A customer in California, for example, would prefer to have services delivered from a data centre in the state rather than from New Jersey, he added.

Although customers can save money by outsourcing IT services to India, this may not be the case with data centres, according to Srikrishna.

Setting up and running a data centre in the US is far cheaper because of India's high electricity costs, Srikrishna said. Real estate-the other major cost for a data centre-is on par and in some cases cheaper in the US than in India, he added.

Indian outsourcers are increasingly looking to put data and software development centres closer to customers, including opening ones in the US Some outsourcers also believe that hiring local staff reduces criticism in the US that Indian outsourcers are causing job losses in the US

HCL already has close to 5,000 staff in the US, and this is likely to grow, Srikrishna said. About 1,500 of the staff became part of the company after its acquisition last year of HCL is increasingly focused on delivering newer services that its customers do in-house, Srikrishna said.

HCL will continue to use its centres in India to perform work that is cheaper to produce there, he added.