in 2008, Huawei launched the Seeds for the Future Program in Malaysia last year as part of its efforts in nurturing ICT and telecom experts for the Malaysian industry. The ‘Seeds for the Future’ Program is an embodiment of Huawei’s vision to bridge the gap in course curriculum and practical requirements and prepare highly competitive skills to cater to this information era.

Huawei has contributed significantly to raising the bar for ICT human capital development in Malaysia. The company trains 20,000 engineers annually at its global training centers in Cyberjaya. In collaboration with MDeC, Huawei has facilitated ICT training for over 10,000 teachers and students and has built training labs in eight top Malaysian universities. Most recently, Huawei launched a 45-days end-to-end holistic ICT training, covering IP, Wireless, Fixed, Transmission, and Core Network, with four Malaysian Technical University Network (MTUN) universities in association with Malaysia Higher Education Ministry. Mr Liu himself is part of MOHE’s prestigious CEO Faculty Program whereby he invests significant time in mentoring staff and students and lecturing at universities across Malaysia.

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