FOCUS
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<strong>FOCUS</strong><br />
ISSUE<br />
03/ Q4 2014<br />
CLIENT<br />
SPEAKS<br />
DO YOU<br />
HAVE WHAT<br />
IT TAKES?<br />
Discover Kinsale<br />
Republic of<br />
Startups<br />
FAMILIES' DAY<br />
OUT<br />
PILATES<br />
For the Lazy Muscle
Delivery Manager's Desk<br />
Dear Readers,<br />
As we step into 2015, I would like to take the opportunity to thank each and<br />
every one of you for your support and encouragement in our pursuits. I am<br />
happy with the growth of our team and their engagement across key<br />
projects in services and strategic programs like DaaS. As the Cognizant<br />
delivery manager, it’s my goal to share with you success stories of the<br />
Cognizant team and the larger IT landscape in Dublin. In this regard, I am<br />
delighted to roll out the third edition of our quarterly magazine, <strong>FOCUS</strong>.<br />
So, what can you expect from the third edition of ‘<strong>FOCUS</strong>’? More of<br />
everything. In addition to welcoming new associates who have joined us<br />
fromoffshorewewouldbeshowcasinginnovationintheITsectorinDublin,a<br />
beautifultriptoKinsale,anew‘wellness’section,coursesindemandandour<br />
days of fun. Please do not miss the interview with John O’Connell(DaaS<br />
Technology Operations Lead) and get his views on foreseeable changes for<br />
Dublin’s IT industry.<br />
As always the actual ‘<strong>FOCUS</strong>’ of this issue would be you, the readers. We<br />
wanttomakesurethattheinformationwegivesuitsyour‘informationdiet’<br />
needs.OurdoorsarealwaysopenandIsincerelyencourageyoutoreachout<br />
to the CTS Dublin team at CTSDublinTeam@DNB.com for feedback and<br />
comments.<br />
Iwishyouanewyearfilledwithjoy,prosperityandcontentment.May2015<br />
be your best year yet.<br />
Saravanan Durairaj<br />
Delivery Manager<br />
2 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
4 CLIENT SPEAKS<br />
Interview with John O'Connell<br />
6 REPUBLIC OF STARTUPS<br />
Ireland technical startups to watchout for in 2015<br />
7 ADDITIONS TO THE PACK<br />
New team members in Dublin<br />
9 DISCOVER KINSALE<br />
Memorable trip to enchanting seaside town<br />
11 INTERNET OF THINGS<br />
Moving to a connected world<br />
12 PURSUIT OF 'WELLNESS'<br />
Pilates for the lazy muscle<br />
13 FAMILIES' DAY OUT<br />
Cognizant Dublin team family get together<br />
14 CELEBRATING ONE YEAR OF 'SERVICES'<br />
An excuse for fun<br />
3 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
C lient Speaks<br />
John<br />
O'Connell<br />
DaaS Ops Lead<br />
1What is your favourite part of working at D&B Dublin and why?<br />
The People – have gotten to work with great friendly talented people every day. There is<br />
also a modern feel to the office and a can do attitude.<br />
John O'Connell is the DaaS Technology<br />
Operations Lead. He has been with D&B for<br />
more than 3 years with rich expertise in<br />
technology and operations management.<br />
John has great domain experience on<br />
financial services owing to his 13 year<br />
tenure in the industry. Given an opportunity<br />
he would love to visit India.<br />
2How do you feel about the<br />
development in DaaS program?<br />
The Daas program part of D&B’s strategic<br />
hill 2 will open new ways to get D&B’s<br />
content to our Customers. The program<br />
has involved new technologies and ways<br />
of doing things. While challenging we<br />
have had fun along the way with more<br />
work to do.<br />
3Which part of Ireland are you from? A few<br />
words about the place<br />
a. I was born in Dun Laoghaire<br />
b. Dun Laoghaire is a port town based in South<br />
county Dublin. It 1821 it became known as<br />
KingstownafterthevisitofKingGeorgethe4th.<br />
It became Dun Laoghaire again after Ireland<br />
Gained independence.<br />
c.As a Boy and Teenager I went Sailing, rowing<br />
and Canoeing from Dun Laoghaire Harbour.<br />
There are nice walks along the shoreline and<br />
famous “Teddy’s ice cream” shop in Sandycove<br />
– well worth a visit.<br />
4 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
4HowwouldyoudescribetheCognizantteamto<br />
your best friend<br />
I have been fortunate to work with very talented<br />
and lovely Cognizant team members both during5Your advice to new people coming to<br />
my time at Northern Trust and Also D&B. As well as<br />
work in Dublin<br />
workingwellwiththeCTS–Ihavebeenfortunateto<br />
a. Bring warm clothing and prepare to<br />
makefriendswithmanyoftheteamsaswell.Iwould<br />
have fun. Dublin is a young city with lots<br />
