Anant Sethi, Chief Information Security Officer, Adani Group

Data centres support critical business applications through their hosting services, whether it is in-house, in a hosted location or on cloud. Data centre service providers also work to ensure that business dependency on the digital landscape delivers meaningful outcomes. The network and connectivity expectations of enterprises include low latency, high bandwidth and robust interconnection between multiple cloud and on-premises environments. Further data centres need to meet industry standards for security, privacy and operational resilience.

On-premises vs hosted data centres

The Adani Group’s focus remains on continuously evolving its services to add value to the organisation. The primary challenge is identifying whether a solution should be hosted in-house, through co-location or on cloud. A key consideration around this includes the costs incurred to set up a solution within premises, and whether this will benefit the customer or the business.

Another major aspect is cyber risk management. With new technologies that have not been previously tested, the additional cyber risks involved must be recognised. Next, the deployment stage of the solution needs to be evaluated, whether it is in the initial phase or intended to serve the masses, along with the cost of managing it independently, through co-location or via cloud partner services, and its impact on the overall digital solution. The various skill sets required also need to be assessed, as they are continuously changing and evolving.

Capital expenditure considerations include overall cost, disaster recovery management, compliance and infrastructure requirements. Comparatively, on-premise infrastructure often incurs higher costs across capital investment, operations, people dependency, cyber risk and disaster recovery management, while hosted services offer lower, shared-cost structures.

Data centre selection

The following criteria are considered while selecting a data centre:

  • Scalability and flexibility: The ability to expand resources as businesses must grow.
  • High availability and reliability: 99.99 per cent uptime with resilient power and cooling infrastructure is needed.
  • Security and compliance: Customers look for advanced cybersecurity measures and certifications such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and adherence to India’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework.
  • Sustainability and energy efficiency: The use of green energy for carbon footprint reduction is integral.
  • Cost: Competitive pricing models, efficient resource utilisation and cost transparency play a role in location selection.
  • Location: Geographical location of data centre is an equally vital criterion.

Decoding the core competencies

Technology solutions being offered must not only meet current needs but also be aligned with future road maps. Today, there is discussion around 5G-compliant data centres, but by 2028, 6G technology will begin its pilot phase. Data centre service providers and internal teams must prepare their infrastructure and solutions for this rapid technological shift.

Multicloud tenancy, connectivity, sustainability practices and partnerships with hyperscalers are also being assessed. Support models, service level agreements and the ability of business partners to leverage selected services are critical.

Over the past three years, digitalisation has advanced significantly. Within the next couple of years, approximately 85 to 90 per cent of applications are likely to either be software-as-a-service-based, cloud-hosted or completely transformed from on-premises to cloud-native. This shift will open the doors for data centre providers and hyperscalers to prepare for new workloads.

Upcoming opportunities

The emerging opportunities include enhancing cybersecurity, where data centre service providers, who serve hundreds of partners, can leverage aggregated insights to develop automation and efficiency through agentic artificial intelligence solutions. These can be shared with prospective customers to add value.

Carbon credits are another emerging area. If a partner provides green solutions, customers may benefit through transferred or shared carbon credits.

Regulatory compliance is also evolving. While businesses focus on core operations, they may miss changes in global technology regulations. Examples include the General Data Protection Regulation and India’s DPDP framework. Partners must alert customers to regulatory changes and help address non-compliance.

Cost sharing must include benefit sharing as well. If service providers achieve efficiencies or exceed earnings targets, customers expect better services, reduced prices or added value. Organisations often worry about the fate of existing infrastructure when moving to hosted or cloud services. If legacy investments can still offer value, it creates a win-win situation.

Customers increasingly expect faster services and shorter onboarding cycles, while flexibility, scalability, location accessibility and coverage remain fundamental requirements. The biggest opportunity for growth lies in transitioning from a basic provider-consumer relationship to a true partnership.