India’s progress towards becoming a true digital economy, backed by progressive government policies, is encouraging domestic and global data centre operators to make huge investments in the country. The pandemic has pushed the demand for cloud across the globe with digital transformation accelerating across industries, and internet becoming a lifeline for people both for work as well as entertainment.
This shift towards cloud has pushed increased investments in hyper-scale data centers with the global data centre market investments expected to reach ~$200 billion per annum by 2025. But to meet this rising demand, India will require a huge investment in data center and cloud infrastructure over the next three years. Demand is likely to ramp up further due to the imminent rollout of 5G, increasing usage of IoT-enabled devices, data localization and cloud adoption. The businesses are looking to adopt cloud servers and surging cloud applications will make it imperative for businesses to have a reliable and secure IT infrastructure, where data can be stored and processed effectively.
Data Centers are the backbone of a digital revolution. The Government of India’s proposed Draft Data Center Policy aims to make India a ‘Global Data Center Hub’. This will provide long-term funds for investments in the sector. State Governments have also been providing incentives to industry players for setting up data center parks. The synergy of technology, legislation, demand, and investments is expected to usher in an era of high growth for India’s DC industry in coming years.
The India data center market is expected to double its capacity in the upcoming years, which is driven by strong digitalization and an increase in cloud adoption. An increase in cloud adoption, data localization by the Government, and adoption of new technologies such as 5G and IoT are driving the data center demand in India. Adoption of these technologies would lead to increase in data volume and network bandwidth requirements, thereby resulting in growing demand for data center market in the forecast period.
India is also expected to get a share in this growth with investments in the country and the market size was valued at $4.35 billion in 2021 and the Revenue in the Data Center market is projected to reach US$7.54bn in 2022 and by 2027 it is expected to reach $10.09 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.07% during 2022-2027.
The data center market is witnessing significant investment from local and global investors, including hyperscale operators, driven by increased digitalization as a result of COVID-19, government initiatives, and the adoption of AI, IoT, and big data. India witnessed 16 new projects/expansions in 2021, and some major investors in the market include companies like Bharti Airtel, AWS, Colt Data Centre Services, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres India, NTT Global Data Centers, CtrlS, and Yotta Infrastructure, among others.
Hyperscale operators are also showing increasing interest in the India market, with AWS, Google, and Microsoft investing in the country. Google has cloud regions in Maharashtra and Delhi, Microsoft opened its Maharashtra data center in 2021, with another MoU signed with the Government of Telangana. AWS is also setting up a second in Telengana, in addition to the one in Maharashtra.
India is also witnessing investments by several new entrants, such as AdaniConneX, Equinix, CapitaLand, EverYondr, Digital Realty, Brookfield Infrastructure and Mantra Group have started investing in Indian Data Centres. The Indian government is taking various measures towards digitalization of the economy, including the Digital India initiative, classification of data centers as infrastructure assets, and proposing a new data localization law, these factors will drive the data center industry in the country.
India has also set an ambitious target to achieve a capacity of 175 GW of renewable energy by the end of 2022, of which 100 GW will be generated via solar energy. It further plans to expand the generation capacity to 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030 as it aims to reduce its fossil-fuel reliance.
Key drivers and trends fuelling market growth:
• 5G Deployment Increases the Edge data center investments
• Procurement of Renewable Energy in Data Center
• Growing Rack Power Density
• Rise in Investment from Colocation Providers
• Government to Grow Digital Economy & Data Center investments
India data center market – investment analysis
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing around $1.6 billion to set up two data centers in Hyderabad. The Chandanvelly data center, which is under construction, is expected to be operational by 2022. As the digitalization of India is a priority for the government, there is an incentive scheme of 120 billion to facilitate the installation of data centers. Moreover, the Indian government aims to invest over $1 billion in the next five years as part of a hyperscale data center scheme. Over the last year, the market garnered investments in over 20 projects. Maharashtra dominated the market, followed by Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and other states. The government of India started an initiative to strengthen IoT growth, which includes developing around 95-99 city projects and more than $100 billion investments in the telecommunication sector by 2022.
