Technology

Telecom sector leads in adopting network technology

Charmaine FERNANDO

In a network summit hosted by Frost and Sullivan, recently, covering a 2009 study on South Asia’s network security market, it was identified that in Sri Lanka, the telecom sector catering to the domestic market, is leading the industry in adopting network security technology.

Telecom sector #1 investor in network security With a surge of interest stirred in the ICT sector in the present times, with an unprecedented demand for connectivity, from both the business as well as the domestic markets, it has necessitated the telecom sector to become the largest spender adopting network security measures. But due to the economic downturn the current year investments did not match the impressive levels of the previous year, it was reported.

Govt committed

The government backing to make the world of knowledge accessible to all four corners of the island has created a new level of interest in the field of ICT.

The government intention to pass on the advanced telecommunication technology benefits to the masses at large has precipitated a new awakening and an increased response to the national call, from the industry and business segment. The Sri Lankan government’s focus remains strong in addressing all aspects of IT matters.

Its commitment is evident in its heavy investments on network security in 2008, the third biggest spender only next to BFSI companies who played an active role, monitoring and upgrading their security strategies, observes the survey. It further states that the government has taken centre stage, playing a salient role, driving network security business and trends.

In an optimistic note it sites that the vertical is expected to show the highest growth among all verticals, in the forecast for the growth period of 2007 to 2015.

Lack of guidelines to prompt securitization, manufacturing and retail sector verticals remain inactive and non IT-compliant as traditionally they are not prone to proactive security issues. This has been affected due to lack of rules and regulations and strict guidelines to get in line with ICT network security measures.

There is no monitoring body or government authority to oversee the utilization, implementation, maintenance of network securitization in Sri Lanka which the study notes, which may if at all pose a future deterrent to the way forward.

User-friendly products combining affordability 2009 is expected to open the floodgates to many global network security players who will enter the Sri Lankan ICT market, making it highly competitive in pricing. It is also expected to have companies provide the market with a complete suite of UTM capabilities that would integrate every vital technology in to one appliance.

This possibility will make it easy for the end user; feed market needs of security combined with affordability.

Major threats for IT security has been identified as virus, worms and Trojan horses in today’s IT environment, by 85 per cent of the respondents in Sri Lanka, while 55 per cent identified data security as a major concern. Downtime and physical security were also sited as security shortcomings.

Threats

Threats are getting bigger. The internet is an `enabler’ identifies, Girish Trivedi, Deputy Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, commenting on the overall enterprise security scenario.

However he insists that the threats are becoming more malicious and bigger and the worst scenario is that they are moving from external in to internal.

Endless damage enterprises need to evaluate and pre empt these threats as the gap between attacks and attempts made to detention, is extremely low.

As most attacks go undetected or unreported, enterprises are under the misconception that they are safe. But the consequences resulting from a security breach may result in losing reputation, customers and competitive advantage to legal issues leading to considerable financial loss. The Solution, the world is changing fast insists Arun Shetty, Senior Manager, Systems Engineering, Cisco Systems, India and SAARC. Flexible technologies are delivering revolutionary forms of collaboration and communication, he admits. These are transforming the way businesses interact externally and internally. Mobile devices and virtual platforms have torn down the wavering notion of a network perimeter, which has led to newer threats and risks. As these have evolved so have our responses to them he reiterates.

Comprehensive Threat Intelligence, End to End Security Solution and Business-enabling Services from Cisco provides highly secure collaborative experience using network platform, he endorses. Network security, therefore is as vital as harnessing modern technology for the development of a country. Without security the network is at risk of invading threats.

Threats keep getting bigger and wiser by the hour. Countering enemy activity with intelligent purpose built solutions, are, therefore a key element of sustenance of a network system. A modern intelligent high-security system that evolves faster than the threat is the need of the moment and is an essential component to any operative network system with a future.

ICTA contributes to reach high

ICT - based developments ranging from awareness programs to industry support facility improvements in rural areas through various programs of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) under the e-Sri Lanka initiative have contributed to Sri Lanka reaching higher rungs in the ICT savvy ladder. This is the ICTA’s Monitoring and Evaluation analysts’ assessment of the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009, released by the World Economic Forum recently.

According to the report produced in co-operation with Harvard University, Sri Lanka’s overall rank of Networked Readiness Index (NRI) has improved dramatically from 86th position out of 122 in 2006/07 to 79th position out of 127 countries in 2007/08 to 72nd position out of 134 countries in 2008/09.

The NRI measures the propensity for countries to use the opportunities offered by ICT. The NRI is arrived at based on about 68 subcomponents which are closely related to ICT for development. The required information to compute NRI is based on structured interviews of 100 randomly selected higher level private and public sector executives and published secondary data.

ICTA said that the improvement in NRI could be directly attributed to the e-Sri Lanka initiative which had adopted an integrated six-pronged strategy. This included awareness programmes on benefits of ICT, human resource development programmes for different level government staff, ICT industry and Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES) sector and ICT training for citizens. In particular this improvement should also be attributed to ICT related infrastructure development and ICT facility improvements in disadvantaged rural areas through ICTA’s Nenasalas and e-Society programmes. ICTA said further that improvements in these areas would give a positive image about the country among prospective international investors.

The following graph shows the improvements in scores of the NRI and its major sub-indices, namely, ICT Environment, Readiness for using ICT, and ICT Usage by Individuals, Government and Business:

The following table shows Sri Lanka’s ranks in certain sub-components of NRI related to ICT for development in 2008/09 compared to 2007/08: NRI Sub-components Rank.

2008/09 2007/08 ICT Environment

* Laws relating to ICT 59 64

* Quality of competition in the Internet Service Providing sector 27 40

* Availability of latest Technologies 54 67

* Availability of scientists and engineers 30 44

* Quality of scientific research institutions 36 40 Readiness for using ICT

* Importance of ICT to government vision of the future 38 54

* Government prioritisation of ICT 34 47

* Govt. procurement of advanced technology products 51 53

* Local availability of specialised research and training services 41 65

* Company spending on Research and Development 32 39

* University-industry research collaboration 36 38 ICT Usage

* Government success in ICT promotion 41 59

* ICT use and government efficiency 55 74

* Availability of online services 67 71

* Presence of ICT in Government offices 49 82

* Extent of business Internet use 50 58

* Broadband Internet subscribers 92 93

* Internet users per 100 population 113 115

* Firm level technology absorption 45 63

* Internet bandwidth (mB/s) per 10,000 86 88

* Capacity for innovation 34 36

Sri Lanka Overall rank 72 79

Number of countries 134 127.

Source: The Global Information Technology Reports 2007/08, 2008/09.

Interoperability seminar

From Left to Right - Director of Interoperability, Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft USA, Lorenzo Madrid, Government Engagement Head, Jeff Paine, APAC.