US-based cloud and IT services firm AHEAD is deepening its commitment to India as part of its global innovation and delivery strategy. In two years, the Chicago-headquartered company has expanded from its first office in Gurugram (2023) to Hyderabad (2024) and plans to grow its India workforce from 600 to nearly 1,000 by next year. It is also preparing to build a foundry facility and expand into Bengaluru to strengthen R&D and operations.
“In India, we will definitely grow headcount faster than in the United States,” Daniel Adamany, founder and CEO of AHEAD, told TechObserver.in’s Mohd Ujaley. “India has become not just another office but something much more core to who we are – integrated teams, shared culture and collaboration across borders.”
Edited Excerpts:
AHEAD opened its Gurugram office in 2023 and expanded to Hyderabad in 2024. How do you view India’s role, especially in R&D, within your global strategy? How has your experience been with the Indian team so far?
I would say the headline is that it has been fantastic. This is my first entrée, so I have been learning through the process. We have about 600 people across our offices and we are also in Bengaluru now.
We will definitely grow headcount in India faster than we do in the United States. Overall we are about 3,000 people globally and we are looking to reach 900 or 1,000 in India by the end of next year.
A lot of that started with service delivery. As we engaged with our clients and leveraged resources here, we could access new talent pools. We are now also leveraging India internally across different functions such as finance, operations and HR.
It has really expanded. It has become, I would say, not just another office but something much more core to AHEAD and who we are – integrated teams, shared culture and collaboration across borders.
Beyond Gurgaon and Hyderabad, do you plan to expand into other Indian cities, particularly as you focus more on areas like security?
I think we will. We already have an office in Hyderabad and I think you will most likely see us establish an office in Bangalore within the next 12 to 24 months.
We are also looking at building out a foundry facility. Foundry is something we have in the United States where we do custom manufacturing and integration. We are currently building a new facility in the United Kingdom and I think that will ultimately happen here as well, again sometime in the next 12 to 24 months. That is on our roadmap right now.
What kind of tangible impact has the Indian team brought to AHEAD in terms of R&D and innovation?
One big area is general scale. Talent is hard to find and having the ability to tap into India’s talent pools is massive, especially when you look at our scale and how quickly we are growing.
That scale applies to everything: scaling internal functions, scaling service delivery for our clients and driving innovation. It really touches all aspects of our operations.
Many of your clients in the United States are large multinationals. Have you been able to extend those client relationships into other markets, such as India or elsewhere?
We are doing it but not yet at the scale we could or should be. Servicing our US clients globally is a big opportunity for us and right now we are thinking through how best to address that.
Part of developing foundry facilities in the United Kingdom and India gives us global reach for product distribution, which is a critical need for many of our clients.
AHEAD has made several acquisitions in recent years, including DataBlue, Sovereign, RoundTower and Kovarus. How do you identify the right company and what is your approach to integration when things do not go as planned?
We have done about 10 acquisitions in the last five years or so. Through that experience we have become much better at identifying the right acquisitions. The first step is always to find the right kind of company – one whose culture and mix fit with ours.
The second step is managing integration properly. We have an Integration Management Office that we typically engage about six months before we actually complete the acquisition. By the time we announce it people understand their roles and we can begin integrating right away.
We do not allow companies to run independently. I want everyone to be part of AHEAD, not a separate company sitting on the side. If we do all that right we should not face major issues.
If problems do arise they are usually people-related rather than technology or location-related. And when that happens it is about digging in and finding the root cause. The key is to identify that early, have an honest conversation and take the right action. It is not complicated unless you make it complicated.
How do you view startups and AHEAD’s engagement with the startup ecosystem globally?
There are startups creating new technology that is incredibly interesting and we have to decide whether to represent that technology. For example, we work with Glean, which is essentially a startup – it has been around for about four years. We market their products to our clients because we think it is a great product.
At the same time, AHEAD India was a startup. We looked at acquiring something but could not find anything that felt like the right fit, so we built it ourselves. We are constantly creating new AI offerings and reimagining existing ones, some of which can be viewed as startups within the company.
There is a romantic side to startups – I was one myself at one time – but you can create that spirit inside a large business. What people really want is change, innovation and growth. It does not have to be a startup to provide that feeling.
