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Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

juniper networks

Juniper Network’s Founder Says India Is Its Largest Development Site

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India has always excelled when it comes down to the engineering sector. Technical engineers especially those working in the IT sector have mostly emerged from India. The telecommunication industry has developed in the past few decades rapidly. From selling networking products to software, many companies have made a future in this sector. American immigrant, Pradeep Sindhu is the founder of one such company excelling on the grounds of networking. The name of the company is Juniper Networks and Pradeep founded the company in February 1996. A twenty-four years old company founded by an ex-IITian has become a billion-dollar enterprise.

The company is currently based in Sunnyvale, California, United States. Juniper is a world-famous company in the sector of networking hardware. The main products of the company are routers, network management software and providing network security as well.

About the Founder

Pradeep Sindhu is an American businessman who was born in India. Apart from founding Juniper, he has also founded Fungible, a company based on data center technology.

Born into an Indian family, Pradeep pursued his undergraduate degree from India. He acquired his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. Pradeep fled to Hawaii in 1976 and completed his master’s in the same from the University of Hawaii. Later, he completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Pradeep gained a very rich knowledge of telecommunication engineering and computer science before founding his companies. His professional world started growing from Xerox PARC where he worked for eleven years. He worked for designing many integrated circuits and multiprocessors. Pradeep is also well-known for making major contributions to designing high-tech microprocessors of Sun Microsystems.

After his years of studies and working in computer labs he decided to found his own company, Juniper Networks. So, in 1996, along with Dennis Ferguson and Bjorn Liencres, he established the company in California.

Early Story

Pradeep got the idea of founding his company while he was on a vacation in 1995. He wanted to switch the conventional circuit switching to packet switching. Pradeep, after his years of experience, thought that it would be better for transferring data. This is because after one fixed data packet is transmitted through a channel it will then be fully available for another one. Well, he might have got the idea from energy packets in quantum physics.

Success and Growth

Pradeep started the company with a seed funding of $2million. But, within the first year of its operation, the company raised another $12 million. In 1997, the company received $8 million in venture funding. This year the company received an additional $40 million in a funding round which witnessed the presence of companies like Nortel, 3Com, etc. Other investors of Juniper include Qwest and AT&T.

Within four years, the company’s annual revenue summed up to $3.8 million. M40 router was the only product of the company and only one product was sold to more than fifty telecommunication companies. The company also came into a joint partnership with Alcatel and Ericsson to expand itself in foreign markets.

The company gradually expanded in Asian countries like Japan, India, etc. This helped Juniper increase its market share from 6% in 1998 to more than 20% in 2000. Juniper filed its first IPO in April 1999 and by July 1999 its valuation became $7 billion. The growth of the company was jaw-dropping and it became the “latest darling of the Wall Street”.

The company’s sell decreased during the time of dot-com bust but again after 2004, it was back on track. In 2005, the company’s annual revenue surpassed $2 billion.

The Indian Market

Juniper has its development sites in Boston, Silicon Valley, Canada, and India. Among all these centers, Pradeep says the best R&D is carried out in India. India is a very crucial market for Juniper Networks but the most important scope for development as well. According to Pradeep Sindhu, the development site was founded in India to solve the level of complexity that cannot be done in the U.S.

When a company is handling a networking issue, it has different layers of complexity. And, the engineers in India can solve every layer from scratch. Pradeep also said that he loves hiring fresh talents from the Indian schools who are brimming with talent and enthusiasm. In 2018, the total employees of Juniper were 9,000 among which 2,600 belonged to Indian offices.

He is truly proud of the Indian market from both the aspect of market growth and solving critical missions. Pradeep wants to keep investing in the Indian market for the betterment of the company.

lifelock

Lifelock- Fighting Against Cybercrime Since 2005

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There are always two sides to a coin. If an innovation appears as a boon to our world, much time is not taken to manipulate it and use it otherwise. With the advent of the internet, our world has developed in terms of tech. Many companies have been founded in the IT sectors, economic growth has also increased, and communication has become easier. With the transmission of data, data storage, etc the risk of data leaking is of utmost importance. Because when a person’s data is all over the net, anyone can take advantage of it. Many companies and also government agencies provide cybersecurity. LifeLock is an American software company that provides services for preventing identity theft.

