Under the Lens: India's Data Center Explosion (ANAROCK)

The unprecedented crisis created by the COVID-19 outbreak has propelled the data center business providing an unexpected tailwind. Technology adoption and digitization across the sectors were fast-tracked globally and India also leap-frogged at least a decade in the past couple of years.

The lockdown and subsequent restrictions threw life and business out of gear. However, this very black swan event became a massive catalyst for digital adoption across the country.

The government’s initiative and drive towards a digital economy was accelerated further as all aspects of daily life from banking, education, and shopping were forced to switch and adapt to the digital ecosystem. This had led to increased use of data consumption and internet bandwidth across the country, driven by the ever-expanding reach of social media, increased use of smart devices, data localization, increased adoption of cloud services, and digital transformation journeys of several Indian companies.

India accounts for 14% of the world’s mobile subscriptions and 15% of the total mobile data traffic. This is likely to increase to 17% by 2027 as our economy is poised to grow despite a global slowdown and other economic headwinds. Hence, it is evident that a substantial volume of data will be generated that will require enhanced storage capacity.

While the presence of data centers is primarily in the major metropolitan locations as of now, soon tier II & III cities will emerge and offer quality supply for this new-age asset class. As manufacturing and warehousing spread out across the country to deliver and service demand from the non-metro market, data centers in the future are more likely to make their way to such locations.

Our survey of IT-ITeS professionals across the country reveals that improvement in operational efficiency is the topmost priority. The specialized operators in this domain are likely to rule the market as most companies are comfortable paying a premium for the efficiency in services and eased operations.

Our latest publication on the preparedness for the future of data centers reveals many more interesting and lesser-known details on this sunshine sector.

This report was originally published in https://www.anarock.com/research-insights

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