Big guns return to IT.COM

BANGALORE: The big boys return to India’s largest infotech show, BangaloreIT.Com, with big bucks signaling that the industry is on the recovery path.

While IBM is sponsoring the Open Source conference at the show, Intel is sponsoring the "Students’ Internet World."

AMD, on the other hand, has piped the big traditional spenders and has taken up 100 square meters of exhibition space besides being the ‘Platinum Sponsor’ for the event. "This is the single largest spend for any event in India for AMD," said AMD’s senior marketing specialist, Rahul Singh.

Microsoft and Oracle, the two other traditional big spenders have still not confirmed their participation. Microsoft launched its Windows XP in 2001 at the same event. This time, AMD is launching its 64-bit Athlon processor during the show.

From the Indian players, TCS and Ramco have signed up with big spends, according to organizers.

The expenditure for the event serves as a spending barometer by the big guns in the recent times on marketing initiatives. The show is held from November 1^st to 5^th every year.

The event is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Last year President Abdul Kalam inaugurated the event and added his own special touch by engaging hundreds of school children in an hour long "Internet Class."

This year’s show includes a Regulator’s summit, International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Global Outsourcing Forum, a Knowledge Summit, E-Governance Summit and a mentoring clinic. The total exhibition space available is 20,000 square meters and with two months to go, 33 per cent has been taken up.

Among the countries participating in the Country Pavilion include UK, Germany, China and Japan.