India data center market – competitive landscape
Most Indian government data center projects are allocated through a tender process. Vendors garnering these tenders will earn revenues in millions of dollars each year. However, partnerships with large enterprises will add more revenue to these vendors during the forecast period. All the infrastructure providers have a strong presence in the design, installation, and commissioning of data center services. Schneider Electric, Eaton, Cummins, Vertiv, Caterpillar, and ABB are the electrical infrastructure vendors with a strong presence in the Indian market. Also, the global cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and Google continue to expand their presence with new cloud regions.
Prominent Data Center Investors:
Adani Group
Airtel India (Nxtra Data)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Bridge Data Centres
Colt Data Centre Services
CtrlS
Mantra Data Centers
NTT Global Data Centers
Pi Data Centers
RackBank
Reliance Jio Infocomm
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres
Sify Technologies
Web Werks
Yotta Infrastructure (Hiranandani Group)
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| The data center parks will offer hyper-scale data centers, cloud service providers, R&D units and other allied industries to function together with one another. Nikhil Rathi Founder & CEO, Web Werks Data Centers |
Various businesses in India have moved their applications to cloud ecosystems which has resulted in the advancements in India's data center market, further fuelling growth. Rahul Arora, Managing Director, India and South Asia, Trellix |
The much-anticipated 5G rollout and increased cloud and hybrid IT adoption will attract significant investments in the data center marketplace, thereby fast-tracking Digital India. Rohan Sheth Head - Data Center & Colocation Services, Yotta Infrastructure |
Growth of Data Center Business in India
India’s data footprint is seeing tremendous growth accredited to a range of trends and factors. New and emerging technologies, fast internet and smartphone penetration, enterprise digitisation, e-governance initiatives among others have contributed significantly to this growth. Now, there is a growing demand for highly scalable data center parks in the country as compared to a time when the demand was only limited to individual data center buildings.
Vimal Kaw, Head of Product, Datacenter, NTT GDC & CI said that rapid pace of digitalization in India and various policies adopted by the government have led to a massive surge in DC demand. India didn’t have enough demand and wasn’t ready for hyperscalers a decade before. He also added that today, the technology is far superior and the demand is growing at a great pace. As long as we are able to manage the cost, and match the technologies within the timeframe, we will see incredible business growth in terms of DCs in India.
He further added, “The much-anticipated 5G rollout and adoption of increased cloud and hybrid IT will attract significant investments in the data center marketplace, thereby fast-tracking Digital India and keeping an eye on the development. The growing investment in the data center industry only validates the huge business potential that it presents.”
Rohan Sheth, Head - Data Center & Colocation Services, Yotta Infrastructure said that there is a growing demand for highly scalable data center parks in the country just to manage all the generated data. He also focused on identifying the needs and opportunities with the combined expertise of the Hiranandani Group in construction and power generation and how Yotta is relentlessly bridging the gap with hyperscale data center parks across the country’s length and breadth. Further the group also has a bullish pipeline of Edge data centers pan-India to complement the Hyperscale data centres.
“ESDS business services offer a wide variety of solutions, and we feel that this gives our customers a “one-stop shop” for transforming and adopting technology. This becomes an essential element for ESDS to have aspirational projections as we are in a position to offer services to our customers during the initiation, implementation, and post-delivery stages.” said Piyush Somani, Managing Director & Chairman, ESDS Software Solution. He also stated that they provide specialised solutions based on the needs and specifications of the customers’ businesses at the beginning stage. In addition, the company also provides smooth cloud migration services to customers throughout the implementation phase.
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| With fragmented knowledge of the sector, India is falling short of skilled labour required for a successful Data Center. Additionally, a robust infrastructure is needed. Piyush Somani Managing Director & Chairman, ESDS Software Solution |
As long as we are able to manage costs and match the technologies, we will see incredible business growth in terms of DCs in India.
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There is a need for investment in enhancing the fiber connectivity between Cable Landing Stations and data centers within the same city or across cities.
