The year 2021 was the year of technological advancements and accelerated digital transformation journeys of organisations. During the COVID19 pandemic, organisations had to migrate most of their workloads online. For most organisations the process was a sudden one. They had to accelerate their journey of digital transformation much earlier than they had planned.
The increased network usage has led to an increase in the demand for data centers and cloud which organisations were trying to meet. Certain initiatives undertaken by the Government of India have played a major role in the increased demand for Data Centres. One of the most important ones is granting infrastructure status to Data Centres in India and the Data Centre policy of the Tamil Nadu government has attracted investors with an intent to set up data centres in the state.
India’s data centre industry is expected to double capacity by 2023, on the back of increased digitalisation, rising cloud adoption and ambitious growth plans of operators.
According to Arizton’s recent market research report on “Data Center Market – Global Outlook & Forecast 2022-2027” is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 4.95 per cent during the period 2021−2027. Enormous growth is expected across the US, China, Japan, Australia, the UK, Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Southeast Asian countries, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan.
A Markets and Markets report explained that the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 445.3 billion in 2021 to USD 947.3 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.3 per cent during the forecast period. While technology spending in APAC has increased, the setback due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic is imminent. The cloud technology adoption is expected to increase in sectors where the work from home initiative is helping to sustain enterprise business functions.
Digital Week South Asia 2.0
In order to discuss the various initiatives that India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have undertaken in the areas of Data Centre, Cloud and Cybersecurity, W.Media is hosting South Asia Digital Week- India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh 2022 on the 21st and 22nd of April 2022.
The event will consist of a variety of panel discussions and presentation sessions by the leading thought leaders of the technology industry. The keynote speakers include Colonel (Dr.) Inderjeet Singh, Director General, Cyber Security Association of India (CSAI) will be speaking on Unblurring the lines: Building India’s Cyber Security Capacity Buildup. Chanuka Wattegama, Head of Policy, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka will be speaking on Sri Lanka’s National Security – Make, Guard and Preserve, and Bikarna Kumar Ghosh, Managing Director (Additional Secretary), Bangladesh Hi-tech Park Authority, Government of Bangladesh will be speaking on Government’s True Commitment Towards Data Localisation.
“2021 witnessed continued momentum of cloud adoption, accelerated the ongoing digital transformation via software-defined data centers, cloud-native open source emerging technologies and distributed application eco-systems. The digital growth fostering communication, collaboration and content localisation due to regulations created a much larger demand for data centers hosting the cloud resulting in the globally distributed data center footprint of hyperscalers, particularly in developing countries like India,” said Rajesh Dangi, Chief Digital Officer, NxtGen Data Centre & Cloud Technologies.
“The year 2021 was a great year for the Data centre industry in spite of a pandemic which is still ongoing for many parts of the globe. Industry growth with the huge attraction for local and international investments. 5G was launched in a few countries and continues for the rest of the globe which pushes the need of the Data centre and its importance,” said Sreejith G, VP – Data Centre, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (India).
He further added that in terms of developments in India large / hyperscale investment announcements were made by many Indian and Foreign companies. The Government of India announced data centres as an Infrastructure Category during the union budget 2022. Many states announced the data centre policy and data centre parks.
“The Data Centre industry boomed in 2021, owing to the revolution in Digitalisation and Digitisation. Cloud Adoption became the primary agenda for all enterprises. At the same time, it was a lot challenging considering the surge in cyber security incidents,” said Shweta Srivastava, CTO, Paul Merchants Ltd.
“In the last two years, we have seen exponential growth in Digital adoption and transformation. Due to this, Cybersecurity risks have gone up manifold. A traditional approach to safeguard information and information processing systems from unauthorised access, modification and the likes is becoming less relevant. We need to leverage new-age security technology which provides better security assurances, holistically,” said Ambarish Singh, CISO, Godrej and Boyce.
“Let’s also accept, that you can’t afford to be unprepared for a data breach’s aftermath. Even organisations with the strictest data security and IT policies could easily go the way of recent victims,” said Pawan Chawla, CISO & DPO, Future Generali India Life Insurance.
“I see the data centre industry to continue on a high-growth path, especially in India where capacity may double in the next 2 years. I also fathom the importance of Sustainability taking the center stage with the advent of Green Data centres along with rapid adoption of Automation and Robotics Lead Pandemic Tech Solutions playing a larger role in facility management,” said Sharad Kumar Agrawal, CDIO, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd.