love to get an opportunity to Visit the Indian offices<br />
to do and see.<br />
and see life there at first hand.<br />
b. Being close to Europe there is also the<br />
potential for weekend trips to the<br />
European Mainland and United<br />
Kingdom.<br />
6What do you think will be the greatest change that Dublin will face in the<br />
next 3 years from an IT perspective?<br />
There are a lot of great things happening in Dublin with many companies from around the<br />
globe setting up in Dublin. It will be an interesting three years with disruptive technologies<br />
and capabilities set to change the landscape further. I think we will all be working on<br />
different set of tools and technologies in three years. It is part of what makes working in<br />
technology challenging but fun.<br />
7We know that you love playing sports. What<br />
do you like playing when you are free?<br />
When I am not coaching Mini Rugby I enjoy<br />
running, tennis and tag rugby. With two boys I<br />
don’t get a lot of time.<br />
8Have you tried Indian food? What is<br />
your favourite Indian dish?<br />
I love Indian Food – I have many<br />
favourites. My favourite starters are<br />
Onion Bhajee, Samosa and Chicken<br />
Tikka. My Favourite Main courses would<br />
be Lamb Rogan Josh , Lamb Jalfrezi or<br />
Biryani.<br />
9If you weren’t a technology operations lead, what would you have liked doing<br />
instead?<br />
GreatQuestion–WellInearlyjoinedtheIrishArmyduringmyEngineeringStudiesbutstuck<br />
with the Engineering in the end! I enjoy new product development and technology<br />
innovation so if I was not in operations I would have worked on building new products.<br />
5 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Top 5 Irish Tech Startups to<br />
Watch for in 2015<br />
WholeWorldBand is a free iPhone and iPad app for the<br />
video age that is about content creation, fan engagement<br />
and creative marketing. It allows anyone to easily make<br />
music and videos with or without their favourite artists<br />
and friends that can be shared and enjoyed worldwide.<br />
Think of it as a collaborative, multitrack version of<br />
youtube.<br />
NVMdurance is a Dublin-based flash optimisation technology<br />
company that intends to disrupt the entire US$28bn storage<br />
market.The company’s technology extends the life of solid state<br />
flash storage disks by more than 20 times by extending the<br />
endurance of the flash memory on 1x nm chips.<br />
Bizimply is an all-in-one people and shift management<br />
solution that is changing the way restaurants and businesses<br />
are managed.An iPad is wall-mounted in the location, an<br />
app is downloaded and it is immediately synced to the<br />
existing Bizimply account, giving business a live feed of<br />
who’s in, who’s out and who’s running late.<br />
Restored Hearing is on a mission to protect hearing,<br />
alleviate tinnitus, and rid the world of unavoidable<br />
hearing loss.<br />
The company’s Sound Relief tinnitus sound therapy<br />
has been clinically proven to reduce ringing in the ears<br />
by 15pc in a month when used five minutes daily. This<br />
provides relief to those who never get to experience<br />
silence.<br />
Artomatix is a Trinity College Dublin start-up whose team<br />
has built an artificial intelligence system with human-like<br />
artistic creativity.<br />
The technology works in such as way that once artists<br />
supply Artomatix Studio with sample 2D or 3D artwork, the<br />
software then generates new art based on these inputs.<br />
Article Source : www.siliconrepublic.com, Appeared On : December 22,2014<br />
6 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Additions to the pack<br />
WANTED<br />
* For Services *<br />
{EIM Lead, Advanced Monitoring}<br />
Arun Justin loves the roads in Dublin and<br />
hates the wind in Ireland that sometimes<br />
tends to blow him away. He dreams of<br />
starting his own analytics company one day<br />
andgivenachoicehewouldchoosehisdadas<br />
amentor.(Andwhatnext?PutGenpactoutof<br />
business !!!)<br />
WANTED<br />
* For Services *<br />
{Developer, Enterprise Services RTB}<br />
Surya aims to run a library cafe one day and<br />
would choose Pai Mai, the crazy Chinese<br />
martial arts teacher from Kill Bill as her<br />
mentor. Her idea of a dream holiday is Delft,<br />
Netherlands (And expects us to believe that<br />
Amsterdam isn't there in the itinerary)<br />
WANTED<br />
* For DaaS *<br />
{SME, IMPE Project}<br />
Satheesh Kumar loves the friendly nature of<br />
people in Dublin and spends his spare time<br />
vistingthebeautifulparksandgardenshere.<br />
