Prakash Advani's Blog

Tripping valuations of unicorns might have set a dull tone for startups this year, but many industry experts believe that companies that are doing things “the right way” will continue to secure funding. Companies like Big Basket, Practo, Car Dekho, MSwipe and Urban Ladder have continued to show progress in their respective business models in spite of a weak environment.

Prakash Advani, Canonical’s Regional Director, Sales & Alliances – India & South East Asia said that companies should raise capital as the last resort. If they can quickly convert their ideas into a profitable business then they don’t need to give up on equity.

Read More: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274986

Front page news Economic Times, Bangalore Edition.

“India is the fastest growing market for us with great stickiness and adoption of Ubuntu. It is definitely one of our key focus markets globally,“ said Prakash Advani, regional manager for Asia Pacific at Canonical.

Read More: 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/india-opens-up-to-operating-system-ubuntu/articleshow/39682855.cms

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31815&articlexml=India-Opens-Up-to-Ubuntu-05082014001077

Operating system Ubuntu is set to release another Long Term Support (LTS) version Ubuntu 14.04 in India tomorrow.

“In April 2012, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was launched and it is slated to release another LTS version Ubuntu 14.04 globally, including India on April 17,” Canonical Asia-Pacific Regional Manager Prakash Advani told PTI here.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/ubuntu-to-release-lts-version-in-india-tomorrow-114041601243_1.html

“Indians prefer to be in the services sector and would not want to get into experimenting on products business, which is a high-risk, high-reward proposition,” says Prakash Advani, Regional Manager, Asia Pacific, Canonical.

‘It all depends upon the DNA. If you need to be in the space, you need to have the mindset of taking the risk for high rewards. Even if one is willing to take the risk, the company needs to be incorporated in the US, so that VC funding becomes easy,” says Prakash.

Read More: http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-facebook-s-acquisition-of-whatsapp-why-indians-are-not-in-the-big-idea-space-1963802

Virtualization and its many flavors has been one of the most dominating and influential technologies that has evolved over the past five years. While the technology has gained wide acceptance, it is also seen as a key element behind the cloud computing wave that is sweeping the IT landscape today.

Indian IT partners have started adopting the technology and are building successful business practices around it. In this article, we take a look at key trends in the virtualization market.

“Canonical is keen to explore opportunities, and offers very flexible packages for partners looking at virtualization services. Open source is emerging as not just a cost-effective alternative but also as an equally secure and stable alternative,” says Prakash Advani, Regional Manager, Asia Pacific, Canonical.

Read More on CRN.

From the The online vigilantes

In a similar vein, industry watcher and erstwhile journalist Prakash Advani says, “For any democratic country, freedom of speech is important… And even though ours is a democracy, it is not easy for people to express their opinions freely… groups like Anonymous have found ways to express themselves. “

From Deccan Herald Article:

The Android-based smartphones which can work like PCs by connecting them with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, will be out in the market in a matter of months, said Canonical, developer of the Ubuntu Operating System.

Read more.

Recently published postcast on Ubuntu Cloud. This was recorded at Intel Cloud Summit.

Conversations in the Cloud.

Direct link to the pod cast.

During my interview with Hindu Business Line, they also took a video about Ubuntu.

From my interview in Hindu Business Line:

“I have been using the latest Ubuntu 11.04 on a laptop that’s almost three years now and I don’t see any degradation of performance,” says Prakash.

I have been quoted in this article.

Apple released a feature of its Mac OS named LaunchPad. LaunchPad is a development, bug tracking platform of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. Canonical doesn’t seem to have deep pockets to sue Apple over the usage of name LaunchPad. Canonical’s Prakash Advani told our editor that “We are glad Apple likes our brand name! The purpose of Canonical’s Launchpad.net and Apple’s Launch pad are different, hence non-competing.” No surprises two years from now Apple sues Canonical over LaunchPad.

Read More.

I have been slashdotted!

“Delivering the keynote at the Ubuntu Developer Summit at Budapest, Hungary, Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Canonical’s goal is to have 200 million Ubuntu users in four years. Canonical has not officially provided any data on how many Ubuntu users there currently are — in fact, the number is quite difficult to track. However, according to Prakash Advani, a partner manager for Central Asia at Canonical, there are an estimated 12 million Ubuntu users.”

My Interview in Muktware.com.

Ubuntu, the Canonical-sponsored operating system is gaining new grounds – in both enterprise and consumer segments. The Company now has new challenges — the challenges which develop as a company grows. We talked to Prakash Advani, Partner Manager – Central Asia at Canonical,  to understand how Canonical is preparing Ubuntu for the future.

What are the challenges? Is Canonical planning to enter the hardware business and offer an Apple-like solution, fully optimized hardware for the OS? Has Ubuntu missed the tablet bus as Android, despite being not prepared for this form-factor has seen great adoption? What is Canonical’s stand on Apple using Canonical’s brand Launchpad? Will we see professional film-editing software on Ubuntu? Will you be playing the Call of Duty on Ubuntu any soon? There are many such questions buzzing every Ubuntu user. If you want to find out the answers, read on…

http://www.muktware.com/a/3/2/29/2010/531?page=0,0

I was quoted in this article:

Prakash Advani of Canonical said, “It is unlikely that Oracle will be allowed to close down the open source version of MySQL. The open source community had submitted suggestions to the European Union commission that looked into the Oracle-Sun acquisition which specifically aimed at removing the possibility of such an event taking place. However, in case something like this does happen, developers can always create forks of MySQL.”

Read More.

Ubuntu that it launched last week, to penetrate markets such as India where an impending launch of third generation (3G) services is expected to make cloud computing accessible to individual users.

I have been quoted in this article in The Mint:

Prakash Advani, partner and manager, central Asia, at Canonical, said once broadband connectivity improves through 3G networks, Ubuntu’s built-in cloud capabilities will popularize it among computer users as well as businesses.

Read the complete article.

IT budget cuts, an improved ecosystem and more maturity have boosted the demand for open source applications in Indian enterprises.

Read this article.

I have been quoted in this article.

It’s benefits like these that have changed the attitude of enterprises towards open source solutions. Opines Prakash Advani, Partner Manager for Central Asia, Canonical, “Initially there was a certain amount of resistance (towards open source) due to user resistance to change, but this has changed in the recent past.”

Ubuntu is an increasingly popular version of Linux today, and it seems easier for new users to sink their teeth into this free operating system with each new release.

I have been quoted in this article in the Hindu:

It is this focus on the ease-of-use factor that has contributed to Ubuntu’s popularity. Prakash Advani, partner manager, Central Asia at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, said a survey conducted last year revealed that India accounted for the largest number of Ubuntu server users among the various countries surveyed.

Read the complete article.

From this article on Novell-Microsoft Agreement.

Prakash Advani, Linux practice head of Novell Indian subcontinent said, “With this agreement we aim to make customers work in a mixed environment where they use both Linux and Windows. It’s essential that both operating systems work seamlessly.”

Express Computer article has covered my presentation at Technology Sabha 2007.

My Article in FE.

Oracle’s announcement of providing support on Red Hat Linux is a clear indication that Linux has arrived. Linux, which started out as a hobby among some engineers, is today enterprise-ready and important enough for Oracle to provide support.

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