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India has significant socio-economic potential recognized by several local and international data centers that have gradually penetrated the Indian market. A study by JLL says the Indian data centre sector would require a total investment of USD 3.7 billion within the next three years to meet the six million square feet of development. According to Synergy Research, the data center market in India is expected to exceed US$2 billion in 2025 and grow over 15% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2020-2025, the second-highest rate in the world.
Keeping this in mind, Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO, Web Werks Data Centers pointed out that the growth and development of data centers will augment and generate employment in the country, particularly in the DC sector. “The special data center parks will offer hyper-scale data centers, cloud service providers, R&D units and other allied industries to function in tandem with one another. He was positive that these zones will offer highly favourable infrastructure, both IT and non-IT, complete with equally conducive connectivity, power, and regulatory environment.”
Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India said that India has immense opportunity for continued penetration of internet infrastructure and cloud adoption. In addition to government-led initiatives and incentives, India is benefitting from local influences as well as the upcoming launch of 5G services.
He specifically focused on how the rise of hybrid multi cloud adoption, increased data consumption, internet penetration to the last mile, transformation of business processes with emerging technologies such as AI/ML, IoT, Big Data and Analytics, 5G and evolving digital customer engagements are driving the need for digital infrastructure in India.
Meanwhile Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director, CapitaLand Investment, Data Centre Group India pinned how the data center sector in India is witnessing tremendous growth. India has all the requisites in place to be a major data center hub. Our country has a distinct cost advantage, high availability of skilled labour and strong data protection laws. All the major states in India have begun to understand the importance of technology and the critical need for a robust digital backbone; they have started rolling out State wise Data Center Policies to facilitate the setting up of DC infrastructures in their respective states. He appreciated that the Central Government has also acknowledged this fact, and in the current budget, it granted the sector ‘infrastructure status’. With this, the data centre industry will attract more investments, and it has set the path for a multifold growth trajectory.
Many businesses in India have moved their applications to cloud ecosystems, resulting in the advancements and fuelling growth in India’s data center market. Further explaining it, Rahul Arora, Managing Director, India and South Asia, Trellix, said, “The rising investments in the industry further confirms the enormous business potential that it offers. With all the factors combined, not only do data centers present a tremendous growth opportunity but are also poised to be the backbone of the Digital India vision envisaged by the government.”
Data Center infrastructure challenges
Talking about the challenges faced and the measures adopted by industry leaders for building a robust Data center infrastructure, Vimal Kaw, Head of Product, Datacenter, NTT GDC &CI proudly said that they are already India’s most preferred DC brand, and are now building a number of DCs in the country. They are also aiming to double our capacities in the next few years, and our MIST submarine cable which will connect India with Myanmar. The challenges are mostly related to land acquisition and various approval processes which are steadily being simplified by various state governments as well as the Government of India. With the unrolling of the 5G network, there will be much faster connectivity that would drive the digital growth in the country.
The Government has granted ‘infrastructure status’ to the sector that could potentially benefit the DC industry by lowering borrowing rates and increasing foreign and private capital flow.
Surajit Chatterjee
Managing Director, CapitaLand Investment, Data Centre Group India
“Building data centers from scratch is a complex process that requires huge CapEx, geographic know-how and land acquisition capabilities, design and construction prowess, availability of steady power, proximity to fiber landing stations, various clearances from the government and environmental bodies, and stringent assessment processes for relevant certifications. Challenges in setting up a hyperscale data center are further exacerbated if there is a mismatch of planning and budgeting or initial construction oversight,” said Rohan Sheth, Head - Data Center & Colocation Services, Yotta Infrastructure. He assured that while they were conceptualising Yotta’s data centers, they leveraged the Hiranandani Group’s decades of proven experience in high-quality construction, along with skilled resources and teams of experts, to ensure that we build top-tier hyperscale data centers that are second to none. Their first data center, Yotta NM1 is India’s only Tier IV data center with Uptime Institute's Gold Tier Certification of Operational Sustainability (TCOS), which is testimony to our commitment to quality.
