Juniper eyes public sector for growth
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 12 December 2007, 20:30 IST
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Bangalore: U.S. based Juniper Networks is eyeing the Indian public sector, particularly government and defence segments, for growth. The firm recently won its bid to set up the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) for Himachal Pradesh. Juniper has bagged similar projects in two more states. The company has already started discussions with the defence authorities to provide network infrastructure for various projects. "At present, the government and defence are two of the fastest-growing segments for the company within the enterprise business. We expect it to catch up with our service provider business over the next one and a half years as government and defence establishments are investing significantly in IT," said Nagendra Venkaswamy, Managing Director,Juniper Networks, India to Business standard. The major part of Juniper’s revenue in India is from service providers like telecom players, who offer mobile and broadband. "The enterprise business has grown tremendously in the last two years, from 10 percent to 35 percent. The focus is on enterprise business, particularly the public sector," he added. India is the fifth largest market for the company after Japan, China, Australia and South Korea in the Asia Pacific region. The $2.3 billion company has been active in the Indian market for the last five years. "The company views India as a critical market for growth. At present, its contribution to the overall revenue could be small, but the projections are promising," said Venkaswamy. "We are targeting the SWAN projects and the defence organisations which are planning to improve their network infrastructure, for growth. In the coming years, the two segments will be as big as the IT/IT-enabled services sector in terms of market size," he added. The company is planning to enter new areas like manufacturing, banking and financial services segments for growth, he added. "There is an indication that most of the telecom players will expand their network infrastructure significantly over the next two years driving business for us in the process," he stated. The R&D center in Bangalore is its second largest R&D center worldwide. The total head count in the Bangalore center is about 800. By the end of 2008, 40 percent of the company’s R&D strength will be located in India, said Sridhar Sarathy, Vice President Juniper Networks India. "The Indian R&D centre has developed two products end-to-end. Three more products are in the pipeline. In a year’s time, Bangalore will play a significant role in every product developed by the company," he added.

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