Identity theft is a category of cybercrime in which an individual tries to take financial advantage mostly through someone’s identity. Robert J. Maynard and Todd Davis founded the company in 2005 with more than 600 employees. The company’s headquarters are currently based in Arizona, United States.

Robert J. Maynard

Robert is a famous American businessman who has also co-founded Internet America, an internet service provider and several other companies.

Born in 1962, Robert served in the US Marine Corps as well as the US Reserve Army before attending college. He went to Northern Arizona University in 1985 and excelled in academics. He won many awards during this time and gained recognition. Robert founded Internet America in the late 1990s and it became a huge success. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the early 2000s.

Todd Davis

Todd went to Baylor University and received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1990. After completing his bachelor’s he worked for many start-ups as a part of their executive management team. In 1992, he joined Dell and he also received the Dell Vision Award. In 2002, Todd founded his own company, Marketing Champions and served as the CEO.

In 2005, Todd along with Robert co-founded LifeLock and Todd served as the CEO of the company till 2016. In 2016, he stepped down from the position and became the executive vice-chairman of the Board of Directors.

Apart from being a successful businessman, Todd is also a very good speaker and a philanthropist. In 2009, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and came in the list of one of the most admired CEO in 2009.

The Beginning

LifeLock works to provide services like identity authentication monitor the credit applications of the customers and protect the accounts from identity theft. The company also monitors real-time data from account openings and sends notifications or alerts in case of dual checking. When the duo founded the company they only had a seed funding of $2 million.

Investors

In the next year, the company received a funding of $5 million from Bessemer Ventures. And, additional $6 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers in 2007. The company, within two years of its establishment, landed some impressive investors. Apart from these investors, others include River Street Management, Goldman Sachs Group, etc.

After receiving $25 million in Series C funding, the company raised another $40 million in Series D funding. In 2012, the company raised another $100 million from existing investors.

Also Read: Flipboard: An Application that Creates Digitalised Magazine With Curated Contents

Upside Down

Robert left the company in 2007 after he was the victim of identity theft. It is a point of huge controversy when the founder of a cyber protection company falls prey to such crimes. After this incident, maybe to save the face loss of the company, Todd made his social security number public. But, after this move, his banking system was attacked more than thirteen times.

Acquisitions and Partnerships

In December 2008, LifeLock signed an agreement with TransUnion for sending alert messages to customers in case of odd activity. LifeLock acquired ID Analytics in 2012. The company also went public in 2012 offering its initial IPO at $175 million. This year, Hilary Schneider joined LifeLock as its President.

In the next few years, LifeLock acquired Lemon Wallet for $42.6 million and Symantec for $2.3 billion.

In 2015, the company was charged $100 million as a fine for failing to secure its customer’s privacy. There have been many controversies after Robert resigned from the company. But, the company also received many awards such as Grand Steve Award for two consecutive years (2012 & 2013). LifeLock also acquired the eighth position in the list of Inc magazine in 2010.

ISRO Navic

Xiaomi To Support Navic Technology In Collaboration With Qualcomm

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The contributions of space research organizations are boundless. The extraordinary inventions, the high-tech spacecraft and most importantly satellites have immense applications in our daily lives. Now, we might not be able to spot a difference they are making, but the big picture depends on them. For example, ISRO and Xiaomi have shaken hands to incorporate NAVIC technology in Xiaomi smartphones.

Without smartphones, we can’t survive even one day. They are a very integral part of our life. And, incorporating the NAVIC technology into something so basic in our daily lives proves how crucial is satellite navigation. Currently, the news of bringing this technology in Xiaomi is crawling all over the internet.

What is NAVIC?

NAVIC stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation. It is the operational name for The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The technology is built by ISRO, our very own space organization to monitor real-time positioning and timing. NAVIC mainly covers the Indian mainland and an extended region of 1,500 km around it.

Global navigation is very important for every nation especially for the army, the aircraft, and the navy as well. During the time of war or any hostile situation, a country to have access to the global navigation satellite system. But, it becomes almost impossible to get access to those data. Hence, to overcome this problem ISRO opened a new satellite navigation center in 2013.

ISRO launched NAVIC mainly for military purposes but recent times have shown an expansion of the service. Before Xiaomi and ISRO collaborated, Qualcomm already incorporated the same technology in some of its Snapdragon chipsets. And, the same is now helping Xiaomi to introduce this technology in their smartphones.

