India is a vast county with powerful state governments that have different regulations, visions and approaches, to many aspects of policy and investment, that can impact developments. We have found that by developing strong relationships with regional experts, we can avoid many of the challenges that others face.
Part of Quantum Switch's success is understanding how the market varies region by region.
Mumbai
The financial capital and also the data centre capital with excellent power supply and nine international data cables landing in or near the city. Regional authorities have supported data centre development for some time with incentives and efforts to attract international technology players. As a result the city has almost 200MW built capacity and is expected to add 330 MW in the next two years. With this growth, finding suitable sites and expanding supply fast enough to meet demand will be the key challenge.
Chennai
IT, industrial and media hub Chennai, although smaller in existing capacity, with 54MW, is predicted to grow quickly as new sub-sea cables land on the coast nearby. Hyperscale demand, leveraging these new international connections is expected to drive growth with an additional 79MW of capacity expected in the coming two years. However, with a relatively small land bank of less than 37 acres, once again finding sites for development will be a challenge. Innovative approaches to re-purpose existing industrial facilities, combined with the design and technical skills require to successfully deliver these projects will be important in this region.
New Delhi
The political capital of New Delhi is also expected to see growth over the next couple of years more than doubling capacity from about 40MW now to 89MW in 2026. This growth will be driven primarily by government and public sector IT projects as policy makers invest in cloud-based services and through the impact of the draft Data Sovereignty Law. The geographic location of the city makes international connectivity more challenging and metro or edge-data centres are likely to form the bulk of new capacity.
India is an exciting, rapidly emerging market for data center providers and hyperscalers. Google has committed to invest $10 billion in digital infrastructure. Both Microsoft and AWS are reported to be planning more data centers and cloud regions in the country. As they seek to realise these plans they will need a combination of technical expertise, modern, innovative and sustainable building and design, and the local knowledge to quickly secure and develop suitable sites.
At Quantum Switch we are best placed to deliver on all of these. To find out more about our Indian portfolio, please get in touch here