According to a report by Cushman and Wakefield, the total installed colocation capacity (IT load) capacity of data centres in India will cross the 1 GW mark in 2024. Mumbai is expected to remain the country’s data centre capital and Noida will emerge as a key regional hub in terms of IT capacity.
According to the report, at present Mumbai has a 52 per cent share of the total IT load in the country followed by Chennai at 16 per cent, Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) (11 per cent), Bengaluru (9 per cent), Pune (7 per cent), Hyderabad (4 per cent) and Kolkata at 1 per cent. In 2024, Delhi NCR’s share is likely to rise to 14 per cent in terms of total IT load while Kolkata’s share is likely to be around 3 per cent.
The report finds that the total IT load capacity across the top seven cities is likely to reach 884 MW in 2023, a 35 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth from 656 MW at the end of 2022. Around 230 MW of incremental colocation capacity is likely to be added by the end of 2023. The report predicted that in 2024, the colocation capacity addition is estimated to be even higher than in 2023 at 265 MW, thereby taking the total IT load in the country to 1.15 GW by 2024 year-end.
According to Cushman and Wakefield, edge data centres will foray into Tier-II cities as established firms look towards expanding their footprint deeper into India. Nationwide roll-out of 5G services, global hyperscalers expanding their captive facilities and continued entry of new operators in India will ensure growth momentum is maintained for India. Favourable regulation and 5G expansion will act as tailwinds for the sector along with a continued focus on green data centres and energy savings.
Further, the report highlights that global hyperscalers are expanding their captive cloud facilities. Amazon’s new cloud region was inaugurated in 2022 with its greenfield captive cloud facility going live. Microsoft Azure has announced major expansion plans and has moved ahead with land banking across Hyderabad and Pune. In 2023, Digital Edge and Blackstone-backed Lumina Cloud infra commenced construction of their maiden data centres in Mumbai. Around $470 million was invested by Lumina CloudInfra, Digital Edge and Kotak Data Centre Fund in data centres this year.
