TCS ITIS: Detailed Analysis
by
Rahul on July 28, 2011
It has been quite sometime while the discussion had been going on as to what ITIS actually is. Well, to begin with, ITIS (IT Infrastructure Services) just another position offered by TCS. I see people are going so crazy to know about it in every social networking site or many news sites and blogs. For freshers and new candidates, it is really a new domain. So the curiosity is even more.
It will be quite sometime before the companies across the world realize the benefits of the Infrastructure services offered by a player with as much talent and quality as TCS.
Infrastructure Services range across a pretty decent array of technologies and tools ranging from the smallest bug in the system software to the mainframe server systems, from cross-platform compatibility of a software to the networking functionalities of a widespread network of workstations. They all come under the Infrastructure services. There is virtually unlimited amount of potential in this field and TCS has probably taken one of the smallest step in one of the most gigantic field of opportunity and is undoubtedly destined to some outstanding performance in ITIS in years to come. I think it will be pretty soon when ITIS services will overtake IT services in terms of total profit and revenue.
A more clear picture of ITIS
If you want me to help you relate to some real-world scenario which might clear your doubts further, lets take up some examples. Say for example a company like SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited) which all of us are familiar with. They must be having a pretty decent volume of data to handle with so much of construction work going on all across India and with such huge volume of finances involved.
If they want to move all their data from the huge files on their tables to the computer systems (you can be sure they already do), they have moved to the world where they will be requiring ITIS. Because the moment they start using computers to facilitate and speed up their work, they are automatically stepping into a world in which they do not have expertise (try not to use your imagination and relate the use of steel in your computer motherboard or CPU cabinet!). Soon their data volume will increase, hence the need for more servers, hence comes a service for Data Management. Soon they will be concerned with security issues, hence the need for more secure environments, hence comes a service for Security. They might be using a software for managing and faster processing of their data. Soon they will want to get the best quality performance of the particular software, hence the need for upgrading to a better version or to a different better software, hence comes a service for Application Management. Thus every aspect related to the technology they will be using will invariably have a Service aspect associated with it.
Detailed picture of job roles in TCS ITIS
TCS ITIS is the service started by TCS for quite sometime now. It ranges currently across most of the industries like banking, healthcare, retail, telecom, etc. It promises and undoubtedly delivers an enhanced quality of service to help their clients experience the perfect ITIS solutions they can yearn for. You can read my detailed comparison of IT and ITIS for a more clear idea. Here I have tried to provide some insights into what the job role might be like for each of the ITIS services offered by TCS. At the end of each job role, I have provided an approximate rating of technical skill that I feel might be required in the particular job role along with an analysis. Each an every of these job roles offered by TCS are dreams to thousands of IT professionals. So there shouldn’t be any doubt whether you should go ahead for it! You can feel free to comment below. I would also recommend you to download the ITIS document from the download page to have a better understanding of this field.
| IT Service Desk | TCS says “We define a service desk (SD) as the single-point contact for all IT-related issues for our clients. Our geographic spread and thorough understanding of IT Infrastructure technologies helps us provide you with quick turnaround solutions from concept to service delivery in 30+ local languages, with certainty of cost, quality and schedule.” Type of Job: Well, it can be somewhat like a technical helpdesk kind of job. I doubt if the people in the IT Service Desk will actually be working on the issues that arise. They will take calls from users all across the world and record the problems they are having. They will then transfer the issues depending on the type of problem to the respective technical team (Database Team, Security Team, etc). They will be more concerned with updating the list of issues and events, keeping a track of the issues, contacting and updating the user, following up with the technical teams, suggesting resolutions to the user. Tools they will be using might include all sorts of sophisticated mobile technology like desktop sharing, video conferencing, etc. Tech Skill Required: 5/10 Resources Recommended: This book might be of pretty decent use. |
| Data Center Management Services | TCS says “TCS’ Data Center Services offer comprehensive data center support. They help design and manage data centers across heterogeneous platforms and support these with global hosting capabilities. Our solutions optimize and consolidate the data center and its resources, leading to improved service levels and reduced cost of ownership.” Type of Job: This job might range across a pretty broad array of opportunities ranging from Database Administrators to handling the glitches in the network server which might call for candidates expert in networking. But no doubt the majority of the people will have to expert in SQL and PL/SQL apart from having knowledge of DBA activities. There are a lot of things to learn which are specific to DBAs only. If you want to start preparing now, you can start with this book by Oracle right away. It will undoubtedly give you a complete grasp over the subject to begin with your DBA career. Tech Skill Required: 9/10 Resources Recommended: This book appears to be the best in the market. You will surely not need to ask anyone again about theoretical knowledge if you manage to put it into your head. But if it seems too pricey, you can go through this link to get some overview. Go through the pages to gather some decent concepts and also the images will help you get some clear visualization of the work environment. |
| End-User Computing Services | TCS says “TCS’ End User Computing Services (EUCS) provide services to seamlessly transform the end-user computing landscape from its current state to a world-class environment by utilizing an analytics-based transformation approach to enhance end-user productivity and save costs.” Type of Job: This service will surely involve most of the modern technologies that are coming out starting from cloud computing to security solutions. So hardware as well as software programmers for any kind of platform might be a default requirement. Compatibility and 24x7 availability will no doubt involve cross-platform testing and thus might involve thorough testing of most applications before they are being produced to the client for their use. These applications need to be of top-class quality and hence not the mildest bug or glitches of any sort would be entertained. But I tend to give it a touch low rating below because I am not sure how much repetitive the work will be like. If the same work needs to be done daily to resolve similar problems or issues, I won’t rate it high on technical skill. But if it’s not the case, consider it fine. Tech Skill Required: 7/10 Resources Recommended: This book is the cheapest and the best in the market. Due to huge demand this book might be temporarily out of stock. Many other books are available but they cost well above Rs. 3000. |