In July 2013, ISRO launched the first satellite of this program. It has an accuracy of 1m in public and 0.1 encrypted. Till now nine satellites have been launched from IRNSS.

Past History of Xiaomi

The company’s smartphone sales have grown exponentially over the years. Though it also sells apps and other software, 90% of the company’s revenue comes from the smartphone sell. This surpasses even the revenue of Apple that comes from its mobiles.

The company has made a breakthrough by coming into a joint venture with both ISRO and Qualcomm. But, let’s have a look into its brief history.

Lei Jun founded the company in April 2010. And, in August 2010 it launched its first product which was an android-based MIUI (MI-User Interface). Around 2011, the company started selling its product in the Asian technological markets. In 2012, another new smartphone came into the market and the company started getting bigger.

It is quite a progress for a new company to incorporate such a high-tech geo-positioning system given the competition in the market. At the end of 2013, Xiaomi became the fifth-largest company in China in terms of mobile phones sale. Currently, Xiaomi is working on launching its new operating system, MIUI 12.

Beijing, China is the base of the company’s headquarters. The company also has many international headquarters and one of them is in Singapore.

Xiaomi and NAVIC

The Chinese smartphone company finally confirms that it will be introducing smartphones having NAVIC technology in it. The technology is mainly used as a geo-positioning system in India and for a distance around it. Qualcomm’s snapdragon mobiles unleashed the true power of this machinery.

After an agreement with ISRO regarding this technology, the efforts given by Xiaomi’s R&D are limitless. Xiaomi has made this announcement better by putting the tag of “made in India”. They want to manufacture mobile phones in India as the technology itself is created in this nation.

Features and Advantages

First time a technology which is developed in India is used in the country for manufacturing as well. NAVIC comprises of seven satellites out of which three orbits over the Indian Ocean (geostationary orbit) and the other four can provide positioning with accuracy better than 20m.

One of the main reasons to apply this technology in smartphones is to navigate locations in very rural areas. Along with precise timing, voice and visual navigation are also provided for the benefit of the drivers. So, in 2020, the release of many Xiaomi smartphones will take place with this feature across multiple price points.

Credant Technologies

Credant Technologies Acquired By Dell After A Decade Of Independent Ruling

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The time is not far when the valuation of data will surpass the value of real currencies. Moreover, the acquisition of more data by a nation will access the net worth of a country. This might seem a little far-fetched right now, but it will arrive soon. With gigantic growth in the sphere of technology, the demand for data for every tiny transaction over the internet, data is crucial! And, anything valuable needs security, right? Irrespective of personal data of an individual or confidential data of a company, it has to be protected. Credant Technologies, a company founded in 2001 served the purpose of providing data security services. Dell announced the acquisition of the company in December 2012. The founders of the company are Bob Heard, Chris Burchett, and Andrew Kahl.

About the Founders

Bob Heard pursued Business and Law and completed his bachelor’s degree in 1974 from Texas Tech University. He stepped into the professional world with IBM where he worked as a Regional Industry Sales Representative. Bob worked there for six long years and joined Information Resources, Inc as Executive Vice President.

Bob had an ample of experiences before co-founding Credant Technologies. Some of them include working as SVP for S2 Systems and Entrust Technologies, working as a General Manager for Sterling Commerce Banking Systems Division, etc. He started working at Dell as an Executive Director but left after seven months and co-founded Credant. Currently, he is the CEO of Credant Technologies and Board Member of eOriginal.

Chris Burchett also went to Texas Tech University and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He went to Southern Methodist University for completing his MS. After completing his BS, we worked at E-Systems as Software System Engineer for four years. While doing his MS, he joined i2 Technologies and worked there for seven years.

He left the company in 2001 after serving as the Director of Product Development. After co-founding Credant, he served as the CTO of the same and then worked for Dell in the security division. Currently, he is the Group Vice President of Blue Yonder.

Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Northern Illinois University and his MBA from Notre Dame University. Before co-founding Credant, he had prior experiences in working for Compaq and i2 Technologies. He left Credant in 2013 and joined NetApp. Andrew is currently serving as the Chief Customer Officer at SailPoint and as a Board Member of MyScript.

