The Bay To Bangalore

One of the best assignments I've ever been on as a reporter was about a year and a half ago, when I went to Bangalore, India, to find (and it wasn't hard) technology companies that do business both here in the Bay Area, and in India.

HP, Cisco, Network Appliance, Infosys, Oracle .. the list goes on and on, and it's growing. I bring this up because just this morning, ignored in the big news of the day about JP Morgan and Bear Stearns, is the continuation of a trend that will be felt long after our market settles down from the recent banking shakeup.

VMWare, the red-hot, recently public software company from Palo Alto that made Virtualization Software a household name, just announced a 100 million dollar investment in Bangalore. More new jobs, more flights halfway across the world.

On top of that, Affyemetrix, the Santa Clara biotechnology giant, signed a deal with a Bangalore based biotech company to start a genetic project. Again, new jobs, new technology, etc.

It's easy, perhaps, to pass these moves off as companies trying to save money. But India, particularly Bangalore, is not just about saving money anymore. It, like the Silicon Valley, is about highly skilled engineers coming from top-notch Universities. Instead of pawning work off on Indians, Silicon Valley companies are wisely partnerning with India. Look for more, similar, deals in the future.

A flat world, indeed.