VMware India gears up for bigger global role

Working for VMware India isn't your ordinary technology job on the subcontinent.

Unlike some R&D facilities that are limited to testing and quality assurance, and nothing more, VMware's Indian innovation presence forms a key plank in the company's global software manufacturing machine. The development of the recent vCloud Hybrid Service was a joint effort between Bangalore and Palo Alto.

But the company isn't stopping there.

It has just invested US$120 million to contruct a new building that can house up to 3,000 workers, a substantial portion of which will be the R&D workforce.

Niranjan Maka, VMware India managing site director, R&D, is himself on a mission to transform the culture of his territory. Not only will it jointly develop technologies with its sister facilities around the world, he hopes that one day India will actually develop the next generation of intellectual property and products that will drive the company's future growth.

Niranjan Maka believes that VMware is just starting out on its journey to transform the computing landscape. that companies utilize their computing power, and he said there's a similar opportunity in the areas of data center and networking. He believes the in this change.

This was the floor that 50 VMware Indian R&D workers the vCloud Connector (VCC), which sits at the heart of the recently released vCloud Hybrid Service. The VCC seamlessly transfers a customer's workloads between their private and public cloud assets. Maka said the vCloud Hybrid service was jointly developed by the company's Bangalore and Palo Alto offices.

This data center was used to simulate how the , and other products, would work in the real world. It's also where the company develops prototype software products for customers. A bigger data centre will be located in the new US$120 million R&D building.

The building hosts the company's 800-strong workforce, almost double the number employed two years ago. This figure is  to 1,000 by year-end. These workers contribute in a range of areas including software defined data center, hybrid cloud and end-user computing.

In order to maintain morale, staff are encouraged to explore their personalities outside work. This includes the Take Three program that encourages workers to take a three-month sabbatical to develop a product that complements their everyday work.

Sitting opposite Oracle's offices in the Kalyani tech park, VMware occupies six floors in the building: 1st and 2nd floor are for R&D; 3rd is for operations and sales; 4th, 5th and 9th floors host the company's global support services. However, the company's presence will soon be consolidated in a 3,000 person US$120 million building, being constructed on the other side of Bannerghatta Road (not shown here).