Riverbed to ramp up R&D ops, add 140 engineers in 2-3 years

US-based tech firm Riverbed Technologies today said it will ramp up its R&D function in India and add over 140 engineers in the next 2-3 years, as it looks to cash in on the rich talent pool in the country.
Riverbed, which has set up its new R&D facility in Bengaluru, is also looking at making an investment of about USD 100 million over the next few years.
"We started with just a few engineers in Bangalore in 2014. Today, we have 70+ engineers, with plans to grow that three-fold in the next 2-3 years. In addition to our engineering team, the Bangalore facility now also serves as the Riverbed India Sales and Operations HQ," Riverbed Technology Chairman and CEO Jerry M Kennelly told PTI.

Including about 30 IT staff, Riverbed has over 100 people in India, he added.
The Bangalore facility is Riverbed's largest R&D unit outside the US. It's San Francisco R&D centre has approximately 450 engineers.
Riverbed's solutions help improve application performance on computer networks.

"Our team in Bangalore works in lock-step the global R&D team, across each of our core product lines. They're focused on developing next-generation cloud networking and application performance technologies that make applications, websites, networks, data centres, the cloud, and remote offices work better," he said.
He added that Riverbed will roughly make a USD 100 million investment over the 10 year facility lease period, with most of that represented by the salaries paid to India staff.

"India is a strategic market for Riverbed - one that is ripe with opportunity for us - both from an R&D and business growth perspective. Our business in India is on a strong trajectory for growth. We'll continue to make incremental investments aimed at better serving our existing customers as well as growing the business," Kennelly said.
These investments will be made as direct resources (growing sales/operation capability), new/existing partner relationships and bringing new innovation to market, he added.
"The availability of world-class talent, advanced infrastructure and proximity to other fast-growing emerging markets of the world are key reasons behind this decision," he said.

Riverbed opened its first R&D facility in India in 2014. The expansion of the R&D centre in Bangalore will enable the team to take on a greater share of development in emerging technology areas such as software-defined edge and software-defined WAN (SD-WAN).
The Riverbed India R&D Center will be led by Kartik Subbanna, Vice President of Engineering, reporting to US-based Vineet Abraham, Riverbed's Senior Vice President of Engineering.