US-based IT networking company Ciena Corporation today announced setting up of a research and development centre in India which will employ 300 engineers over the next three years. The centre will come up in Gurgaon near Delhi and the company has taken 95,000 square-foot facility for the purpose. The Gurgaon facility will be Ciena’s first core research and development centre outside of North America, a release said here.
Ciena’s Gurgaon R&D Centre will focus on technologies such as storage extension and optical transport, including ultra long-haul, long-haul, regional and metropolitan applications, as well as multiservice switching, broadband access and network management. The company has appointed Neeraj Gulati as Vice President and Managing Director for India operations and Dimple Amin as Vice President of Engineering.
“Our Gurgaon development centre will enable us to capitalise on the significantly strong engineering resources in this region, and will establish Ciena in one of the fastest growing communications equipment markets in the world,” Gulati said. “Working closely with our North American-based development efforts, Ciena India will play a critical role in furthering Ciena’s technology and market leadership, and in supporting our network specialist approach to delivering carrier-class solutions to customers across the globe,” he said.
“The India centre will be an addition to the five Ciena establishments in the world equipped with advanced design, development and testing laboratories,” said Amin.
Ciena, founded in 1992, is a leading supplier of application-focused communications networking equipment, software and services to telecommunications service providers, cable operators, government and enterprise customers across the globe.
A worldwide staff of 1,500 at the company provides network solutions for more than two-thirds of the world’s largest service providers including AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, France Telecom Korea Telecom, MCI, Qwest, SingTel, Telmex and Verizon.
In India, Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices are leveraging advanced optical Ciena networks, gained through the acquisitions of TyCom Ltd and FLAG Telecom respectively.
