Over 45 new data centres to come up in India by 2025, says report

India is on the cusp of a data centre (DC) revolution. Once a small, fragmented industry, colocation DCs are fast transitioning into a large, potentially consolidated industry. Buoyed by the growing demand, plans have been drawn up for over 45 DCs spanning 13 mn sq ft and 1,015 Mw of IT capacity that will come up in India by end-2025, reveals the ANAROCK-Binswanger report, Under the Lens: India’s Data Centre Explosion.

India’s data consumption

1. 17 GB Data consumption per user per month in 2022, up from 1.24 GB in Q2 2017
2. 50 GB Estimated average traffic per month per smartphone in 2027 (almost on a par with China)
3. 127 Exabytes Annualised value of wireless data consumed by India in Q1 FY22

Likely growth trajectory

1. 138 Number of third-party colocation data centres currently in India (US 1,800+, Europe 1,400+, China 400+)
2. 72% of this capacity is concentrated among 5 players
3. 90% is concentrated among 9 operators
4. 183 Estimated number of Indian DCs by end-2025
5. 1,752+Mw Estimated IT capacity of Indian DCs by end-2025, up from the current 737+ Mw

Key trends*

1. Top priorities of IT professionals are to bring in operational efficiencies and cost savings to their DCs
2. 37% voted for IT infrastructure assessment, monitoring and operations for outsourcing
3. 30% of companies looking at hybrid (cloud + data centre) hosting services for data management
4. Operator credibility, track record and future scalability top criteria in DC selection
5. 58% of IT professionals feel colocation is better than captive DCs
6. 72% of IT professionals have witnessed a data surge in their organisations, post-Covid-19
7. Government support is envisioned by the DC industry to streamline power procurement and create large DC parks
8. Top tech improvements sought: Data compression and enhancing power usage effectiveness

(*Based on a survey of 166 respondents)