“With fragmented knowledge of the sector, India is falling short of the skilled labour required for a successful Data Center. Additionally, a robust infrastructure is needed. Critical elements of a Data Center are the fiber network and electricity requirements. In most cities, there is just one power supplier and no backup power supply. Therefore, a significant operating challenge for operators is the unstable power supply and substantial reliance on generators,” speculatively said by Piyush Somani, Managing Director & Chairman, ESDS Software Solution.
The lack of resources, such as water to cool the facilities, presents another difficulty for facility operators in supporting operations, resulting in power usage readings below the necessary level due to the high ambient temperatures. Apart from these, Land and location restrictions, lack of solid and beneficial policies, and ultimately the DC Infrastructure is investment intensive, becoming a significant challenge in the Indian scenario.
Hyperscale data centers in India require robust power and a requirement of a reliable network. In the past, all the DC providers were building data centers of 10-20MW. The utility to bring construction of a 1500MW data center imposes a major challenge as it is a very crucial installation including connecting the grid to the utility which generally takes time. Again, weather conditions such as monsoons during which it gets difficult to generate permissions and wait for the right season
The telecom companies have constructed three different fiber routes connecting all major data centers in a city. Hoping to overcome the above stated challenges Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO, Web Werks Data Centers said that the government is also taking initiatives by releasing policies to help companies get their power which is primary renewable energy that is cost-effective and provides sustainability too. The government is looking forward to boost the data centers setting up tasks in India by leveraging this policy, by setting up data centre parks and by rendering a continuous power supply which will drive the data center infrastructure.
Whereas Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India was critical of the fact that the data center providers face the challenge of providing seamless and scalable fiber connectivity between an enterprises’ infrastructure that exists between the two data center buildings same as how the customers connect all their IT infrastructure within the same data center by using simple cross connects. But providing dark fiber cross connect service across campus over public land is still not allowed in India leading to high-cost Dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) solutions being deployed for this connectivity, increasing cost for the customers.
Similarly, Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director, CapitaLand Investment, Data Centre Group India emphasised on the immediate need for investment in enhancing the fiber connectivity between Cable Landing Stations and data centers, as well as between various data centers within the same city or across cities. Adding to his point, he quoted “New fiber needs to be laid for providing low latency and high-capacity connectivity between data centers as the existing fiber has been laid to serve a different purpose mainly for mobile traffic while data center requirement is different. The infrastructure status could potentially benefit the DC industry by lowering borrowing rates and increasing foreign and private capital flow. It can also further simplify the approval process for DC projects, formulate clear guidelines, and increase transparency in the Data Center segment.”
However, he also suggested some other factors that will help overcome the challenges and drive the demand: i) Improved Network Connectivity and availability of Landing Stations offer a better global latency; ii) Good Infrastructure Support / Power Availability and the Governments push towards digitising citizen services; iii) 5G Deployment will increase the Edge data center investments and will push the adoption of IoT-enabled products in the Indian market; iv) Large enterprises have been struggling to upgrade their IT infrastructure to address increased digital usage, therefore, they lean back on Data Centre providers; v) Data Centers are connected to DECIX, National Internet Exchange (NIXI), and Extreme Internet Exchange (Extreme IX), reducing the latency PAN India.
Appreciating the central government’s policies, Rahul Arora, Managing Director, India and South Asia, Trellix said, “The grant of ‘infrastructure status’ to the data centre industry will give accelerate the digital industries, such as fintech, healthtech, and edtech, which create a significant amount of data. Going by the evolving trends, it’d be no surprise if India becomes the data center hub for the world in a few years from now.
He further said, “Building data centers from the base is a complicated process that requires significant capital outlay as well as robust power supply, a dependable network, clearances from government and environmental agencies, and a stringent assessment process for relevant certifications. The shortfall of skilled professionals can further complicate the process of setting up data centers.”
