Citrix Systems launches R&D facility in Bangalore

Bangalore: Citrix Systems Inc, a provider of application delivery infrastructure, launched its second research and development facility in Bangalore and said it would invest about $200 million in the new facility over the next five years.

The company also said the new R&D centre would create more than 500 new engineering jobs in the next five years, and would house teams working across the Citrix Delivery Centre product line.

The new facility would also handle all aspects of research including design, coding, functional testing, documentation, engineering, management and escalation, Citrix said in a statement.

Mr David Henshall, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice-President, Citrix, said in the next few years the Bangalore centres would see the fastest growth. The end market in the Asia-Pacific region is growing faster than other markets and it makes sense to have the engineers closer to the market, he added.

The company chose Bangalore for the new centre as Citrix already has a strong talent pool here and because it is easy to find a broad population of employable talent, Mr Henshall said. At present Citrix has about 200 employees in India.

Mr Rakesh Singh, Vice President and Managing Director for Bangalore research and development centre, said the centre also designs products to suit the specific requirements of the Indian and the Asia-Pacific markets.

Citrix said it has about 35,000 customers in the Asia-Pacific market and about 2000 customers in India. The company said in 2007 it added 500 customers in India.