TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2005 12:57:16 AM]
HYDERABAD: Microsoft India Development Centre (MIDC), which is supposed to be a mirror image of its headquarters in Redmond <1050605.cms> both in looks and deeds, is being positioned as the most strategic development centre for the company in the world.
MIDC, spread across a 2.6 lakh sq ft campus in Hyderabad, is a hotbed of activities <1058477.cms> in the areas of networking, storage, data protection and mobility.
The intent is to drive multiple businesses and new product development out of the centre. The centre is well integrated into key product families of Microsoft <1076104.cms> with teams in Hyderabad operating as extensions to those at Redmond.
MIDC works on core product development from concept to completion.
Addressing a press conference on the event of the new campus becoming fully operational, Microsoft IDC managing director Srini Koppolu said, "The IDC plays an important role in contributing to future innovations in product lines at Microsoft."
MIDC has already filed for 40 patents in 2005 for various innovations and is hoping to file for an additional 70 in 2005. "We have aggressively started filing for patents to protect our intellectual property. More and more such patents will come out of India," Mr Koppolu said.
The new campus, with a seating capacity of 1,500, houses over 500 employees. The key personnel of MIDC hold over a decade of Redmond experience and there are 40 such returning Indians in the Hyderabad centre.
"Having an own campus makes us feel like we are in Redmond. The facilities are world class and the work that is getting done out of here is very significant," MIDC director (data protection manager) S Harikrishnan, who has spent years at Redmond, says.
Storage and data protection are being seen as a big opportunity at Microsoft. "We are building a centre of excellence in India on data protection," Mr Harikrishnan says.
Quoting a Gartner statistic, he says, the data backup and recovery business is estimated at $1.5 billion, of which $800 million constitutes Windows backup/recovery market.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshowindia/1078295.cms