As a partner to major hyperscalers and OEMs such as AWS, VMware–Broadcom and NVIDIA, how do you protect your customers from risk when these providers change pricing, programmes or partner tiers, especially after the VMware–Broadcom acquisition which has disrupted many partners and prompted customer migrations?
Each situation is different and you have to manage through it. The most important thing for us is representing the client’s best interests. Broadcom, for example, has been a fantastic partner for us. We have seen them be a great partner to clients when the clients want to work with them. If it gets confrontational that is a different story, but I think Broadcom’s goal is to become a better partner and to help clients consume their technology effectively.
We have navigated that pretty well. Another advantage for us is that we are not tied to any one product. If something changes, whether it is a client or an OEM, and they fall out of favour, we can help clients develop a plan to move away from that OEM.
You have seen major traction with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). What is driving that growth and how has your partnership with Broadcom evolved?
We have had a lot of traction with VCF and part of that is because Broadcom wants us to. They have been very supportive and there is a lot of opportunity for clients to improve their business through it. Broadcom also made a smart move by reducing VMware’s huge partner base. They said, “If you are not adding value we would not partner with you anymore.” That is good for us because we do add value.
Their focus on prioritisation and quality partnerships has helped us. One major focus area for them is driving consumption. These licences are already sold but if clients do not use them nobody benefits. So the goal is to help clients get real value out of the platform.
AI adoption is rising but large-scale enterprise deployment is still rare. How are you integrating AI internally and how are you helping customers on their AI journey?
One thing different about AI is that it applies to everything. When people talk about deploying AI it is not really a product, it is an approach that can be applied in many ways. You can consume it through products like Copilot, ServiceNow or Salesforce where AI functionality is built in. That is probably one of the easiest ways to adopt it.
Then there are third-party products like Glean or Windsor that can be deployed quickly. Or you can go for ground-up builds, which are harder but offer more customised value. That is still very early though. Some organisations are building their own superpods, doing inference on-site and even learning on-site, though most would not build their own LLMs.
You also have to be careful. If you spend time and money developing something that later becomes productised by someone else, which happens often in AI, your POC (proof of concept) might never reach the market because innovation is moving so fast. Everyone is trying to figure out the best approach but it is evolving rapidly.
With data protection laws like GDPR, the DPDP Act in India and California’s Privacy Rights Act, how do you guide clients on compliance, especially as AI depends heavily on data?
It is an evolving discussion. The US is still a bit of a wild west with less regulation, whereas Europe and India are more structured.
You have to look at your specific use case and assess how those laws apply based on what you are doing and where. I do not think there will be one universal approach that fits all. Compliance will be very solution dependent and you must ensure each deployment meets the relevant legal requirements.
Many large organisations still run on legacy systems that are difficult to modernise. How would you approach transformation in such environments?
I do not think you necessarily need to re-platform everything to create value. As a CEO I would look at where the effort produces the most meaningful return. You can do a lot outside your core systems to drive value, whether through AI, cloud-based services or other innovations. Sometimes it is better to leave core systems in place.
AI will also make modernising traditional systems easier over time, especially in coding. I would evaluate my objectives – am I trying to save money, drive revenue or unlock data stuck in old systems? All of that would shape my approach.
During the data-centre boom many organisations over-invested in racks, servers and routers that soon became obsolete. With the rush to buy GPUs for AI, could we see a repeat of that cycle? What is your advice to companies making these large infrastructure investments?
You have to evaluate it based on the value it creates, not just cost or lifecycle.
If you deploy a GPU and it has a three-year lifespan, ask how much value you will create in that time. If the value is significant it is worth it. You can often reuse GPUs for inference or learning.
Chips are also becoming much more efficient and faster so things will evolve. It is all about value creation. People sometimes focus too much on cost but if you are generating real value it is worth the investment, even if you refresh every few years.
Beyond India’s talent advantage, do you see the country as a potential revenue growth market for AHEAD?
Right now India supports AHEAD as a business and our US-based clients, many of whom operate globally. But if you fast-forward 24 to 36 months I see us serving clients within India and the broader Asia-Pacific region directly.
With global shifts, tariffs and supply chain dynamics there is going to be a growing opportunity for us to scale and serve more clients outside the US through India.