| Application Management Services | TCS says “ Growing application dependency and dynamism of the enterprise’s business environment require organizations to derive more out of its IT investments in its endeavor to align IT to business objectives. In this context, the need to ensure that your applications are at their peak performance with minimum downtime becomes critical TCS’ Application Management portfolio, by leveraging our vast experience in the application space, ensures that your enterprise has a reliable and available application eco-system through proactive 24X7 monitoring and performance tuning. ”Type of Job: Many large organizations nowadays revert to top notch application usage to meet their analytical, financial processing, data processing needs. These applications need to be managed well and supported well by the vendor (not necessarily always the vendor, third parties might also help the organization to fix bugs in the application software built by a different vendor) to provide the correct, accurate and perfect output as expected. The needs of the organization might also change from time-to-time which inevitably leads to the developers and coding jumping into the scenario and providing the solution. But I am skeptical here as well, what if the organization using the application does not report any bugs or issues for a long time, or they do not need any upgradation or any new feature to meet their needs for years. But as you can see, this might well vary for different organizations and different clients and projects. Tech Skill Required: 6/10 Resources Recommended: There is no book as such as this is a pretty vast domain. You can go through this link to have some clearer idea regarding this type of service. |
| Converged Network Services | TCS says “TCS’ Converged Network Services offer a robust data network backbone that helps you converge your voice, data, video and other multimedia communication applications. It increases your operating efficiencies, reduces expenditure and promotes business interactions among employees, partners, customers, and any other internal or external agencies, thereby powering your processes and functions.” Type of Job: This service will be an amazing one with the convergence of virtually of all technologies available to mankind till date. It will be a mixture of electronics, software, hardware, electrical and computer engineering at it’s very best. Platforms and files can range from anything to anything. Quality of service is promised to be of utmost priority, hence the coding standards needs to be high no doubt. There is immense opportunity to become a network admin or database admin or admin of any technology in this service. To start preparing yourself, just collect some names of books from your seniors and buy here. But I doubt how much work will be done for networking internally as TCS has Cisco as one of it’s biggest partners in this field. Tech Skill Required: 9/10 Resources Recommended: This book I have found very informative. I have also found it’s recommendation in many sites. It’s a bit pricey but seems to be worth it. |
| Managed Security Services | TCS says “TCS’ Managed Security Services help you with comprehensive and cost-efficient security solutions that enable you to meet your regulatory compliance and data integrity needs.” Type of Job: This service will survive forever as long as hard disks and computers survive. Yes, security is given the topmost priority in each and every organization which use Information Technology. So to manage data securely and in an efficient manner, developers will need to be abreast with all the latest developments and coding standards and certifications. You will surely not like it if your code has a loophole which a hacker was just waiting for! Tech Skill Required: 9/10 Resources Recommended: This is one of the finest domains and hence to read a particular book on a certain topic will not be enough. Hence I would recommend this article for you to go through and get a clear idea. |
| Enterprise System Management | TCS says “ TCS’ IT IS Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) services focus on addressing the critical needs of your enterprise toward ESM tools implementation and operations. We collaborate with you to create an ESM tools services strategy that addresses the specific needs of your organization, ensures data and infrastructure availability, increases responsiveness and improves reporting and real-time dashboards. ”Type of Job: According to Wikipedia, “ Centralized management has a time and effort trade-off that is related to the size of the company, the expertise of the IT staff, and the amount of technology being used”. Tech Skill Required: 7/10 Resources Recommended: I will recommend any one to start reading this book right away. |
| IT Service Management | TCS says “The recent economic challenges have thrown the IT industry open to new arenas such as the migration to a Cloud environment, adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) models, IT management by leveraging multiple suppliers and so on. TCS’ IT Service Management offers a comprehensive solution to help its customers establish a strong governance and setup a unified and standardized operating environment.” Type of Job: There is a revolution going on currently in the technology world with newer, faster, bolder and more complex ones coming out to provide some awesome services to the organizations and individuals. Starting from cloud computing to to conferencing technologies, there had been progress by leaps and bounds. This service area is going to include programmers, developers, tester, support activities of all sorts. It is destined to grow with more and more organizations looking up to IT these days to meet their needs. I would happily rate it a 9. Tech Skill Required: 9/10 Resources Recommended: This book will be a crisp and handy one for an overview in this subject. |
| Transformation Solutions | TCS says “TCS’ Transformation Solutions focus on the optimization and transformation of enterprise IT infrastructure through its analytics-led Enterprise Transformation Framework. They transform your traditional computing environments, which are plagued with poor utilization, high complexity and high Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), into highly efficient, agile and optimized infrastructure, capable of meeting business goals effectively.” Type of Job: There are many different kinds of models followed by different organizations. Each of these models can be optimized to an extent that nearly achieves perfection with zero hiccups in every part. Such a service will certainly require candidates from all sorts of technologies because organizations differ in technology for the same task. It will be going to a very big team and it is difficult to say where you would fit. But the technologies would be nice no doubt, and hence I would give it a moderate 7. Tech Skill Required: 7/10 Resources Recommended: This is another ocean where there can be virtually anything. Hence I would recommend you to go through this and this to gather some knowledge in the mean time. |
Read more...
