NetApp focuses on India to boost global growth

The Bengaluru centre is home to NetApp's largest research and development team

US-based storage company NetApp is expanding its India presence as a step forward to realign its business towards growth markets.

The company recently announced it would reduce six per cent of its 10,000 employees across regions to cut cost. It expects this to save nearly $130 million (Rs 870 crore) over time.

“We announced a set of transformative changes, so that we could move investments from the places we have been in to the places where the industry is headed. I think we are through with the major restructuring of our business,” said George Kurian, chief executive officer.

While the company is reducing its headcount from different regions, it has built a Global Centre for Excellence in this city, with a capacity of at least 3,000 engineers. This centre, which employs nearly 2,000 engineers, will cater to customers across the world. NetApp also announced a start-up accelerator programme, Escape Velocity, to initially work with four to six of these entities.

The Bengaluru centre is home to NetApp’s largest research and development (R&D) team and the company is expected to add at least 1,000 more people. Kurian hinted at fresh hiring in India while inaugurating the facility on Wednesday.

“Our industry as a whole is growing faster in India than it does across the world. We intend to make it a global centre of excellence and so we have the capability to expand from our R&D presence to being a truly multi-function site. We intend to do that over the next several years and are excited to have a home that is a world-class facility (and) that allows us to attract the best talent in India. You will see us do that,” he said.

The company said it had been part of “smart city” projects in India and was working with the governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, the Airports Authority of India and on other digitisation initiatives.

The company added it expected a pro-growth environment for the information technology sector in the US. “(President) Trump recognises that the sector has been a source of employment and a source of pride for Americans. We believe he will have a set of policies that will support and encourage the growth of our institutions,” said Kurian.