BrAINWARS 2024

ROUND 2 SUBMISSION
Saviours of South Campus
Anuraag Adhlakha
Abdul Bari Khan
Aman Dhingra
Rohan Bakhshi
HYPOTHESIS GENERATION
PROCESS MAP:
POTENTIAL CAUSES FOR POOR PERFORMANCE
APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
● Lack of AI & data analytics integration
● Lack of elastic & scalable storage capabilities Requirement Gathering 2-4 wks
● Slow software update cycles
TECHNOLOGICAL ● Aging technology development stack
INEFFICIENCIES ● Under leveraging cross platform development frameworks
Design 6-12 wks
● Underutilization of automations in Testing & Quality Assurance
● Underutilization of microservices & serverless application solutions
● Inefficient prioritization & streamlining processes
● Lack of Parallel Development, usage of Agile & Lean Manufacturing principles Development 6-12 wks
T-T-M ● Frequent changes in project requirements disrupt development schedules
● High power consumption physical servers for development & storage
● Underutilization of server storage
● High costs of IT staff, rent, etc. Testing & Quality Assurance 3-6 wks
OPERATIONAL ● Relying solely on on-premises servers
COSTS ● Not using MVPs to verify feasibility
Deployment & Maintenance 1 wk

Disruptive Enhanced
GROWTH Migration to Software Efficiency Documentation, Training, &
STIMULATORS Cloud Servers Development through Process 1 wk
Support
Techniques Optimization
AGGREGATE T-T-M 12-36 wks
Problem Identification Implementation Strategy Competitive Analysis
TECHNOLOGICAL RESTRUCTURING CROSS PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
WHY ??? WHICH PLATFORM TO CHOOSE??
A three tiered action plan to improve operational efficiency & cost optimization BENEFITS DISADVANTAGES
● Migration to Hybrid Cloud: Public + Private Scene Builder Tool Low custom feature
● Same Source Code for ● ●
● Existing Java Libraries ● Low performance
Hybrid Cloud ● Public Cloud service model - IaaS Multiple Platforms
Easy implementation
Migration ● Use of Microservices to fasten functions run ●
using QML
● Small developer
time & server cost. ● Aging Development Stack community
● High Performance
incurs high cost due to
Portable from No Designer Tool
Cross Platform ● Cross platform development allows an app multiple code sources
●
existing website
●
● Less Native
Development to be coded once & be used on multiple OS ● Small package size Functions
● Using different platforms like JavaFX, QT,
ElectronJS AI INTEGRATION
AI DEVELOPMENT DESIGN
Integration ● Using AI elements like code generation, ● Experiment with different distinct
● Correct Recurring Syntax errors
design prototyping, flagging edge cases, UI mockups suggested by AI
==
etc. TESTING DEPLOYMENT
● Assist Testors by quickly ● Assist in deployment automations,
identifying areas prone to error version control & monitoring of app
ROADMAP FOR CLOUD MIGRATION
COST REDUCTION & T-T-M OPTIMIZATION
Preliminary Work Choosing Migration Strategy Implementation
Recommendations
● Train current IT Staff in
● Using 9R framework to decide which ● Use Automations to Cost Savings TTM Savings
managing cloud servers implement data transferring.
migration strategy is most suitable
● Use free tier services like AWS
● Since we are migrating to IaaS, ● Run post installation tests to ● Feasibility Analysis
Tier to experiment & test cloud check if system fulfills
Rehosting is the most suitable strategy Open-source Technologies
services objectives.
●
On aggregate we On aggregate
● Agile Methodology project to save 43% faster
1 3 5 ● MVP ~31% of our Time-to-Market
● Cross-Platform Development Application for new
● Reusable Code Development application
2 4 6 ● Automated Testing cost features &
functionality
● Cloud-based deployment
Identifying Current Architecture Selecting Cloud Provider Maintenance &
● Identify migratable systems of Recovery Plans ● Cloud for storage &
current architecture. ● Select the most suitable cloud ● Maintain backup documentation *Detailed figures & breakdown of projections
● Identify which functions don’t provider based on pricing model, recovery plans to deal
need 24/7 running to take data centre locations etc with cybersecurity have been highlighted in the back-up slides and
benefit of time based billing issues. the data sources linked in the appendix.

