VMware bets big on R&D in India, to invest $120 mn

Though India hasn't completely warmed up to the cloud, vendors are confident that it's only a matter of time. Cloud and virtualization have not yet picked up here, but India was an undebated choice for VMware's new R&D facility and a multi-year investment of $120 million in a facility in Bengaluru.

VMware sees a promising future and expects the impact that the mobile revolution had in India, especially with an increase in telecom bandwidth, revealed Nirnajan Maka managing site director, India R&D. The transition to cloud may be gradual, but Maka ensures that it is inevitable in the IT industry. On his visit to Bengaluru, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger warned in a media report that IT service providers can expect lousy profit margins until they get to the other side during the change-over. And that's the stage most companies today are in.

Public, private or hybrid for India?

At present, private cloud has the highest number of takers in the country, as it comes with internal servers and infrastructure and assures companies that data is secure. "However, companies are warming up to the hybrid model as they can extend the capacity as per their need," Maka added.

Why Bangalore

On being asked why Bangalore was the chosen destination, Maka revealed in an interview with Dataquest, "Bangalore has the kind of people we are looking for in areas like storage, telecom and web technologies. It also provides a good partner-ecosystem with system integrators like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, talent like IBM and Accenture and other companies like Cisco, NetApp and EMC."

The R&D facility

He also mentioned that the upcoming R&D facility is under construction in South Bangalore and will be ready by the third or fourth quarter this year. He added, "By complete, we mean not just a brick and mortar facility, but an environment that triggers innovation and creativity." The facility will employ 2,700 employees, while VMWare's overall headcount in India stands at around 2,000 today.