Oracle's Telecom Bet For India Growth

Oracle Corp. has strengthened its security solution portfolio to address the growing security needs of the telecom service providers. The enterprise software company believes that the focus will give it an opportunity to drive more revenues from the India market.

"The volume of data is exploding in the telecom space, especially as the 3G uptake is increasing. There is a lot of activity associated with data. Hence a service provider needs to ensure that it is able to deliver personalized content in a secure and efficient way. It is also critical for them to have flexible billing and delivery channels for different subscription requests and services (like SMS, IVR, etc)," says Sundar Ram Gopalakrishnan, VP - Technology, APAC, Oracle Corporation.

"For instance, if a company has decided to put some content out on a website and wants people to pay for the download for a fee, it is critical to ensure that it is supported by a strong security feature otherwise the IP can be stolen," adds Gopalakrishnan.

The company recently unveiled Oracle Identity Management 11g Release 2, an Identity Management Platform, optimized to secure the new digital experience.

Oracle is working with several telecom operators like Aircel Ltd. but declined to reveal all the names. In addition to telecom, the company is focusing on the BFSI and government sectors.

Oracle believes that it has the advantage of providing security solution as an OEM since it can ensure a complete range of security features. "So long as the security is being built by a third-party and is being inserted into an OEM product, it is never going to be as secure as the OEM-built itself. That's because OEM knows the inside-out of the product. Some features of my database security can be copied by vendors but the reality is that the ability to provide it as a full-suite is difficult," adds Gopalakrishnan.

Fusion Middleware, identity management, database and real-application clusters form part of Oracle's solution portfolio. Its identity management solution helps telecom service providers to keep a check on the user's entitlement of the service. There are multiple vendors offering solutions in different portfolios including asset management, encryption, biometrics or audit tracking, but Oracle claims that it is the only vendor that can provide a complete bouquet of services.

It competes with the companies like IBM Corp., EMC Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. in the security solution portfolio.

- Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India