Adaptec Inc to invest $25 m in India

HYDERABAD: Storage Solutions major, Adaptec Inc has announced plans to invest $25 m in India. Spread over a period of four years the investment will primarily go into expanding the company’s research and development operations in Hyderabad and Bangalore, informed the company’s president and CEO Robert N Stephens.

According to Ram Jayram, vice president and general manager of Storage Networking Group, Adaptec would be setting up its remotely accessible R&D Lab in Hyderabad to test various applications of its storage networking solutions product line while Bangalore will be developed as a support centre. "For the purpose, we would be adding another 25,000 sft to the existing facility in Hyderabad," said Jayram.

The company has consciously adopted the disproportionate growth model with its India development centers growing at a rate faster than its development centers worldwide, explained Stephens. He added, that Adaptec India will also be doubling its manpower strength in the country in a year’s time. The company currently employs 75 people in its R&D center in Hyderabad and 35 in Bangalore.

Stephens more than pleased with the performance of Hyderabad development center said, "Not only was the centre the first in the country to design 0.13 micron silicon chip (if we exclude the processors market), but also did it a month ahead of schedule."



The company’s expansion plans closely linked with the growing market of networked storage aims to take its revenue to at least half a billion by March 2005. "According to the industry estimates, the external storage market worldwide is estimated to be a $16b opportunity wordwide," said Jayram.

Stephens who was in Hyderabad to finalize on the expansion plans and scout for the partners in India pointed out that 28 percent of company’s revenue comes to Asia Pacific market.



Adaptec is poised to assume a leadership role in the next generation storage solutions with its TCP/IP storage solutions.


(CyberMedia News Service)