Core competencies
With over 2.1 million squarefeet of operational space across 12 locations handling more than 230 MW of operational load, NTT Head of product Vimal Kaw said they are going to more than double the space by adding another 2.5 million square feet of DC space that would manage 280 MW of load within the next couple of years.
“NTT offers network consulting, managed enterprise networks, Global IP networks, and mobile and wireless networks. NTT is the pioneering brand in the Indian cloud market with more than 2500 clients served through 5 SimpliCloud Grids. It offers managed cloud services, managed application and data services, cloud consulting and advisory services, and managed cloud security services. NTT offers true real-time services that help the clients unlock new possibilities and uses by integrating Private 5G, IoT, and on-demand automation. It is focusing on implementing advanced security solutions to protect clients’ technical infrastructure and also to help them maintain high industry standards for protecting sensitive and critical data. The company is offering a globally available Edge as a Service solution (EaaS) to drive business process automation.”
Going beyond data center and cloud services, Yotta is in a unique position to serve customers’ digital transformation needs in an end-to-end manner. Rohan Sheth, Head - Data Center & Colocation Services, Yotta Infrastructure was confident about leveraging their economy of scale, to empower hyperscalers, enterprises and governments by offering world-class quality, scalability, flexibility, and reliability at disruptive costs. They do this with their extensive and growing portfolio of Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) solutions that simplify technologies and make them accessible to businesses of every scale. They also provide complete solutions to their customers and boost their digital transformation journeys – thus serving as an end-to-end digital transformation enabler.
With unmatched expertise panning the data center and cloud domain, he further said that they also help hyperscalers scale in India without the hassles of building their own infrastructure. Yotta enables them with built-to-suit data center facilities that are tailored to their needs and specifications, complementing it with our managed data center operations competencies.
Piyush Somani, Managing Director & Chairman, ESDS Software Solution said that they can offer services to their customers during the start, implementation, and post-delivery stages since they have a wide variety of integrated and comprehensive products. He emphasized on providing specialised solutions based on the needs and specifications of the customers’ businesses at the beginning stage. In addition, they also provide smooth cloud migration services to customers throughout the implementation phase.
They regularly seek customer feedback to enhance the offerings proactively after delivery. Also, a technical support team available around the clock can also address consumer questions. Their service approach enables them to continuously serve its customers by offering support for every stage of their cloud adoption and migration.
Web Werks has put together the most extensive range of colocation and cloud hosting services designed to allow the customers to adopt a Hybrid strategy. It delivers Wholesale, Retail (shared) and Hyper-scale colocation facilities through its Tier III data center facilities in Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Pune. It also offers highly reliable and scalable solutions combining hosted infrastructure, cloud on-ramp, network, and security.
“The solution offered through ‘Web Werks VMX (Virtual Machine for Nutanix)’ will bridge the gap between public and hybrid cloud, focus on software add-ons, build the marketplace, and ultimately create a unique ecosystem and subscription model for cloud consumption. The Web Werks VMX cloud engineering platform will provide a zero-code change and a reliable option for storing data with no-egress charges. This will benefit new-age companies and enterprises, currently locked in with certain cloud providers to simplify their IT operations, business applications, and workloads.” said Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO, Web Werks Data Centers.
He further stated that their customers can empower the business with a leading network infrastructure backed by remote hands data center support to solve strategic challenges whenever required and drive growth. Also, customers can utilize their expert technicians without worrying about budgets or variable costs for erratic on-call volumes.
For years, Equinix has been supporting more than 10,000+ customers worldwide, including the world's largest cloud service providers, IT, network service providers and enterprises across industries, with its global infrastructure platform of more than 245 data centers. Equinix’s interconnection and digital services also help businesses build their digital infrastructure more easily and seamlessly interconnect their IT infrastructures across the global platform.
Equinix has two highly interconnected data centers in Mumbai. Manoj Paul, Managing Director of Equinix India said that customers have access to a network-dense data center campus with more than 170 internet service providers (ISPs), five operational internet exchanges and leading cloud service providers in India, including AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect.
