VMware likely to invest up to $500 million in India operations

NEW DELHI: VMware has announced that it projects investment of up to $500 million in India over the next three years to help fund its growing operations in this market.

The company's R&D and support operations in India are second in size and scale only to those at VMware's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., U.S. In 2013, company headcount in India grew 17 percent to 2,300, while the recent acquisition of AirWatch has added additional employees in Bangalore.

During a visit to Bangalore, CEO Pat Gelsinger said, "India continues to play a crucial role in our global product roadmap and growth strategy. The country's outstanding engineering talent continues to impress us, and we stay committed to investing and growing our team here over the long term."

Gelsinger added, "The investments earmarked will also enable VMware to further strengthen its leadership position in India's fast maturing virtualization and cloud computing market."

A VMware-sponsored study on server virtualization in Asia Pacific - the IDC Server Economies Index - estimated that server virtualization will save businesses in India approximately US$3.89 billion by 2020. This figure reflects the costs normally associated with servers, power, cooling, real estate and server administration.

VMware established a presence in India in 2005, and today serves nearly 3,500 customers and works with approximately 100 partners. Over the last nine years, VMware's sales operations have expanded across India. VMware occupies premises in Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai, as well as Mumbai and New Delhi. Globally, VMware reported a record $5.21 billion in revenues for full-year 2013, representing year-on-year growth of 13 percent.