Indian data centre operators are seeking industrial tariffs and exemption from electricity duties and a further simplification in the number of steps and statutory approvals.
Considering the economies of scale, data centres can be provided industrial tariffs and exemption of electricity duties. The number of steps and time needed to get statutory approvals should also be reduced,” Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO Web Werks Data Centers told W.Media.
As technology adoption has shot through the roof since the pandemic, data centre players are seeing a surge in adoption. However, this surge has to be backed with the relevant power infrastructure, which is one of the most significant aspects in a data centre.
Typically, power requirements of data centres tend to be high. An increase in the temperature by one degree will reduce 5 to 6 per cent of the baseline energy consumption. “There has to be guidelines for the distribution companies to invest and build infrastructure to support the present and future requirement of data centres,” stated Rathi.
Power consumption
The addressable market of power consumption is pegged about $7 billion, which is expected to grow 5 per cent annually through 2025. Web Werks recently entered into a strategic partnership with Iron Mountain, a global data centre operator. With this integration, customers of both companies get access to 18+ DC facilities in India, US, Europe and APAC.
All of Iron Mountain global data centres are ISO 50001 accredited for energy efficiency providing audited energy usage data that requires continual improvement in operational efficiency every year. “Web Werks is committed to replicate this in India,” emphasised Rathi.
India’s power transmission sector is undergoing a change of sorts as the country is increasingly starting to use renewable energy in the power mix as well as upgrade its (transmission) infrastructure. Official statistics are not currently compiled on data centre energy use at national or global levels. On an average, servers and cooling systems account for the greatest shares of direct electricity use in data centres, followed by storage drives and network devices.
For example, Adani Transmission Limited, post the commissioning of the proposed high voltage double circuit (HVDC) project, expects to improve supply to Mumbai region. ATL’s license approval is pending from Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission, according to a recent report from India Ratings & Research. However, one needs to bear in mind that it takes close to a decade to build a transmission line.
Rising Demand for Digital
As the technology landscape evolves, complexity has increased too. “Customers need appropriate options to scale their data centre footprint and establish connectivity between deployments without comprising cloud and network connectivity needs. A global data centre platform enable customers to efficiently connect to their ecosystem, partners, customers and other businesses,” noted Rathi.
The Indian DC industry is expected to more than double to 1007 MW by 2023 from its existing capacity of 447 MW. Mumbai is expected to be the leading DC hub in the country, according to a report by JLL, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. (https://w.media/mumbai-expected-to-be-the-leading-dc-hub-of-india-jll-report/)
The report titled ‘2020 India Data Center Market Update’, Mumbai with 199 MW IT load is the leading data centre hub of the country with nine internet cable landing and assured power supply makes it a preferred location. Mumbai and Chennai are expected to drive 73 per cent of the sector’s total capacity addition during 2021-23, while other cities like Hyderabad and Delhi NCR will emerge as new hotspots.
The NCR-Delhi is also expected to emerge as a new data centre hotspot as demand from Government departments and IT/ITeS are expected to drive further growth. (https://w.media/ncr-delhi-region-expected-to-emerge-as-a-new-dc-hotspot-jll/)
India is currently home to 126 third-party data centres and is witnessing investments in around 15 projects annually, with growing presence of both local and international players. Web Werks delivers wholesale, retail and hyperscale colocation facilities through its data centre facilities in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune.
Web Werks recently entered into a strategic partnership with Iron Mountain, a global data centre operator. With this integration, customers of both companies get access to 18+ DC facilities in India, US, Europe and APAC. Since announcing the joint venture in February, Web Werks bought a land parcel for a second 12.5MW data centre in Mumbai, alongside another 50MW in the offing.
The joint venture with Iron Mountain will allow Web Werks to accelerate its expansion across different Indian cities and build capacity to cater to one of the fastest-growing data centre markets globally. Since announcing the joint venture in
February, Web Werks bought a land parcel for a second 12.5MW data centre in
Mumbai, alongside another 50MW in the offing.
Expanding Delhi NCR has also taken on with 20MW in an enhanced campus of the existing data centre. Web Werks has also announced investment plans for building up to 20MW data centres in metro cities such as Bangalore and Chennai.
Interconnection Era
Organisations look to build their digital roadmap with a hybrid multi-cloud model comprising private cloud, multiple public clouds, and third-party colocation. Interconnection is at the core of this approach. Web Werks has been helping enterprises around the globe achieve application performance and user experience by deploying direct, private connections.
Web Werk’s network ecosystem comprises a rich fabric of local, regional, national and global Tier-1 carriers, 200+ ISPs, major CDNs/ OTTs, and cloud service providers (CSPs). “Our rich interconnection ecosystem extends its connectivity to three of India’s largest peering exchanges, along with cloud on-ramp with major Hyperscaler cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and Google,” noted Rathi.