Problem Identification Implementation Strategy Competitive Analysis

COMPETITOR LANDSCAPE Cybersecurity Pitfalls & Strategies
1. Data Breaches
● For preventing unauthorized access of sensitive information
utilise MFA, Encryption and Limit Access Control.
2. API Insecurities
● API’s are required to connect with various cloud services,
which can be intercepted by unauthorized personnel.
● Can be combated by regular review of Audit Logs & testing
the security of API through security audits.
3. Cloud Misconfiguration
● Any errors made in setting up and managing the cloud
environment to be dealt through stringent SLAs
● Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) - Grant users the
minimum access required to complete their task.
Carbon Footprint Strategies
GREENTECH Choose greentech providers for procurement
PRODUCERS of hardware with renewable energy contracts

DATA CENTRE Real time analytics to optimise power

consumption, workload balancing and
ENERGY SYSTEM
HVAC usage

HYBRID CLOUD Only required power usage & less physical

MIGRATION servers contribute in reducing carbon
footprint
COST BREAKDOWN

Problem Identification Implementation Strategy Competitive Analysis

APPENDIX

Minimizing Application Development Costs Framework to Select Migration Strategy - 9R

Optimizing Time-to-Market Cybersecurity Measures

Impact of Cloud Transition Boosting Employee Productivity

Leveraging AI Capabilities Offsetting Carbon Footprint

Types of Cloud Computing Service Models Link to access used Research Papers

Types of Architecture Sheet to access Calculations

Choice of Cloud to be Adopted

MINIMIZING APP DEVELOPMENT COSTS
Current Cost Distribution: AVENUES: Projected Costs:
PROCESS MAP
$500,000 REDUCING COSTS $345,000

● Open source libraries

Requirement Gathering 7.5% = $37,500 Reduced by 30% = $26,250
● Feasibility Analysis

● Cross-Platform Development
Design 12.5% = $62,500 Reduced by 15% = $53,125
● Use of Agile Methodologies
● Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
● Reusable Code
● Trainings for developer
Code Development 50% = $250,000 productivity Reduced by 40% = $150,000

Testing & Quality Assurance 17.5% = $87,500 ● Automating processes for Testing Reduced by 25% = $65,625

Deployment & Maintenance 10% = $50,000 ● Cloud-based deployment $37,500

Documentation, Training, & ● Using cloud for hosting, storage, &

2.5% = $12,500 documentation infrastructure
$12,500
Support
OPTIMIZING TIME-TO-MARKET
WHY TO OPTIMISE T-T-M?

COMPETITIVE REDUCED R&D FASTER REVENUE MARKET SHARE

ADVANTAGE COSTS & WASTAGE UPDATION CYCLE GROWTH EXPANSION

ZenSoft can optimize their protracted time-to-market cycle by implementing

the following recommendations:
Speed
● Using a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): MVP allows you to enter
ASPECTS OF T-T-M

Focused on getting to the market first

the market quickly with a product that solves a customer problem.
● Streamlining workflows: Processes may introduce unnecessary
bureaucracy and bottlenecks that are slowing up your TTM.
Agility ● Automating Processes: There may be opportunities to speed up
Capability to improve the features of
a product faster workflows through automation.
● Using Agile: Agile is a methodology used for project management.
Work is undertaken in short “sprints” and development is iterative.
Predictability ● Integrated Marketing: Integrated marketing involves aligning
Emphasis on being predictable to marketing efforts with product development and launch activities.
ensure timely delivery ● Lean Manufacturing: Lean manufacturing principles aim to eliminate
waste and streamline production processes.
● Parallel Development: Parallel development involves breaking down
the development process into simultaneous tasks.
IMPACT OF CLOUD TRANSITION
Old Total Server Cost (125TB) Private Onsite Server (25TB) = $6,000,000
Client shall only maintain 20% of
= $30,000,000
their on premises storage under
Hybrid cloud structure adopted
New Server Cost (150TB)
Totality of previous server space is
= $22,600,000
shifted to cloud under the Hybrid
approach to not have any negative
Public Cloud Server (125TB) = $16,600,000
impact on their ops

Old Rental Expenses 20% of on premises servers only

Rent -> 20% = $480,000 requires 20% of the previous rental
= $2,400,000
area
New Rental Expenses
= $480,000
Onsite Server Staff -> 20% = $200,000 20% of on premises servers only
requires 20% of the previous IT
Old IT Staff Costs server staff costs
= $1,000,000

Remaining IT server staff is trained

New IT Staff Costs Cloud Server Staff -> 80% = $168,000 in cloud management, thus not
= $368,000 necessitating all of them to be laid
+ -79% Reduction off
(Hyperlinked)
New Aggregate
$23,448,000
(-30%)
LEVERAGING AI CAPABILITIES
REQUIREMENT GATHERING DEPLOYMENT & MAINTENANCE
Analyze large datasets of client requirements, Assist in deployment automation, version control,

ELEMENTS OF AI feedback, & existing applications to single out and monitoring of desktop applications to flag
potential pain points on which clarification is to be issues thus helping in reducing downtime
sought