He wants Dr.Abdul Kalam to be his mentor.<br />
TheonlythingthatworrieshimaboutDublin<br />
is the high cost of living (Head to the<br />
mountains we say )<br />
7 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
WANTED<br />
* For DaaS *<br />
{Data Analyst, DaaS Data Provisioning}<br />
SatheeshPeddagalawouldlovetoholidayin<br />
Paris. He absolutely hates the queue at the<br />
immigration office in Dublin. He dreams of<br />
playing a movie villain one day. (Move over<br />
Sonu Sood!!!)<br />
WANTED<br />
* For Services *<br />
{Lead, Enterprise Services RTB}<br />
Arun Prasad feels happy being in Dublin<br />
owing to the relatively lesser travel time to<br />
India compared to the US. He would love to<br />
visit Switzerland one day. When asked for a<br />
mentor he could not choose anyone but the<br />
late Steve Jobs. (Tim Cook isn't bad either)<br />
8 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Historic Kinsale<br />
"Despite it's small size Kinsale<br />
is historically significant to Irish<br />
culture"<br />
A Tale of Two Forts<br />
Kinsale would mean a lot of things to different people in Ireland depending on the county they<br />
come from. For the seasoned traveller from Dublin it would be the start of the famed 'Wild<br />
Atlantic Way' a beautiful coastal route adjacent to the atlantic, passing through seven of<br />
Ireland's counties.<br />
We were strongly advised by our colleagues to try the seafood, an obvious choice for a coastal<br />
town. Kinsale is celebrated as the Gourmet capital of Ireland with a variety of dishes that suit<br />
every palate.<br />
We took bus no.226 from Cork to Kinsale and it took us an hour to get there. The minute we<br />
reached the harbour(that is the only bus stop in the town centre) we were in for a pleasant<br />
surprise. Kinsale is a cultural potpourri of Norman, Spanish and English influence. Now add some<br />
battles and slow cook for 400 years and you have one beautiful destination with stories to last<br />
for a life time.<br />
The majestic Charles and James fort guard the narrow entrance to Kinsale from the sea with<br />
significant battles that have taken place between the Irish rebels and the British forces for<br />
control of the area.<br />
The forts are abound with ghost sightings, the most famous story belonging to the 'White lady'<br />
of Charles fort searching for her love who was killed accidentally by her own father. We were the<br />
only visitors on the entire fort in december but were unfortunate to not have seen the<br />
apparition of the 'White Lady'.<br />
9 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Not just forts<br />
Kinsale is abound with plenty of other attractions like the Desmond castle(now the<br />
international museum of wine), the old courthouse and the 12th century St.Multose church.<br />
Kinsale is of historical significance to Ireland because of a number of reasons:<br />
1. It was here in 1601 that the Battle of Kinsale was fought. It represented a meeting of two<br />
cultures - the old Gaelic world and the powerful English way of life. The defeat of the Gaelic<br />
O'Neill and O'Donnell Clans signalled the end of the old Gaelic Ireland.<br />
2.Kinsale owes it's unique character to the fact that it was a garrison town and port of<br />
consequence for over 300 years, hence it's magnificent Georgian houses and the Dutch<br />
influence of it architecture.<br />
3.On May 7th 1915, the great Liner "Lusitania", en route from New York to Liverpool, was hit<br />
by a torpedo and sank 11 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, with the loss of 1195 lives.<br />
Things to Do<br />
Barring history there are great activities that one can do on arrival here:<br />
1. Golfing at the old head of Kinsale facing the Atlantic. Even if you don't golf just go there<br />
for a spectacular view of the Atlantic.<br />
2. Walking tours that would enable you to visit important sites in Kinsale. It is a very<br />
colourful town with houses and shops swathed in bright colours.<br />
3. Ghost tours for the bravehearted and if you are lucky you could have a blind date with the<br />
'White Lady'.<br />
4. Harbour cruises in summer.<br />
5. Plan your breakfast, lunch and dinner at Kinsale simply because it is worth doing so.<br />
Everything is sourced locally with fresh fish coming straight off the boats and the meat and<br />
vegetables provided from nearby farms.<br />
Dino's is the place where we had dinner and the restaurant wasn’t too busy that evening but<br />
the atmosphere was charming and I have been reliably informed that many weekend nights<br />
