RailTel, an Indian public sector enterprise that provides Information Communication and Technology (ICT) services has revealed ambitious plans to launch as many as 100 Edge data centers across India. According to a report in Business Today, these facilities will be developed in smaller cities.
The publication quoted RailTel CMD Sanjay Kumar was quoted as saying, “This year we should have 5-10 edge data centers by the end of this year. But the next year we expect the things will be—after we see the experience—will be smoother.”
Among its various ICT services, RailTel provides dedicated and manages hosting services, as well as colocation data center services. Its cloud service Railcloud is empanelled with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt of India.
RailTel is also one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country owning a pan-India optic fiber cable (OFC) network on exclusive Right of Way (ROW) along Railway tracks, covering important towns and cities of the country and several rural areas. This OFC network spans over 61,000 route kilometers (RKM) and covers 6102 railway stations across India.
According to IMARC Group, the edge data center market size in India is projected to exhibit a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22 percent during 2024-2032. This growth is being driven in large part by the proliferation of emerging technologies, particularly Internet of Things (IoT). Closer proximity of Edge data centers to the end user ensures lower latency which is a key requirement of IoT based applications, many of which, such as those catering to financial inclusion and digital literacy, are popular in smaller towns and semi-urban areas.