India among SAP's fastest-growing market; making big push with new B'luru centre: Manish Prasad

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) India is among SAP's fastest-growing markets globally, and a new innovation centre in Bengaluru, along with a sovereign cloud rollout, highlights the significant investments the company is committing to the country, Manish Prasad, President and Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent, has said.

On how global uncertainties are reshaping the enterprise application software and business AI firm's strategy in India, Prasad noted that disruptions have been a part of the norm and that there has been no material change in SAP's approach.

The "essence of SAP" all along has been about creating business-critical applications and platforms that are resilient and sustainable, he emphasised.

"I think SAP India continues to be one of the fastest market units for SAP globally. It is the sheer innovation and the entire spirit of being able to create the momentum that our economy needs, our talent needs. So, I don't see any of these (global headwinds) really impacting something materially from a business standpoint," Prasad told PTI.

The German software maker continues to be "extremely bullish" about India.

"We are making big investments...we came out with our new innovation centre in Bengaluru, the second centre that we have...we announced the sovereign cloud," he observed.

Prasad pointed out that the technology landscape in India has undergone a significant transformation. Given the semiconductor and manufacturing momentum, India has shifted from being a consumer of services and technology to an important player in the creation of technology.

"The amount of investments that our customers are doing in the area of AI, frugal AI in terms of creating large and small language models (LLMs, SLMs), the amount of reliability that we need to create from an AI model standpoint, cyber security framework, it is extremely important that we develop that in a very secure environment," he said.

The pace of economic growth means a phase of rapid acceleration for every industry, irrespective of size and scale.

To support such growth, technology is a critical element, but so is ensuring that the vast amount of data being generated is secure. That, he emphasised, is why building the right digital infrastructure and creating sovereign capabilities in the country are essential.

Last month, the company announced the launch of its SAP Sovereign Cloud in India, which it said is designed in full compliance with India's National Information Security Policy and Guidelines (NISPG).

SAP said the new offering enables users to modernise with cloud and AI while retaining full control over their most sensitive data and systems.

SAP Sovereign Cloud is created as a full-stack framework, spanning infrastructure, platform, applications, and AI, and according to the company, it strengthens cloud innovation with four dimensions of control, data, operational, technical, and legal sovereignty.

SAP Labs India, in August, unveiled its new 41-acre campus in Devanahalli, its second one in Bengaluru and among its largest globally, with a total investment of Euro 194 million spread across various phases.

"We have close to 3,200 of our employees already moved into the campus, and we plan to have 4,500 in the first phase, which is in the next couple of months," Sindhu Gangadharan, Managing Director, SAP Labs India, had said during the launch on August 5, 2025.

The next phase of the campus has already received the approvals and is targeted for completion by Q3 of 2028. The total planned capacity is about 15,000 professionals, and overall investments will be Euro 194 million across various phases. PTI MBI BAL BAL