El Reg visits Hyderaspace and sees bullocks, giant rabbits

Hitec City in Hyderabad is the home of Satyam, one of India’s top four IT players, and hosts offices for a raft of other Indian and international tech companies. It used to be a rocky wasteland on the edge of the city that Hyderabadis were afraid to go to – they feared you could be murdered and your body never seen again. Now with companies like Dell, IBM and Oracle setting up shop here alongside the local players, it’s your tech support calls that are likely to end up there...

Security is tight. BPO development and support workers are banned from bringing bags, memory sticks, cameraphones, or even scrap paper into the office. That’s assuming they even get in there in the first place. As you fly/crawl along the brand spanking new roads into the high tech quarter, you’ll see checkpoint security all over the place. We’re not talking software – we mean real soldiers, with real uniforms and real guns. And real comfy chairs.

Guarding Hitec City - lock, stock and barrel

Still, there’s always someone that tries to buck the system – we spotted this guy trying to make a run for it. Don’t worry, this scoundrel was quickly caught and is back where he belongs, handling level 1 server support for a major US bank.

The penalty for desertion is escalation

Even in this brave new world, the old India still intrudes. Swan into Hitec city in an air-conditioned Toyota and you’ll be dropped off outside shiny new offices that could be on any industrial estate around the world. Have a look through one of the back windows and you can see clusters of shacks and shanties that could be anywhere in India. Enjoy the view while it lasts - there’ll probably be 2,000 programmers overhauling your social security system or developing an avionics systems there before you know it.

For support, just call 007 SHANTY TOWN