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Center for Railway Information System (CRIS) is an umbrella organisation for all IT related activities on Indian Railways (IR).CRIS is mainly a project oriented organisation engaged in development of major computer systems on the Railways. CRIS has acquired special knowledge and expertise in the field of informatics. With such a rich practical experience, a dedicated team of professionals and its own R&D effort, CRIS aims to be a leader in this fast developing field. We catch up with the man at the helm, Dr Rajesh Narang, GM-systems, CRIS on his experience and insights and the future plans to make Indian Railways have one of the most innovative and extensive IT environment.
How would you define the role of a CIO today? How closely is he involved in the business decisions of a company?
The role of a CIO is to make strategic planning for the company and to gain competitive edge over the business rivals by building innovative solution. For innovation, a CIO needs to work with the help of a CTO who can get the latest state-of-the-art technology for building superior quality product rapidly. A CIO's role in an organization is no more limited. He is now involved in major decision-making work of an organization.
Most of the technologies have now become commodities. And once you get the right people and partners, it becomes easier to deploy. These sort of things are about giving people a safety net, because we're always pushing the envelope with technology. In order to deploy in new technologies, we must invest in trials before deploying it. Overall, a CIO plays an important role in all business decisions.
If we look at the telecom networking industry, things keep changing at a very fast pace. How do you cope with such a scenario?
Undoubtedly, major steps have been taken in the area of network technology. To cope with the hype, generally I call the network people and discuss with them my requirements and if their product meets my requirements, I take it for trial and work on it. Once I am satisfied, I don't feel insecure in buying it.
Also RoI in technology deployment is another area that a CIO has to look at. Since we deal with technology at every step, it's imperative for us to get returns on whatever we invest in technology. At the end of the day, the customer should be happy. We take that as the return. With the exception of a pure technology infrastructure purchase, there is no such thing as an IT project. All technology investments must deliver a business result. Hype and soft benefits are not enough.
How do you ensure that your company deploys not just the latest and the best, but also something that would create more value in your business?
We look for new and emerging technologies, collect a lot of information about them from leading magazines, Internet, and from the product sellers. Then we analyze each technology and see where we can use it, whether in the ongoing projects or in future projects, or in the projects, which we had thought of, but could not start. Silently, we work on the new technology, and conduct trials in laboratory conditions first, then launch it in one booking location in the field to see how it works out. Depending upon the results, a new technology is imbibed to get additional value from it.
In the context of telecom and networking needs of enterprises, what are the major concern areas?
The communication link failure is still an area, which needs to be looked into. Apart from this, security has always been an area of concern for CIOs. We've actually allocated IT budget to really take a look at disaster recovery and to harden our network, making sure that we've got good security at all of our firewalls. So we've done what I refer to as hygiene or a health check over the last several months. Looked at our critical points and really shored them up.
Addition of complex network technology is one of the major challenges for us and to be updated with business requirements has also made it mandatory to ensure that despite the heterogeneity and complexity, the final objective of 'Infrastructure is always ON' must be achieved.
Which telecom networking technologies do you think are going to be hot for you in 2006?
Incorporation of router inside a terminal server will certainly benefit us. In case someone takes out the cable from terminal server, which is connected to a terminal or PC, then that terminal or PC must be logged out automatically. If such features are added inside the terminal server, the entire network becomes more secure. So features such as enhancement of security in terminal server and seamless connection of RFID readers on serial ports are some of the features we have been looking for in 2006.
Are there any services that you have outsourced or are planning to outsource? Are you open to outsourcing security and storage related work?
Surely. Provided it is made sure that the maintainer of storage cannot access the data without our being involved. We are looking for two keys or passwords, the way they are used in operating locker of a bank where the banker cannot open the locker with his key, he needs the key of the owner as well to open the locker. So if this kind of security is provided in a storage system, then storage related work can be outsourced.
Outsourcing does bring in an element of risk that includes security concerns, loss of control, and vendor lock-in. The primary and predominant risk involved when outsourcing the network management of the company revolves around the capability of the service provider to access privy information of the company by virtue of its control over the network. This risk can be reduced by having adequate SLAs in place and also having a trustworthy and established vendor as an outsourcing partner.
How important is wireless for your organization? What benefits you expect from it?
It is very important. Many applications, which we have not been able to launch, but have their blueprint in our mind, can be started. It will increase revenue for the company and satisfaction for the customers.
Wireless network in an enterprise is primarily on WLAN technologies. The WLAN being a shared network leads to three key challenges that include quality of service, security, and management. The ability to deliver QoS for applications over a wireless network is the key challenge. Wireless being a shared access network, needs significant planning, and engineering before deployment.
What important things you would like your telecom service provider to do for you in 2006?
I would surely want my telecom service provider to do the following things:
- Provide uninterrupted communication link.
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Integrate routers, terminal servers, and modems, so that it can be used as a single unit.
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Provide APIs for writing and reading information from RFID readers and allowing them to be connected on a serial port.\
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Making wireless technology available so that tickets can be distributed in moving buses and data is sent to central server periodically or synchronously.
What challenges does 2006 hold for you as a CIO?
Solve the various problems arising in the applications due to non-availability of links. Integrate the various applications developed independently to get enterprise level view. Work on a new technology such as RFID to harness its vast potential.
Sonia Sharma
sonias@cybermedia.co.in
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