EMC’s $1.5-billion plan

EMC Corp announced a $1.5 billion investment in India over the next five years, marking a big bright spot in the IT sector that has been one of the most badly hit by the global recession. Company CFO David Goulden, who made the announcement in Bangalore, said the investment represents a three-fold increase over the investment made by EMC in India over the previous five years. The information infrastructure company has invested $500 million between 2006 and now, mostly in Bangalore. “This is the largest investment that we have committed outside the US,’’ Goulden said. The new investments will go into three areas: expanding R&D infrastructure at the centre of excellence (CoE) in Bangalore; increasing EMC Global Services capabilities at the CoE; and adding more technologists to drive deeper levels of engagement and support for local customers and partners. On Wednesday, the company inaugurated a new 4.95-lakh sqft facility on the outer ring road near Marathahalli that will not only bring together operations that currently function out of four separate locations but also create additional space. It has the capacity to seat 3,500 people. EMC India currently has a little over 2,000 employees. In a measure of the importance EMC attaches to its India operations, Goulden was accompanied in his visit to Bangalore by Sanjay Mirchandani, chief information officer, Mark Sorenson, senior VP (storage software group), Jack Mollen, head of HR, Gary Baty, VP (HR) for Asia-Pacific & Japan, Steve Leonard, president of Asia-Pacific & Japan, and John Herrera, VP in the office of globalisation. EMC focusses on next generation virtualised data centres, cloud computing, virtualised desktops and clients, and next generation backup, recovery and archive solutions.