Nearly 1,000 delegates thronged ITC Grand Chola on May 21 to attend w.media’s Chennai Cloud & Datacenter Convention (CDC) and Interconnect World 2026. The event drew much attention for its curated panel discussions and technology presentations where we brought together 125 speakers and panelists from among the top leadership of some of the biggest and most renowned digital infrastructure and telecommunications companies from India and across the world.
Also in attendance were architects, engineers and consultants (AEC), industry veterans and technology experts. Present at the inaugural session were industry stalwarts, senior government officials and technocrats such as:
- Anand Khare, Director General, Telecom, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India
- Syed Mohamad Beary, Founder and Chairman, Bearys Group
- Bimal Khandelwal, CEO ST Telemedia Global Data Centers India
- Vimal Kaw, Country MD – India, and Global Head of Sales Enablement, NTT GLobal Data Centers
- Mageshwar R., Vice President, Promotion and Facilitation, Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. (ELCOT)
Welcoming them were Naveen Lawrence, MD, Sales, South Asia and Middle East, w.media, and Navin Andrade, General Manager, South Asia and Middle East, w.media
Delivering the inaugural address, Anand Khare, Director General, Telecom, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, said, “The world is no longer connected through cables, towers and switches. Today we are connected through data platforms, cloud ecosystems, digital trusts, and increasingly through real time decision making powered by AI. Interconnection today is not simply about networks; it’s about economies talking to economies, it is about governments connecting with citizens, it is about enterprises connecting with opportunities, and above all, it is about people connecting with possibilities.”
Throughout the day, many exciting power panel discussions examined the myriad aspects of a variety of technological challenges and proposed innovative solutions before audiences at CDC and Interconnect World.
“We have just started, and taken off. Technology is ever evolving. With AI workloads coming in, there is a requirement for higher rack densities, more power, and energy efficient capacities that are scalable. But there isn’t enough skilled execution capability,” said Bimal Khandelwal giving a sobering reality check during the very first power panel discussion of the day. “That’s where we all will have to work. While we build data centers to channelise the demand, it is more important to maintain and run the data center well. Many new players are yet to step into that role, they are just in the building phase.”
Vimal Kaw concurred saying, “We are slow on capacity. Supply is less, the demand is more.” Shedding light on another challenge, he said, “We have a lot of talent, lots of engineers, but no specific degree that gets them data center jobs. So when these people enter the workforce, they need to be trained in how we operate our data centers.”
Meanwhile, at Interconnect World, there were panelists and speakers from telecommunications companies, subsea cable operators, internet exchange providers and government officials.
“From the network standpoint, prior to the AI era, until about five years ago, most of the network was consumed for video streaming or social media,” said Narendra K. Data, Vice President, and Head of Network Services, India, NTT DATA Inc., during a discussion on scaling subsea cable capacity for the AI and cloud era. “All such data traffic was more deterministic in nature, and downstream heavy. But in the AI era, traffic has exploded. This requires us to change how we plan and design our networks.”
“Because of the true nature of AI, you cannot have compute centralised,” said Gaurav Hirani, General Manager, Head, Cloud and DevSecOps, Reliance Jio, showcasing how the connectivity demands of today were leading to a shift in design and deployment of digital infrastructure. “You need to move it closer to where inference is required. It could be in industries, it could be a connected car, a smart electricity meter. Because of this there is a major change in how data centers are designed, and these days we see a multi-region active set up.”
Meanwhile, a breakaway session titled CenterStage took place in the expo hall. This is where industry leaders and technology experts discussed matters in a more relaxed and semi-formal setting. Also exhibiting their latest products and technologies were nearly two dozen technology vendors whose products and services are used in data centers across the world.