Bengaluru, Jun 2 (IANS): US-based IT firm Pure Storage on Thursday inaugurated its new Research and Development Centre in Bengaluru that will focus on innovations that transform storage and data management.

State Minister of IT and Skill Development, Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, said that Pure Storage is providing an opportunity for Indian talent to contribute to technologies that are in demand around the world.

"With data continuing to grow in volume and complexity, the skills to manage, protect and move it around in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, will become even more in demand and it's important for Karnataka to be involved in this movement," he said during the inauguration of the R&D centre.

The acceleration of digital transformation around the world is fueling the growth of data, specifically unstructured data such as video, picture and audio files.

This is creating demand for professionals who are experts in solutions that store, manage, protect and analyse such data.

A recent study by Pure Storage with management consulting firm Zinnov indicated that there are over 700,000 professionals in India with the relevant data management skills.

This is around 14 per cent of the total technology workforce in the country and is poised to grow further.

"The India R&D centre will further foster data management capabilities in India while ensuring Pure's global customers benefit from this abundance of talent," said Ajay Singh, Chief Product Officer, Pure Storage.

Pure Storage has a portfolio of data management solutions which include FlashArray, FlashBlade, FlashStack, AIRI, Pure as-a-Service, Portworx, Pure1, Evergreen, Pure Cloud Block Store and Purity.

The India R&D centre, said the company, will contribute to the continued innovation in most of these product lines.