Cisco Systems Inc. Thursday, banking on a bright future for networking in India, declared that it will invest $150 million in the country’s Internet industry over the next two years.
The plans include expansion of its sales and research and development operations and a 300 percent increase in employee strength. Ciscomade the announcement at the opening ceremony of its newly leased 60,000 sq. ft. Cisco Global Development Center in Bangalore, the company’s largest R&D facility outside the United States. Cisco has already leased an additional 175,000 sq. ft. of office space in Bangalore to cover the planned expansion.
The center will focus on developing and testing Cisco’s IOS software, ASICs, ATM, VoIP and optical internetworking.
Cisco Systems India Private Limited currently employs about 500 people in the Bangalore Cisco Global Development Center as well as in sales offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Calcutta. The employee expansion will bring that total up to about 1,500, most of whom will fill the growing requirements of the Global Development Center.
India has become an essential market for Cisco and accounted for 10 percent of the company’s revenues for the year to July 2000. Gary Jackson, vice president, Asia Operations, Cisco Systems, said India is Cisco’s second fastest growing market in the world, and has long-term importance for the company.
“We are seeing phenomenal growth in the Internet and telecommunications markets in India and there is tremendous potential for the country to establish itself as a leader in the Internet Economy,” Jackson said. “Our investments in the country are a symbol of our commitment to do what we can to help the country achieve that through next-generation infrastructure equipment and transfers of skills and knowledge.”
Jayshree Ullal, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Enterprise Line of Business, echoed Jackson’s sentiments.
“This center will play a strategic role in Cisco’s ability to rapidly develop technologies and scale our engineering processes in order to quickly deploy the solutions and products that customers are demanding in the Internet Economy,” she said.