History of Credant Technologies

Bob along with Chris and Andrew saw a very big opportunity in the area of computing. When they founded the company, the internet has just started grasping the market. They knew eventually every enterprise will soon need data security as every small activity will depend on the internet.

So, they decided to found Credant Technologies with the prime goal of providing data security services to various companies. The company mainly worked for protecting data and secure it from “leaking”. Credant Technologies started with 110 employees which are pretty impressive for a new company. Moreover, the co-founders of Credant are well-experienced and seemed to have a lot of influence in the business world.

The tools of Credant Technologies had diverse applications, thus serving educational organizations, hospitals, aeronautical industry and well as the financial sector. The company also claimed to produce two million endpoints in these industries. Credant Technologies, since the beginning, has worked for protecting endpoint data and demonstrate compliance. It also worked to reduce costs at the same time.

Investors and Acquisitions

The major investors of Credant Technologies include Crescendo Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Austin Ventures LP, Intel Capital, and Cisco Systems. The company also had a joint partnership with Dell and OEM Record. Credant Technologies, for two successive years (2007 & 2008) became the fastest-growing private security company according to the Inc 500 Survey.

By 2011, over 800 companies, as well as few government sectors, used the product of Credant Technologies. Their tools and software were installed in more than 7 million devices. In 2005, the company was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Within a span of ten years, it made a significant presence in the world of data security.

Dell announced that it will be acquiring Credant in December 2012. The acquisition was made for the sole purpose of strengthening the security system of Dell.

redbox

Redbox- Expanding The Source Of Entertainment Since 2002

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In our childhood, renting DVDs was a very common thing among us. DVDs of new music videos, new movies, and also games were available in the local market. But, with time, the demand for DVDs got lost somewhere in the traffic on the internet. Today, internet service is available in most of the rural corners of the world resulting in the disappearance of DVDs. Today’s population will always choose Netflix over buying or renting DVDs for their entertainment. Moreover, we also have torrent to make our life easier. Amongst all these websites fighting to stay in demand, Gregg Kaplan still thinks the market for DVDs is not yet dead. Gregg Kaplan is the founder of the famous DVD company, Redbox. Redbox is a famous American company that provides mainly DVDs, Blu-ray rentals, etc.

Gregg Kaplan

Gregg went to the University of Michigan and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. Later, he went to Harvard Business School to acquire his MBA. Before pursuing his MBA, Gregg started working as an investment banker in New York City. He also worked at Furman Selz for three years. And, after completing his MBA, he started working for Streamline.com. He worked in this company until 1999 as the Director of Interactive Marketing.

In 1999, Gregg joined Divine interVentures and continued for a couple of years. In 2001, he started working at McDonald’s Corporation as a Strategy and Development Executive. From here the journey of founding Redbox took place. He built the entire company from scratch and now it earns annual revenue in billions of dollars.

He is one of the most influential businessmen in Chicago who came in the list of Crain’s Chicago Business’s 40 under 40. Gregg’s first wife passed away due to breast cancer. So, he along with Avner, his second wife launched a website to educate women about breast and ovarian cancer.

Founding Story of Redbox

The story dates back to 2001 when Gregg started working for McDonald’s Corporation. During this time, McDonald used kiosks for selling a variety of things but they stopped using kiosks since 2003. Though Gregg worked for the company, he wanted to build a new business using these kiosks. And, he decided to use them for the DVD rental business.

Gregg named the company Redbox Automated Retail LLC. The price for the DVDs rentals went up and down for a few days and finally settled at $1 per day. The company’s most unique feature was the advantage of returning the DVDs at any Redbox kiosks. The other competitors of Redbox then didn’t have this feature.

The Growth

From the beginning, Redbox started renting DVDs of both movies and games. The company was established in 2002 and in the same year Gregg opened eleven kiosks in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Initially, the kiosks also sold grocery items but the sale of DVDs only seemed to increase rapidly through the years.

In early 2000, news came up about the failed attempts of Redbox to sell half of the company to Blockbuster and Netflix. But, in 2005, finally, Coinstar acquired 47% of the company for $32 million. The company was still under McDonald Corporation when Coinstar offered around $176 million to buy the rest of it.

