Juniper to scale up B'lore centre

Buoyed by the success shown by Indian techies in evolving end-to-end products in quick time, data networking firm Juniper Networks is set to scale up its Bangalore operations significantly by shifting work from various geographies.

In two years, the Bangalore centre, which currently accounts for 28 per cent of Juniper's worldwide R&D activity, will handle more than 40 per cent of the firm's research and development work.

Apart from Bangalore, Juniper has R&D centres in US, China, Canada and Israel.

"Though our US R&D centre is the largest at present, it is clearly the Bangalore Centre, which is showing growth. The Bangalore R&D centre will continue to participate in developing and owning specific products. The percentage growth of R&D work in Bangalore will be higher than any other centre," said Kim Perdikou, executive vice-president, Infrastructure Products, Juniper Networks.

"There is a phenomenal talent pool here, some of the smartest engineers, who bring in the innovation factor. That Bangalore is participating in development of all our products is a testimony to the skills of our Indian team," she added.

Of Juniper's 600 staff strength in India, engineers account for 540. Last year, the firm doubled its headcount in Bangalore. "We are aiming for a critical mass to drive the product development process. Bangalore will account for 50 per cent of our worldwide hiring next year," she said indicating major expansion ahead in India.

According to her, the Bangalore R&D centre played a critical role in the development of networking platforms, routers and security products: "Bangalore has already developed five fully-owned products. We will move some of the largest and strategic products to Bangalore shortly."

The firm's net revenues for the third quarter of 2006 were $573.6 million, compared with $546.4 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 5 percent.

The net revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2006, stood at $1,707.8 million, compared with $1,488.5 million for the same period last year, an increase of almost 15 percent. At present, the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, generates 23 per cent of the firm's revenue.

With the telecommunication sector opening up rapidly, Juniper plans to tap the Indian market.

"Though revenues from India are very small compared with rest of the markets, it is the fastest growing. It has the potential to grow for the next 10-15 years depending on the expansion of broadband network," Perdikou stated.