Intentional about expanding beyond metro cities, says IBM India

'In India, we have had a multi-city approach where we wish to be closer to where our clients are. Software Labs, System Labs and Research Labs are all in different locations'

Even as it sets up its fifth Software Lab in the country at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), IBM India on Thursday said that it was intentional about expanding beyond metro cities.

"In India, we have always had a distributed location. We have had a multi-city approach where we wish to be closer to where our clients are. Software Labs, System Labs and Research Labs are all in different locations. This will be the fifth Software Lab after Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai," said Sandip Patel, managing director of IBM India.

The Software Lab by IBM India at GIFT City, Gandhinagar will focus on product engineering, design, and development of new products and solutions in the areas of security, sustainability software, data & artificial intelligence (AI), and automation and collaborate with the technology ecosystem in the region to co-create solutions for the global industry.

Commenting on the lab and the talent being attracted for the same, Tom Rosamilia – Senior Vice President, IBM Software said, "Investments made in GIFT City and Ahmedabad will make our employees not travel far. At IBM Software Lab we will be focusing on cyber security, sustainability, data, AI and automation."

According to Nickle LaMoreaux, senior vice president and chief human resource officer, IBM, even as the global major is "being intentional" about expanding beyond metro cities to non-metro cities such as Gandhinagar, the move will also give the company a first mover advantage in terms of acquiring talent.

Talking about opportunities in hybrid cloud and enterprise AI, Rosamilia said that post pandemic digitization had been happening rapidly, leading to increased opportunities, especially in the two domains.

" About 10 years of digitisation is happening in two years. We are investing in acquisition and organic growth in two areas, namely hybrid cloud and enterprise AI. We are now much more open to partnerships and co-operate with those we compete with. We are partnering with the likes of AWS and Microsoft for hybrid cloud, wherein AWS makes IBM cloud services available on AWS cloud platform," he added.

Meanwhile, Patel stated that the company has been moving to wherever its ecosystem partners were present, whether domestic or global.

"The presence of our lab in the GIFT City, is a milestone development that will add to the competitiveness and business attractiveness of the state while also serving as a vital innovation hub globally. We bring our global best practices to Gujarat, especially in product design, engineering, and software development. By drawing on the skills and talent here, we can together build a strong base for developing and delivering next-generation solutions," Patel added.