India’s data centre industry set for sizable, sustained period of growth: Study
India’s data centre industry is poised for a sizable and sustained period of growth with its expansion set to be fuelled by rapid adoption of digital infrastructure amid the pandemic, rising digital usage, cloud consumption and ensuing 5G rollout, according to a joint study.
The industry growth will concentrate around Mumbai and Chennai owing to business and infrastructure advantages, strategic location and cable landing stations that are well-positioned to support and enable the growth of data centres across the country, an analysis by Nxtra and JLL showed.
While India’s data centre future will largely depend on coastal cities with ready access to cable landing stations, landlocked cities like Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune will also be beneficiaries of a growing data centre industry, the report highlighted.
The study ‘Data Centres: The building blocks of digital revolution in India,’ projects that the expansion of the Indian data centre industry will be supported by accelerated adoption of digital infrastructure led by the coronavirus pandemic, rising digital usage, cloud consumption and national 5G rollout.
The industry is poised for a sustained period of growth, driven by a diverse range of consumption and demographic trends, as per the study by Nxtra (the data centre subsidiary of Bharti Airtel), in association with real estate consultancy and professional services firm JLL India.
It further stated that the convergence of data protection, strong demand from cloud players, migration from captive to cloud, industry-friendly regulations, government’s digital initiatives and investments will spearhead the ongoing growth of the data centre industry in India.
Elaborating on the regional opportunities, it said that Delhi-NCR region’s data centre industry has been supported by regulatory incentives and has the potential for large demand from government organisations. Whereas Pune has developed as a disaster recovery location for banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) players due to its proximity to Mumbai.
Bengaluru has a higher proportion of on-premises data centres operated by global in-house centres of technology firms. Kolkata is expected to have a new cable landing station in the next few years, and will emerge as an important location, it added.