CapitaLand has entered India at the right time from a Data Center business perspective. Over the next few years, there will be substantial investment from the group to fulfil its vision: “To be a leading Data Centre Organization in India that empowers customers through high-quality products and services.” Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director, CapitaLand Investment, Data Centre Group India said that their Data Center Solutions will be built on four fundamental pillars, i.e., “SAFE - Security, Automation, Flexibility, and Efficiency.”
He also added that CapitaLand India’s greenfield state-of-the-art data centres will be in prime locations (Availability Zones) across the states, with superior build quality with the right certifications and world-class customer experience for clients. They have Global Expertise in Data Centre Operational Capabilities and a very long-term investment vision for growth, with sustainability. Last but not least, it provides World-class Customer experience to the clients that will be their key differentiator.
With one of its most extensive research and development centres in Bangalore, Trellix has a significant presence in India, powering its global solutions. With the expansion of its infrastructure in India, Trellix’s new data center helps customers meet their data residency & compliance requirements and provides access to a scalable cloud-native architecture. Rahul Arora, Managing Director, India and South Asia, Trellix, said, “Customers who are required to keep their sensitive data within the country can now log and store the telemetry utilized by Trellix’s Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), and threat analytics products in the new data center. It also facilitates direct and faster access to the Trellix platform and supports the government’s Digital India initiative. The goal is to improve online infrastructure and increase citizen internet access, allowing India to advance digitally.”
Data Center Investment Plans
It is clear that data centers are paving the way in boosting the digital economy of the country. The country’s cost advantage, availability of skilled labour, low climate risk and strong data protection laws are making India a well-positioned country to be a major data centre hub. The adoption of cloud and digital transformation of Indian organisations along with the growing demand for data and high bandwidth capacity have further accelerated the need to focus on the country’s digital demand. Furthermore, many industry leaders also shared their vision on various future plans that they are looking to implement in their organisations.
Vimal Kaw, Head of Product, Datacenter, NTT GDC & CI was confident about the seven new DCs that are being built, which will add over 2.5 million sq. ft of DC space and a 280 MW load addition to its portfolio in the next couple of years.
They are planning to deploy a new technology based on the Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC) wherein individual rack loads will be in excess of 20kWH, allowing for great efficiencies. It is also planning to launch a battery storage pilot program to increase the usage of renewable energy in their operations.
“We have a robust pipeline of investments in terms of both infrastructure and digital transformation solutions. Our NM1 data center in Navi Mumbai has been live since 2020, whereas the first data center building at our Greater Noida Data Center Park, Yotta D1, is live since August 2022. For instance, we have already completed the core-and-shell of NM2 data center, the second data center building at our Navi Mumbai Data Center Park, said Rohan Sheth, Head - Data Center & Colocation Services of Yotta Infrastructure.
The company will also be building a vast network of Edge data centers across various regions to ensure last-mile service delivery. Their current plan is to invest approximately Rs 900 crore over 3-4 years to set up 100 Edge data centers, starting with 8-10 cities. These edge data centers are based on two models; firstly, they will set up data centers in existing buildings; whereas, in the second model, they will look at greenfield projects. Their overall plan for the Indian market is to build four data center parks over the next five years at an investment that could well surpass Rs. 30,000 crores and become a key partner in bridging the digital divide and making India a $1 trillion Digital Economy.
Meanwhile Managing Director & Chairman of ESDS Software Solution Piyush Somani said that they have launched multiple SaaS products like Famrut for the Agriculture sector, IPAS as an advanced Indianized ERP system, WebVPN, VTMScan, and a few more. He added that they are not just restricting themselves to Cloud Infrastructure as a service in Cloud. He also said that they have launched SaaS offerings that are very relevant to the Indian environment by taking full benefit of the strong R&D team that they have within ESDS.
As their future agenda, Web Werks has partnered with Iron Mountain Data Centers which has a presence globally including the United States, Europe, Singapore. The focus will be placed on further developing its three existing markets in India immediately along with an expansion into Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai. In March 2021, the company announced an investment of 400 crores to set up its second standalone purpose-built greenfield data center with 12.5MW capacity in Navi Mumbai. Along the same lines, Web Werks also signed an MoU with both the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments worth Rs 750 Cr and Rs 700 Cr respectively to set up data centers in those states.
Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO, Web Werks Data Centers expressed his happiness while stating that Web Werks announced the acquisition of its first data center in the prime location of Whitefield, Bengaluru in the month of February 2022. In March 2022, Web Werks announced the acquisition of a standalone building that will convert to its first data center in the commercial business district of Hyderabad. He added that both the data centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad will offer a significant power capacity of up to 20MWA and 10MWA and IT load of 10MW and 6MW respectively.
He further stated, “Recently, Web Werks, along with its joint venture partner Iron Mountain Data Centers, announced plans to invest Rs.197 crores in a new hyper-scale data center in Noida. Web Werks will be part of the approved data center parks approved by the government with additional investments to launch edge facilities in key cities in Uttar Pradesh also the new Noida data center will begin in 2022 with 20MW gross power capacity.”
Equinix expanded in India with an acquisition of the India operations of GPX Global Systems, Inc. (Global India. “Since then, we have announced a new International Business ExchangeTM data center in Mumbai and committed an estimated investment of over Rs.1000 crores (US$125.15 million) in phases over the next 10 years for building a world class data center in Chennai,” said Manoj Paul, Managing Director of Equinix India. In addition to expansion, they are continuously innovating and bringing interconnection and digital services to help their customers easily build a future-proof digital infrastructure with resiliency, scalability and security.
Similarly, CapitaLand will be expanding its Data Centre footprint in India, with plans to set up projects in major metros like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Noida. Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director, CapitaLand Investment of Data Centre Group India emphasized on building a team of in-house Data Centre domain experts to manage Sales, Marketing, Design & Development, Operations and Business development and are excited to be a part of this momentous journey towards Digitizing India. Also, they would be collaborating and leveraging the strength and reach of the Channel Partner Ecosystem in India to ensure that they service the Large Enterprises in their DC Transformation journey in the most seamless manner.
Data center growth in India: In India, the demand for hyper-scale data centers has shot up in the last two years as more businesses are moving their IT infrastructure to the Cloud, primarily driven by increasing demand for app-based services and OTT platforms. Enterprises are transforming IT delivery and bringing applications and data processing closer to the users—in a colocation facility at the edge data center.
Today, we are witnessing more investments into hyperscale Tier IV data centers and data center operators are now building parks instead of isolated buildings. Majority of Hyperscalers are already outsourcing their colocation requirements in India for rapid expansion. International cloud providers are also setting up their captive data centers by availing incentives and benefits by government policies.
With this the demand for colocation data centers has been on the rise ever since the question of data nativity became inevitable, even as the need for data driven intelligence and ability to use the power of cloud native AI/ML services is leading to hybrid architectures.
IT infrastructure providers:
Arista Networks
Aruba
Cisco Systems
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Juniper Networks
NEC Corporation
PureStorage
Atos
Broadcom
Dell Technologies
IBM
Lenovo
NetApp
Security & data center: The perspective of security architecture is changing dramatically with the mobile first and cloud first world, where the security architecture must seamlessly cover the distributed Data Center scenario. The other trend of dissolution of security perimeter with Cloud becoming the Data Center coupled with various SaaS services has resulted in a perspective of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Cloud Access Security Brokerage (CASB). These very measures have been of great help to seamlessly enable Work-from-Home access without any disruption and with all the confidence.
Achieving 100% uptime for the data center is easy, but maintaining it continuously is only possible with a sustainable model that includes strong process management and automation supporting process strengthening.
New entrants:
Equinix (GPX Global Systems)
EverYondr
Princeton Digital Group (PDG)
We can’t deny the fact that connectivity is an essential precondition and data centers are the warehouses of the digital economy, providing a home not only for the data itself, but also for the platforms and applications that have become so ubiquitous in the modern world. More and more Indian organisations are looking to transform into digital-first businesses, with a natural progression towards increased cloud-led innovation across the board. As a result, 40% of new enterprise applications in India are likely to be cloud-native by 2022.
