The Indian Data Center market is booming, and is expected to continue to grow by leaps and bounds in 2024 as well, as per a recent report by Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), a renowned global player in commercial real estate services and investment.
The report titled, From Bytes to Business: India Data Centre Market Powering Progress in 2023, has thrown up some interesting figures about the state of the DC industry in India today, particularly the first half (H1) of 2023. “Aligning with the country’s advancing digital landscape, India’s DC capacity doubled between 2020 to 2023 to reach ~880 MW as of H1 2023 and is expected to touch ~1,048 MW by the end of 2023,” says the report. Its projected figure for market size by end of 2024 stands at a whopping 1300 MW!
The report says, “The Indian DC industry is witnessing a continuous uptrend owing to rapid digitalisation, improving tech infrastructure, and inclusion of advanced technologies such as 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain and cloud computing. The country’s growing digital infrastructure, increasing technology penetration and proactive regulatory push have made it an attractive destination for DC investments.”
“During H1 2023, the sector witnessed investment commitments worth USD 21 billion. Overall, between 2018 – H1 2023, the DC market in India attracted investment commitments of about USD 35 billion by both global and domestic investors,” said the report, adding, “Hyperscale DCs dominated majority of these investments with a share of about 89 per cent, while colocation DCs contributed to the rest 11 per cent. The top states that dominated the cumulative investment commitments include Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.”
Mumbai has cornered a lion’s share of the Indian DC market at 52 per cent. The report said, “Mumbai continues to be the most prominent DC market in the country accounting for more than half of the total stock. The presence of multiple cable landing stations, inclusive government initiatives and well-rooted entertainment and finance industries have established the city as a the top destination for BFSI, media, cloud, hyperscale and OTT companies to locate their DC operations.”
Meanwhile, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi NCR are also holding strong as established Tier 1 markets. Together with Mumbai, they accounted for 87 per cent of India’s DC stock in H1 2023. Given how DCs were also expanding to Tier II and Tier III cities, the report noted how DCs were exploring emerging untapped markets such as Kochi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna and Vishakhapatnam.