DEVELOPMENT TESTING & QUALITY ASSURANCE

Code Design 1. Providing context based code suggestions to 1. Focus on Strategic Areas - AI can quickly identify
Generation Prototyping improve consistency and robustness of code areas prone to error through analysing past trends
written and recommend these to testers to anchor their
tasks
2. Easing the process by writing code from prompts
given by developers 2. Better Automation - Recognition of repetitive
and time taking testing scenarios to automate them
3. Correcting recurring syntax and spelling errors
Text Data
Manipulation Analytics DESIGN DOCUMENTATION
Experimentation with different distinct UI Generating clear and concise documentation from
mockups suggested by AI to serve as inspirations or your code comments; generate documentation,
starting points of the design teams. tutorials, and help content based on the
Creation of common UI elements and helper application's features, functionality, and user
functions interactions
TYPES OF CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICE MODELS
IaaS Requirements from the User/Customer

Infrastructure as a service, or IaaS, delivers on-demand infrastructure

resources to organizations via the cloud. IaaS is an effective cloud service Customers don’t have to manage, maintain, or
model for workloads that are temporary, experimental or that change update their own data center infrastructure, but are
unexpectedly. responsible for the operating system, middleware,
virtual machines, and any apps or data.

FaaS/Microservices

Function as a service, or FaaS, the physical hardware, virtual machine FaaS enables focus on app code by dividing servers
operating system and web server software management are all handled into scalable functions, reducing time-to-market. Pay
automatically by the cloud service provider. This feature allows developers to only for active usage, with automatic scaling and
focus solely on individual functions in their application code. robust cloud infrastructure for high availability and
cost-effectiveness.

SaaS
Software as a service, or SaaS, provides the entire application stack, Most SaaS applications are accessed directly
delivering an entire cloud-based application that customers can access and through a web browser, which means customers
use. SaaS products are completely managed by the service provider and don’t have to download or install anything on their
come ready to use, including all updates and bug fixes. devices.

PaaS
Customers still have to write the code and manage
Platform as a service, or PaaS, delivers and manages all the hardware and
their data and applications, but the environment to
software resources to develop applications through the cloud. Developers
build and deploy apps is managed and maintained by
and IT operations teams can use PaaS to develop and manage applications
the cloud service provider.
without having to build and maintain the infrastructure on their own.
TYPES OF ARCHITECTURE
Microservices Architecture
Microservices are an architectural style that
structures the application as a collection of
services. Each service can be written in a
different programming language and tested
separately.

Cloud-Based Architecture Cloud native architecture

Cloud native architecture enhances the efficiency,
Resources are offered by a third-party providers
& productivity of IT Ops teams by using a
via the internet and shared by firms and
combination of cloud computing and various
individuals on a pay per use or pay as you go Types of Cloud cloud services to create a customizable modular
basis. Incredibly elastic and scalable
Architectures infrastructure with greater scalability.

How to decide which architecture

model is best for your application? Types of Serverless

Is it monolithic-first or Does your team have an

microservice-first? existing cloud-based
DevOps and CI/CD Functions as a Service (FaaS)
process? Event-driven serverless architecture
Event-driven architecture (EDA) is based on
What is your hosting Do you need persistence
decoupled systems that run in response to Backend as a Service (BaaS)
events. An event-driven
Factorsarchitecture
affecting uses events
model? Private, public, and sessions for your
hybrid? applications?
to trigger and communicate between decoupled
Selection process
services.
Mobile Backend as a Service
CHOICE OF KIND OF CLOUD TO BE ADOPTED
Public Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid
Resources are offered by a third-party providers via the V/S Runs on servers of either the firm or outsourced to a V/S A computing environment combining private and public
internet and shared by firms and individuals on a pay per company, that is exclusively used for the benefits of the clouds to benefit from both privacy and elasticity
use or pay as you go basis. Incredibly elastic and scalable firm. This makes use of grid computing and virtualisation

FACTORS Private Cloud Public Cloud Hybrid Cloud Recommended

Control is managed through Balanced Control with direct

Complete Control over Private
CONTROL Service Level Agreements control over on premises
infrastructure and data.
(SLA)*, lesser direct control components.

Lower upfront costs, Variance in costs linked to ops

High upfront costs, consistent
COST pay-as-you-go model can lead to making margins uniform with Public
operational costs
unpredictable hidden costs revenue

Limited by physical infrastructure, Scalable, limited by on-prem

Highly scalable, can quickly
SCALABILITY needs planning and additional infrastructure for certain Hybrid
adjust to demand
investment applications

Potential latency issues and Downtime is reduced by on

Can be optimized for local users,
PERFORMANCE highly dependent on network premise servers while scalability Hybrid
low latency
strength for peak traffic retained

Requires in-house team Maintenance is managed entirely Requires maintenance for only
MAINTENANCE Public
increasing time and costs by the cloud provider on-prem and cloud systems

Quick access to the newest

Access to new technologies for
Limited by own resources and technologies provided by the
PRIVACY cloud-based components, stability Hybrid
expertise cloud provider potentially
present due to on premise
hindering stability
FRAMEWORK TO SELECT MIGRATION STRATEGY: 9R
Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift) Replatforming (Lift-Tinker-Shift) Repurchase/Replace

The rehosting strategy minimizes the This strategy optimizes the system by This strategy replaces the desired
changes to the application and only retaining the cloud architecture and functionality into a new cloud native
replicates the current system on the cloud integrating cloud monitoring as part of application.
platform, hence the lift-and-shift moniker. the database/.