The market for IT infrastructure is increasing due to the rising investments in data centers and hyperscale data centers. Cloud, big data, and IoT contribute to data centers and IT infrastructure demand.
The future of data centres is AIOps and SecOps, to ensure our data centers are human-free. As 5G is rolled-out our terrestrial networks will require big upgrades or they will choke. The immediate future is applications moving nearer to the data/consumer and the Edge is the big enabler.
Going forward, there will be the introduction of Fog computing, which is a decentralized computing infrastructure in which data, compute, storage and applications are located somewhere between the data source and the cloud. Like edge computing, fog computing brings the advantages and power of the cloud closer to where data is created and acted upon.
Finally, Indian data center services footprint which stands at an estimated five million square feet is likely to cross 30 million square feet in the next decade. Today, hyperscale data center space in the country occupies just about 10% of the overall third-party data center (DC) market.
The industry revenues are expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 18-19% during FY2022-FY2024 after witnessing 24% CAGR growth during FY2018-FY2021, supported by increase in rack capacity utilisation and ramp-up of new data centers.
Shailesh Davey, Engineering-Head, ManageEngine quoted:
"SaaS and Cloud Migration are turning the Indian Data Centre business into a billion-dollar industry. CRISIL expects its capacity to triple (1,700 - 1,800 MW) by 2025 because of Cloud-based enterprise operations, Favourable Government policies in the form of tax incentives and data localisation, Increased investments due to Big Data and IoT and Increased demand for India as a Co-location Centre hub."
Further, elaborating about the challenges, he explained that Data Centres rely on two critical components: reliable power supply and robust fibre network. He said India is still in the process of developing these infrastructural capabilities. Also, Data Centres emit the same amount of CO2 as the Aviation Sector, which necessitates the need for carbon-neutral electricity.
He further added, "India’s fixed broadband speed is lower than the worldwide average. High dependence on telecom service providers, dark-fibre availability, and limited bandwidth in Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities are other challenges. Investing in connected networks through inter-city fibre lines can address bandwidth demand. In 2020, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recognised Data Centres as key infrastructure. Apart from easing clearances, the policy gives Cloud Data Centres Special Economic Zone status. Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh provide special exemptions on Stamp and Energy Duties, power subsidies, and land-price reductions."
ManageEngine operates 12 Data Centres, located in India, Europe, US, China, Australia and Japan. Shailesh Davey further shared their core competencies:
· Premium Tier IV Data Centres with first-rate infrastructure, robust security, and network uptime of 99.95%.
· Infrastructure based on Spine Leaf network architecture, reducing hop counts and network latency.
· Edge Routers that directly connect with local internet exchange points, which have direct connections with local internet exchanges.
· Edge Networks that are connected via diversified paths with providers’ core network.
· Fully automated Data Centres managed by advanced software defined networking models. This paves the way for Software Defined Data Centres, for increased agility and strong DDos security.
· Incorporation of Virtual Extensible LAN for creation of several isolated networks, for scalability.
· Offering automation through proprietary SDN tools for automatic network device configurations, deployments and deletions, monitoring of network changes, automatically announcing or de-announcing BGP prefixes, and entire application deployment.
Elaborating about their future goals and strategies, Shailesh Davey said the company will focus on migrating toward High-Density Data Centres, for which they are looking at the following aspects:
· Blade Architecture: To reduce rack space, simplify cabling, and decrease power consumption
· Micro Servers: For compact packing-arrangement
· Virtualisation Via High-Density Setup: To reduce idle-time through software-enabled IT-task distribution over multiple server-sets
· Liquid Cooling: For integration with current air-cooling infrastructure. To equip Data Centres with better thermal-countermeasures for new-generation CPUs and GPUs
· High-efficiency UPS: To minimise voltage-conversion and optimise power-distribution
· We are also planning for three new Data Centres outside India, with an investment of $15 million.
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