India a “fair market” with large opportunity: NetApp CEO George Kurian

Global software company NetApp feels that the lack of domestic vendors makes the Indian market an open one where anyone can compete on a “fair basis”, as per a top company official.

The San Jose, US-headquartered company wants to make India the biggest market in Asia in the medium term by overtaking Japan.

Its Kerala-born chief executive George Kurian said Asia is performing better than the rest of world, and the company will be targeting to increase the share of revenues from the continent to 20 per cent from the present 18 per cent.

“Size and scope of the Indian market is strong, it is the fastest growing large GDP in the world…and there is no domestic vendor, so the Indian market is open for everybody to compete on a fair basis. That's why we believe it's a good opportunity,” Kurian told PTI on the sidelines of the company's annual event 'Insight' here.

He said an increasing number of multinationals are putting up their technology centers in India, and many American companies are making their decisions from the units there.

Kurian said the key aspect which draws companies from across the world to India is the talent base there, and added that NetApp alone employs over 3,000 people locally.

Without sharing an outlook on where he sees the staffing in India going ahead, Kurian hinted that it will keep going up because of the work that happens out of the country.

He said NetApp looks at India both as a market for its products and services, and also as a hub to develop solutions for the world.

From a market perspective, it focuses on the banking, financial services and insurance industry participants along with other sectors, especially serving their needs around data storage.

Kurian said it serves multinationals having a presence in India, and also the government and state-owned entities. The CEO said NetApp is number one in the flash storage market in India, which is also the fastest growing part of the storage market.

“We intend to repeat that multiple quarters in a row and establish our leadership going forward,” he said. When asked if local regulations like insistence on data localization are helping the business in India, Kurian said data sovereignty and concerns surrounding privacy are a worldwide phenomenon.

To a question on the challenges posed from a security perspective when faced with challenges from sophisticated state actors, Kurian said for a software company the motives -whether ransom or otherwise - do not matter, and the core part of the service continues to be security.

The company also depends on Israel for development work, Kurian said, adding that it is too early to say if the Israel-Hamas conflict will have any advantage for its India presence.

“Our priority is to make sure that the employees are safe and secure, communities are supported. Israel will continue to be a strong development center for us. We have no plans to move away from that,” he said.

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