The Success

After Blockbuster turned down the offer to buy a part of Redbox, in 2007, Redbox outruns the company in the American market. In 2008, the company hit 100 million rentals and crossed a billion within September 2010. The success of Redbox was unbound and finally, it was giving competition to the biggest companies in the media industry.

In 2010, Redbox started renting Blu-Ray around the whole nation. And, this year it also started renting video games to new places like Texas, Orlando, Florida, Oregon, etc. 2012 was a very precious year for Redbox as it acquired its former competitor, Blockbuster Express in this year for $100 million.

Gregg Kaplan eventually stepped down from his position and Anne Saunders became the new president. By 2013, the number of kiosks locations increased to 40,000. Gregg, in an interview, said that the demand for video game DVDs mostly is not going to decrease any sooner. The most important reason is it is economical. But, in 2019, unfortunately, the company announced that it would no longer rent video games.

Ispace

Takeshi Hakamada’s Ispace Dreams About Landing A Rover On The Moon

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Japanese are known for their highly ambitious nature. They are making significant growth in the field of technology, opening new start-ups and providing their services across the world. But, recent times have also witnessed their great enthusiasm in the space industry. For example, Astroscale, a Japanese start-up has aimed to clean out the space debris. Similarly, a Japanese start-up, ispace has shown keen interest in developing robotic spacecraft technologies. Robotic spacecraft is best defined as a spacecraft without a crew. The mission is under the surveillance of telerobotic control. Takeshi Hakamada, an aerospace engineer founded the company in 2013. Currently, the headquarters of the company is based in Tokyo, Japan.

The company has big dreams which might seem to be slipping off at times. The high expenditure is a very big factor that the company is still trying to overcome.

Takeshi Hakamada

Since his childhood, Takeshi was very much into learning about space. He watched all the Star Wars movies as well. But, the real thrill for making a big contribution to space passed his mind when a pilot form SpaceShipOne visited his university. He received inspiration and determination to build his career in the space industry.

Takeshi went to Nagoya University and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. He graduated in the year 2004 and went to Georgia Institute of Technology to complete his master’s in the same. While pursuing his master’s, Takeshi worked at the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory as an Assistant.

In 2006, Takeshi joined Lowendal Group as a Consultant and got promoted to Project Leader in 2009. He worked for the company for more than six years. In 2010, he became the CEO of the company, White Label Space Japan, LLC. After three years, he founded his start-up in the space industry.

The Founding Story

ispace is a private space company that has now become an independent entity. White Label Space, a European organisation where Takeshi serves as the CEO is the predecessor of ispace. White Label Space was founded in 2008 with the purpose to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize. The company comprised of space engineers from across the world.

For the Google Lunar X Prize, mainly two teams were working among themselves in WLS. The European team was building the lunar lander while the Japanese team was developing a rover. The winning prize was $20 million and the winning team was given a chance to land a spacecraft on the Moon’s surface.

In 2010, Takeshi established White Label Space Japan to manage both technical and commercial aspects of the company in Japan. While the team was working for GLXP, the Europeans stepped out of it. So, Takeshi decided to continue the work and the entire project since then is continued by the Japanese members. After the Europeans sabotaged in 2013, Takeshi changed the company’s name to ispace and the team name for GLXP became “Hakuto”. Though the mission wasn’t successful, the project continues under the name of ispace.

The Journey

ispace is a team of experienced space engineers since they developed a lunar rover for the GLXP. From 2017, they started the development of lunar lander as well. In 2018, the company signed an agreement with Draper for the designing purpose of the team. This has brought a lot of changes in ispace which led to restructuring their lunar program and also renaming it as Hakuto-R.

After the partnership with Draper, the orbit mission of 2020 for demonstrating the landing capabilities has been called off. But, the companies have a lot of future plans which include Hakuto-R Mission 1. The launch is going to take place in October 2021 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket. The next mission, Hakuto-R Mission 2 will include a lunar lander and rover planning to take off in March 2023.

In the space industry, a small development also takes a very long time. Constant testings and failures are all part of the journey. Most of the time, finance also becomes a huge obstacle but to date ispace has been successful in raising $90 million.

The Big Plan

Researches and developments of ispace till today are just baby steps for the dream of living in space. Takeshi wants to expand the realm of the human empire where commercial transportation to space will relatively become cheaper. He also wants to start mining operations in space once he successfully establishes soft landing on the moon.