Uma Iyer examines the ins and outs of the biggest data centers across India, and their plans for the future
With a tightening of regulations, data centers are becoming highly localized. There are over 130 data centers in India and are expected to power 1700 MW by 2025.
“The current data centre capacity is around 870 mw which is expected to double to 1,700-1,800 mw by fiscal 2025, according to a Crisil report which says this massive growth is being powered by the troika of data boom, digital adoption and local data storage mandates.
This massive capacity addition will require investments of over Rs 40,000 crore, the report noted.
Crisil reports indicate that the majority of the players are also getting into major cities by way of acquisitions and mergers.
With this we at Sify bring forth some of the top data centers from our view to end 2022.
15. CtrlS
The north-east has been fairly light in leveraging the data center boom. CrtlS has now opened over 1000 racks to support the small enterprises spanned across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Noida. They aim to create a sustainable solar powered cutting edge center across India in the future.
14. Nxtra
While Sify was an erstwhile ISP, Airtel the biggest telecom provider has scaled up a facility in Kolkata with a modest 25MW serving capacity to the North East and SAARC countries. They plan to be the biggest provider in the eastern region with significant investment plans for 2023. Like CtrlS, they plan to become netzero by reducing carbon emissions by 2031.
13. NTT
The other major player in the space is NTT opening their largest yet data center in Navi Mumbai. The facility boasts of 5000 racks with 30MW of IT load with a plan to increase to 150MW. With massive expansion plans of moving to over 12 facilities, they also have taken a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030.
12. Equinix
The American multinational company much like Sify Technologies specializes in internet provisioning and data center management. They have a worldwide footprint with over 220+ data centers in over 60 metropolitan cities. While they have only two centers in India with both located in Mumbai, they are someone who are reliable and have major expansion plans where they have acquired GPX Global Systems Inc. one of the Tier 4 data centers in the emerging markets and is home to some reputed careers. The Mumbai facility provides 16 MW of Utility Power with over 1000 racks capacity.
11. Princeton Digital Group
The new entrant in the market has now begun with 48MW with over 6 acres capacity. There are massive plans with over $300 pledged for growth.
10. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a great provider for workflow systems. They have recently launched data centers in Mumbai and Bangalore. With multi continent plans with two centers already in Amsterdam and Dublin, this new entrant is poised for growth and investments in India for 2023 and beyond.
9. ESDS
Founded in 2005, ESDS is also one of the leading providers for data storage including managed cloud solutions, virtualization, and disaster recovery hosting, backed with technical support. ESDS Mumbai Data Center is located in Navi Mumbai. The site offers 5MW of IT Load.
8. Bridge Data Centres
Based in Mumbai and across Asia Pacific, this center boasts of 20 MW IT load with capacity to increase over 300+ MW of IT capacity across China, India, and Malaysia. With Carbon neutrality plans by 2030 showing significant commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 368,886t in 2020, the Chindata Group exhibits personal and professional commitments to clean energy.
7. Microsoft
Microsoft is well known in the software industry and are pioneers in software provisioning. To support their functions they already have data centers in India — Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune. They have topped it by launching a center in Hyderabad that will be operational by 2025 with a focus on running AI applications on cloud for various companies.
6. AdaniConneX
Adani Groups with this endeavor has forayed into the data center business. They have collaborated with EdgeConneX are enroute to provide data storage infrastructure. With projections of 1,000MW, doubling the size of data storage in India with footprint in over seven cities –Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru. The flagship was started in Chennai boasting a provision of 17MW initially with a potential to extend to 33MW In the future.
5. Web Werks
The local Mumbai-based Web Werks announced that it is acquiring a standalone data centre in Hyderabad. The view is to increase the load from 6MW to 10 MVA. With expansion plants in Bengaluru with 10MW and add an additional one in Mumbai, they are targeting to work through the footprint in over 5 data centers in the coming years.
4. Yotta D1
With Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad in the forefront will Uttar Pradesh be left far behind? Yotta unveiled a 3,00,000 square feet data center in Noida with 5000 racks and capacity of 28.8 MW with 5000 racks and fail-safe backup of 48 hours. The future span plans to expand across to a capacity of 30,000 racks and IT power capacity of 160 MW. Additionally, Yotta Infrastructure, a Hiranandani Group subsidiary and a managed data center service provider developing a hyper-scale data center park, will also set up its park in Chennai. The Hiranandani Group and its group companies, along with Yotta, will invest Rs 4,000 crore in this proposed project over 8-10 years. Sunil Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Yotta, said that the proposed data center park will be built on a 20-acre campus.
3. AWS
AWS already has various data centers across the world and are planning to launch an additional one in Hyderabad. With high security and big business plans of an investment of $4.4 billion over 2030, they are front runners in creating sustainable and energy efficient data centers in the region.
2. Sify technologies limited
Sify technologies limited has been a pioneer in the space of data centers. They have a total of 6 centers in the major sites and connect over 45 data centers. Their pedigree in providing solutions coupled with information communication technology (ICT) service makes them one of the best and largest providers in 2022. With Current capacity of 100 MW IT power with built-to-suit capabilities with plans to increase to 200MW in 4 years.
1. Tata Communications
Tata as a brand has is a leading global provider of A New World of Communications™. Its global network includes an advanced and largest submarine cable network and a Tier-1 IP network with connectivity to over 240 countries and territories across 400 PoPs, as well as approximately 1 million square feet of data center and colocation space across the globe.
Conclusion
While the concentration is currently in the major cities due to political safety and infrastructure provisioning, the data centers are going to migrate to the other tier 2 cities. Over 60 per cent of the data centers are located in the top seven cities. Due to high rental and maintenance costs there is a view that we will see a penetration of data centers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the future.
For more information refer to: https://www.datacentermap.com/india/