Now coming to team work, people are really considered lucky here if they are in a good team. That is because there are many teams where people suffocate into and are forced to look for other options. A nice team to start with in your professional career is truly a boon. You get to learn a lot of things which will help you in your career in the long run. Things you learn not only helps in you current job role, but also to grow as a working professional. People get less tired mentally and even physically when they are into a good team. Productivity of an employee increases by leaps and bounds when colleagues around him are always ready to help and cooperative. The productivity of the team as a whole rises inevitably amidst such positive atmosphere. 
good team also teaches you interpersonal skills which are vital in the service sector. 
Now coming to the odd ones who find it difficult to cope in a team. Their stress level undoubtedly rises. If he’s the good guy finding himself or herself surrounded by a sea of politics and work is being extracted out of him and passed on as other’s work and his visibility to his bosses is being reduced to the minimum so that everyone else gets the credit for his work, it is indeed a nightmare for him. He is the sole person working. He cannot raise his voice. This is when it gets out of hand. Because we cannot keep on accepting injustice forever. Everything has an end to it. The higher management would be informed about this sooner or later and actions are bound to be taken. If that is not the case, unfortunately and inevitably, the person will try to move someplace else. 
with their waist size. Disclaimer: Don’t get slapped ogling at anyone and blame me for that). 
pretty huge. Let’s start with food. We can never stop having non-veg. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stop eating cheese and can’t opt for chicken pizzas with less cheese in them! We can’t stop having chicken biriyani, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reduce our frequency of having it. Same applies for cold drinks too. It would be a sin if you tell me to stop having cold stuffs. But as you see, it’s still in our control without much controlling ourselves! And this would also allow you to freely eat during office parties and hangouts with your girlfriend(s!). 
Surely none of would like it if we get into an unwanted shape in the middle of our life! So it will always pay if you can get some time out of your busy schedule to do some physical activity. And by that it does not always mean to hit the gym. Use the stairs instead of the lift. If your place is within 6 storeys, you can always use the stairs. Might not be daily, but 2-3 times a week would be pretty decent. 
look at you when you enter office at 10.01am and raise her eyebrows as high as her receding hairline when you say you are leaving after 9 hours of strenuous work. We see the calm-faced well-dressed Mr. X give you a thrashing personally after calling you into one of the meeting rooms (oh how I wish one of these rooms writes an autobiography, even Ram Gopal Varma would have got some new plot for his next film!) when he felt you might not be able to meet a deadline, using words and phrases you never knew he could use them (or still better, you don’t know them yourself!). Recollect Chappell showing you the middle finger and tossing the players in and out? Well, there couldn’t be a better comparison, you are the scapegoat and you are in as long as you are worth some codes! 
necklace rather than let her be a Mrs. Z!). Yes, you heard right, early in the morning when all the lights of the quadrant are still off. He sits like a zombie checking his mails and doesn’t notice when people enters or leaves, only thing he is concerned is work and work and work and work. When he looks at you, he doesn’t see ‘you’, he sees the ‘work assigned to you’! Such is the height, if you wish him ‘Happy Birthday’, he replies back ‘Hi! Did you complete the work assigned to you before you left yesterday?’. You start thinking ‘Did the #@$% hear me just now!!!! x-( ‘. But you keep a calm face and answer, ‘Yes Z (#@$%), I am looking into it’. Management is something to him as golf is to Sachin Tendulkar. Technically immensely sound with decades of expertise under the belt, but that had come for a price, null value for management skill! 
Feed Readers
E-updates
RSS