Rebuilding Refactoring/Re-architecturing Revise

This strategy involves building a new This strategy is the most expensive out of A combination of several other options,
cloud-native application while discarding the lot and requires architectural changes with first modernizing the codebase and
the existing source code in current environment with cloud native then refactoring or rehosting
features

Retire - Remove Retain - Do Nothing Reuse

Cloud migration should not be executed if Reuse is the option for either
Not everything stays useful, and potential
it does not make sense for the business. consolidating similar applications and
savings exist in removing unneeded
This option also includes revisiting the services or breaking an application apart
applications.
decision later. for reusable components and developing
shared business and tech-nical services
CYBERSECURITY MEASURES
Shifting from maintaining physical servers to cloud computing introduces several cybersecurity considerations and potential
issues for ZenSoft. Here are some key cybersecurity challenges they might face along with their mitigation tactics:

CYBERSECURITY RISKS

DATA API DDoS INSIDER CLOUD

BREACHES INSECURITIES ATTACKS THREATS MISCONFIGURATION

Distributed Denial of The potential for an Cloud misconfiguration

Unauthorized access to
A security incident in Service (DDoS) attacks individual who has or refers to any errors,
APIs, can allow someone
which unauthorized can cripple cloud-based had authorized access to glitches, or gaps in the
DESCRIPTION to manipulate data and
parties gain access to services and websites by an organization's assets cloud environment that
potentially breach the
sensitive or confidential overwhelming them with to use their access for could pose a risk to
entire cloud
information massive amounts of something that can valuable information and
environment.
traffic. cause harm to the org assets.
Least Privilege Principle,
1. Role Based Access grants users the
1. API Security Testing 1. DDoS Protection Control
1. Encryption minimum amount of
MITIGATION 2. Contract third party Services 2. Incident Response
2. Limit Access Control access required to
firms for conducting 2. Distribution of Plan
STRATEGIES 3. Multi-Factor
security audits incoming traffic (Load
complete their task.
Authentication 3. Monitoring and Strict SLAs will ensure
3.Maintain in-depth logs Balancing) Auditing compliance with terms
laid out
BOOSTING EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY
Pay Disparities: Negative employee perceptions of pay equity can result in a 15%
decrease in intent to stay, 13% increase in job searching activity, and 13% decrease in
employee engagement

Employee Engagement: Organisations where employees are engaged execute better

than those whose employees are not by over 200%

Innovation: For companies where higher numbers of employees report innovation and
inclusion, median year-over-year revenue growth is more than five times higher

Workspace Optimization: 58% of high-performance employees say they need more

quiet work space and 54% say their office environment is distracting

Flexibility: According to FlexJobs’ 8th annual survey, 80% of the respondents claim
they would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options

According to research from FTSE Russell, companies that make the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list outperform the market by a factor of 3.36

Zensoft will suffer from a temporary loss in employees due to reduction in on premises server facilities.

However this is necessary to catch up with the industry and shift to a modernised approach to deal with technology, which will potentially lead to expansion
and increased hiring later, once stabilisation has been achieved.
OFFSETTING CARBON FOOTPRINT
As of 2018, Information & Communication Technology industry accounts for between 5% & 9% of total electricity consumption, and some
projections say it can grow to 20% of our total energy consumption by 2030.

Within this, the data consumption of data centres is projected to reach a total of 13% of the global energy consumption.

This development suggests a deep transformation of energy systems, from smart networks to customer management or decentralised energy
exchanges is warranted at the global level to keep enterprise carbon footprint in check.

Some important metrics based on which each technology and

Some important strategies to mitigate this are as follows:
related hardware components are to be analysed are as follows:

Procure a data centre energy

Does the provider itself provide
2 management system that
Scrutiny of core components
recycling agreements on the leverages AI
of the hardware chosen
devices sold
1 3

What is the lifecycle 4

of the technology Migrating to a hybrid cloud to store all Choosing technology providers
sensitive data on premises while that use renewable energy
Can the technology make use of real
offloading capabilities that need to be solutions and give preference to
time analytics to change its power scaled according to project procure from Green IT firms
consumption based on requirement requirements to public cloud
THANK YOU!
We’d be happy to take up any questions that
you may have now!