Brocade Communications Systems has established a research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore, India. The new center will focus on the development of infrastructure software, and software for storage applications, and data mobility applications, Zahid Hussain, Brocade's vice president of engineering, said Wednesday.

Brocade already outsources product development work to Wipro and HCL Technologies in India. The country already accounts for one-third of Brocade's development resources worldwide, with about 400 staff at HCL and Wipro working on software development and testing, and another 50 staff at the new R&D center, Hussain said.

Outside the U.S., Brocade also has a development center in China, focused on hardware design, and another in Israel that does ASIC (application-specific integrated circuits) design. The company however expects that its Indian and U.S. development operations will be the two development hubs, Hussain said. The Indian operation may also do hardware design, including ASIC design, he added.

A number of multinational technology companies, like Cisco Systems, outsource product development work to Indian companies, besides setting up their own development centers in the country.

Having its own center in India will help Brocade ensure a higher degree of collaboration between its development staff in India and other locations, and helps introduce a common corporate culture, Hussain said.

Brocade expects India to down the line account for about 40 percent of Brocade's worldwide development resources, with both the company and its partners adding development staff, Hussain said.