'Our integrated solution makes applications run faster'

Managing heavy traffic and balancing loads on data servers can give any CIO
sleepless nights. San Jose-headquartered NetScaler has been successful in
handling this problem effectively with its 9000 series application acceleration
products. Google alone has deployed around 150 NetScaler switches. Recently,
Gartner ranked NetScaler among top three revenue leaders in the booming $1 bn
application acceleration market. Interestingly, most of its innovations have
come out of its Bangalore development center. President and CEO BV Jagadeesh in
an interview with Priya Padmanabhan of CyberMedia News, threw light on NetScaler's
plans.

How has NetScaler distinguished itself in the crowded SSL-VPN space?

Yes, it is an extremely competitive space. Most of the products have not
been developed from the innovative point of view and are SSL-VPN access products
built to remotely access applications. On the other hand, NetScaler has an
integrated and unified solution, which makes the applications run faster. Our
product offers SSL VPN, application acceleration and traffic management.
Security aspects like encryption, intrusion prevention have also been looked at
and that too in an all in one single network appliance. We provide support to
most enterprise applications like Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft, SAP, OWA and
web-based applications. The latest version of our software, which will be
shipped later this year, is not just for web-based applications but also for
non-web client-server applications. This is something no other vendor offers.

What are your plans for increasing market penetration?

BV Jagadeesh

Our main market is still the US, followed by Europe and APAC. We have also
seen a 100% growth in our customer base from last year. We are moving from
customers whose business is centered on the Internet to larger enterprises.
NetScaler witnessed year-on-year growth of 155% in the enterprise space. We now
have 430 customers worldwide including Google, Amazon and SingTel.

Are you investing your money and time in any other start-ups?

I believe in giving my best into one company. I also sit on the board of
Edurite Technologies, an e-learning company and NetMagic, which is into remote
infrastructure management.

Is NetScaler witnessing considerable demand from the Indian market?

So far, we have 20 customers in India and want to expand further. I met up
with many CIOs at the CIOL C-Change summit who had been very interested in the
product.

What are your specific plans to tap the Indian market?

The fact that Cisco alone plans to do $1 bn worth business in the country is
quite amazing. While India's contribution to the revenues is not very
significant now, we hope to increase the share to 5% next year. We are targeting
customers through events like this (C-Change) where we can directly interact
with the focus group-CIOs. We also have our partnership with Apara, which has
been responsible for good wins in India.