Bangalore to be Cisco's core product, IP centre

Kavitha Vivek, Bangalore,
September 27, 2002

Cisco Systems Inc is increasingly looking at Bangalore as its core product and IP development center, as part of its thrust to develop each one of its activity centers into an area of expertise for specific tech niches.

Interestingly, after the company launched its Cisco Works SNMS (small network management solution), a product completely conceptualised and built in India for the global market, Cisco's network management group is looking at India as a launch pad for developing more enterprise network management products specifically aimed at catering to the small and medium sized players.

Cisco Systems Inc senior director, enterprise management business unit, Bill Ahlstrom said the idea was to create a seamless integration of the development, testing, release engineering teams, etc whereby the work load could be shared.

"Of the 350 member team in the enterprise management business, close to 240 are in India, which makes India the hub for product development. While Bangalore has emerged as the key center for test/simulation and core product development, Chennai will have development, testing and device management expertise, while the US team will focus on the infrastructure aspect," he said.

The idea was to create self sustaining fully focused development and marketing groups within proximity of each other, he added.

Also following the launch of its CW SNMS product, launched last year to serve the mid market (since Cisco had so far focused only on the small -Cisco Works for Windows product - and large player segment) the company is planning to integrate more India specific features for its new releases in Indian markets. "The CW SNMS was built with India in mind and this product found global takers. Markets in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region are also price sensitive, so we are now looking at using this product as a platform to add more functionality but not necessarily increasing the price," said Cisco Systems India manager product marketing (network management services) Abhik Biswas.

Cisco is also banking on its Cisco Works Resource Manager (CWRM) suite of software applications that are bundled with the network management products to add value to the offering. "Our thrust for network management products is to simplify network management and automate routine operations. Our solutions like software image management module, inventory management software etc offer the operator the facility to connect to expert sources of software, analysing the hardware/software connected on the network, matching the devices linked with the version of the software being distributed/upgraded, etc all automatically. This is a big value addition that customers are seeking," Cisco Systems Inc manager product marketing EMBU networking Mark Emmerson said.

Source: The Financial Express