Infosys Opens Cyber Defense Center in Indy

An India-based digital services and consulting company is continuing to grow in central Indiana. Infosys (NYSE: INFY) has cut the ribbon on its new Cyber Defense Center in downtown Indianapolis. Located inside its Technology and Innovation Hub that opened last year, the company says the center aims to prevent, detect, assess and respond to cybersecurity threats and breaches for its clients. It is the seventh global Cyber Defense Center for Infosys.

Vishal Salvi, chief information security officer and head of cyber security practice for Infosys, tells Inside INdiana Business Reporter Mary-Rachel Redman everything the company does needs cybersecurity as a foundation.

“We hope to embed everything that we do at Infosys…we embed cybersecurity as a foundational element of that. But when we do that, we also want to ensure that we create a world-class, highly-mature cybersecurity organization which people can trust and believe in in helping them to manage their digital assets,” said Salvi. “And of course, we want to do something for the sake of the cybersecurity industry, so we want to make a significant contribution to that and therefore, create an ecosystem of people who can come here, who can work here. We want to do a lot of grassroots innovation and maybe solve some of the problems which are not yet solved by the industry.”

The center is the company’s first in the U.S. and launched with three clients. Rick Cardwell, vice president and head of Midwest region for Infosys, says now that the center is up and running, the company is looking to bring its services to potential clients throughout the country.

Cardwell says the time is right to launch the center with cybersecurity being top of mind nationwide. “The more and more devices that are connected every day not just with us as individuals, but the amount of data that’s being gathered and collected and stored in an enterprise-to-enterprise level, requires much more monitoring and maintenance of that data and making sure that it’s secure.

Infosys has six Technology and Innovation Hubs throughout the U.S. and Cardwell says that creates great potential for growth in the cyber defense space.

“We can only grow from here. It’s our first and we’re the proof point for having a successful Cyber Defense Center in North American here in Indianapolis. Our goal is to expand that across our hubs so that way we’re local to clients not just in those states, but in those particular regions as well. With more and more data privacy happening, more and more clients are not wanting their data to sort of go off U.S. soil, if you will. So being able to provide that capability in cybersecurity across the U.S. really only makes sense for us.”

Infosys officials were joined for the ribbon cutting by Admiral Michael Rogers (Ret.), former director of the National Security Agency and former commander of the U.S. Cyber Command.

Rogers says Indiana is primed to become a hub for cybersecurity efforts.

“(Cybersecurity) doesn’t recognize geography so this idea that what really matters are large cities, whether it be out in Silicon Valley and the east cost of the United States in Washington and other places, I always say cyber is not structured that way,” said Rogers. “What you’re generally looking for is where are there places where you’re able to bring together the private sector, the educational structure, and is there a good educational structure, all the way from strong community college structure that can generate volume for us with a particular set of skills all the way up to are there institutions that do deep research that have global connections that bring together a wide variety of students? You see all of that here in the broader Indianapolis and Indiana area.”

Infosys has already tapped into the educational structure in Indiana in the form of a partnership with Purdue University. Cardwell says Infosys partnered with Purdue after opening the Technology and Innovation Hub and since then, more than 200 employees have been trained in cybersecurity at Purdue.

Cardwell says as business grows, Infosys hopes to house its cybersecurity efforts both at the Cyber Defense Center in downtown Indy, as well as its U.S. Education Center, which is currently under construction at the former Indianapolis International Airport terminal.