Red Hat plans India centre

Premier Linux and open source software provider Red Hat will set up a global support centre in India to service English-speaking geographies such as North America and parts of Europe.

The India centre, Red Hat's fourth, will handle a majority of support functions for webticketing, knowledge management services and will also act as a testing centre for hardware certification. Down the line, the facility is also expected to commence software development activities.

"The India centre will enable us to provide 24/7 support and services to our customers worldwide. A lions share of the work done in India will be for North America and it will also do some amount of work for the European market. Though it will start out as a support centre, we may undertake engineering activities at a later date," said Barry Duplantis, director, global support services at Red Hat.

The company has zeroed in on Pune and Bangalore as possible locations for the development centre. The new facility will ramp up to 750 staff by 2006. In addition to being a global support hub, the new facility will also be a training centre for Red Hat professional courses such as Red Hat certified architect, Red Hat certified technician etc.

As plans have not been firmed up yet, Duplantis declined to comment on the investment the India centre would entail. The US-based company is in the process of raising $600 million through the issue of bonds, a part of which is expected to be invested in its Indian operations.

Red Hat currently has three support centres""North America, which takes care of North and South America, Surrey, UK for the European, Latin American, Middle East and African regions and Australia for the North and South Asian countries.

The Indian arm of the company at present operates five sales and marketing centres, situated in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Bhopal, and employs around 40 people. It will kick off operations in Chennai later this year.