there can go on into the early hours with the in-house singer getting the singsong started.<br />
So small, yet so fair standing out against the ocean that it faces, Kinsale is a slice of Ireland<br />
anybody would love. From the smallest grass to the largest tree, all we saw was beauty in<br />
our eyes.<br />
A trip to Kinsale long or short is therefore highly recommended for anyone visiting Ireland.<br />
From the desk of the Travel<br />
Brigade<br />
A Street Near the town centre<br />
10 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Internet of Things<br />
For Starters<br />
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a giant network of connected “things” (which also includes<br />
people). The relationship will be between people-people, people-things, and things-things. A<br />
thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal<br />
with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when<br />
tire pressure is low -- or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP<br />
address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network.<br />
IoT also focuses on empowering the computers with their own means of gathering<br />
information, so they can see, hear and smell the world for themselves.<br />
Why the traction now?<br />
1. Technology companies focus on<br />
IoT as a means to drive revenue<br />
growth based on new products<br />
and services.<br />
2. Owing to its compatibility with<br />
practically anything over the<br />
internet businesses are embracing<br />
the idea to improve productivity<br />
and save costs.<br />
3. IoT would be helpul in a wide<br />
number of ways ranging from<br />
health care to the energy industry.<br />
How does it impact us?<br />
The internet of things(IoT) is emerging as the thrid wave in the development of internet.<br />
Personal lives, workplace productivity and consumption will all change. There are going<br />
to be new businesses that would expand the internet horizon to those that will analyze<br />
loads of data and create things that have not been conceived by the human mind.<br />
Where can I learn more?<br />
https://www.coursera.org/course/fog<br />
http://www.lynda.com/Raspberry-Pi-tutorials/Programming-Internet-ThingsiOS/178115-2.html<br />
References:<br />
http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/outlook/internet-of-things/<br />
https://www.mapr.com/blog/what-internet-things-and-why-does-it-matter-big-data-0#.VLfqQSusU7E<br />
http://www.ariasystems.com/blog/internet-things-important/<br />
11 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
The Pursuit of<br />
'Well'Ness<br />
Pilates for the lazy muscle<br />
What?<br />
Pilates (pronounced puh-lah-teez and not pie-lates) is similar to yoga but<br />
emphasizes the body’s core — the abdomen, obliques, lower back, inner and outer<br />
thigh,and so on. For this reason, Pilates develops much of what exercisers need —<br />
strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, coordination, balance, and good posture<br />
— with a much lower chance of injury than with other forms of exercise. The<br />
discipline emphasizes correct form instead of going for the burn.<br />
Why?<br />
Sedentary lifestyles and jobs can contribute to<br />
postural dysfunction and cause general aches and<br />
pains.ITemployeeswouldbethefrontrunnerswhen<br />
it comes to sitting a lot in their work. This habit then<br />
gives rise to complain of neck, shoulder and / or low<br />
back pain. With prolonged static postures our core<br />
muscles and spinal cord can fatigue resulting in pain<br />
anddysfunction.Pilatesimprovestheefficiencyand<br />
control of our ‘normal’ movement, by targeting our<br />
trunk and spinal muscles and motor control.<br />
Benefits<br />
1, Improved Flexibility<br />
2. Increased muscle strength and tone<br />
3. Enhanced muscular control of back<br />
and limbs<br />
4. Improved spine stabilisation<br />
5, Prevention of musculo skeletal<br />
injuries<br />
6. Improved concentration<br />
7. Increased posture awareness<br />
8. Better stress management<br />
12 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Family's Day Out<br />
The Cognizant Dublin team enjoyed an evening of games and great food with<br />
their families in november. Some of our memorable moments below.<br />
13 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014
Celebrating One Year of 'Services'<br />
The Enterprise Services team in Dublin recently celebrated the first anniversary of Dublin<br />
ownership in Dec 2014 or an excuse for a night of games and drinks sponsored by D&B.<br />
14 <strong>FOCUS</strong>, Q4/2014