Decoding India’s Data Centre Landscape: Challenges, Innovations And Future Prospects

The exponential growth of AI applications in today’s world is not only throwing challenges and opportunities at us but also is revolutionising India’s data centre infrastructure. As AI workloads surge, data centres face extensive demands in their infrastructure challenges.

In this article, we will touch upon the cause and effect and also go on a journey to dissect the numbers behind India’s data centre boom and find reasoning for the underlying trends, opportunities and challenges shaping the industry’s trajectory.

Data Centre Potential

Historically, data centre power density has seen a remarkable evolution, from 2-4 kW in the late 1970s to over 40 KW today, driven by AI and high-performance computing workloads. Projections suggest a doubling of annual data centre loads by 2035, with India’s capacity expected to surpass 1,300 MW by 2024. 

India’s data centre industry is predicted for a steady growth, with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.84%, projecting the market size to reach an estimated $9.27 Bn by 2027.

These trends offer lucrative investment opportunities for companies operating in the data centre sector. India has a whopping 759 Mn users accessing the web at least once a month predicted to reach 900 Mn by 2025. 

This kind of user base and an array of businesses bringing in innovative services and products to cater to the masses cry out loud for urgent and innovative solutions to meet these pressing demands. 

Deciphering Data Centre Growth

It is driven by various factors. 

The increasing demands of the IT sector and global capability centres (GCC) are creating a need for more advanced data infrastructure. 

The fast expansion of India’s digital economy, with an increasing number of people having access to digital learning platforms, social media, ecommerce, digital transactions, online gaming, and streaming services, is boosting the demand for reliable data storage and processing capabilities.

Post Covid-19, the ongoing shift towards hybrid work arrangements, especially in light of recent global events, is emphasising the importance of robust data centre solutions to support remote work and digital collaboration.

In summary, India’s data centre sector presents an appealing growth opportunity driven by  , digital transformation initiatives, and the evolving needs of businesses and consumers in the digital space.

Understanding And Embracing Challenges For Delivering Innovative Solutions

To handle the challenge of creating energy efficiency, industry pioneers are advocating for an approach to secure power distribution licences and prioritising energy-efficient design to achieve remarkable Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE – between 1.3 to 1.4). 

While that is impressive the challenges extend beyond power consumption. As AI-driven demands escalate, network requirements and the need for power redundancy become important, necessitating a transition from air to liquid cooling methods. Specialised cooling techniques like rear door heat exchangers become indispensable for efficient heat dissipation.

Moreover, AI’s diverse workloads introduce complexity, demanding tailored approaches to redundancy and cost-efficiency. High-reliability mechanisms and seamless power source switching become necessary to mitigate downtime risks, while operational challenges like power surges and harmonic distortions persist, mandating continuous monitoring and mitigation strategies.

Beyond infrastructure, power and cost challenges mentioned above are the data security, privacy risks, talent acquisition, and ethical concerns which are also equally important. All these concerns emphasise the holistic nature of addressing AI’s impact on data centres.

Lastly, regulatory frameworks play a pivotal role in ensuring long-term sustainability. Clear guidelines on energy efficiency and environmental standards incentivise investments in green technologies, driving positive change across the industry.

In such a scenario innovative solutions are indispensable. There is a need for data centres to innovate and offer solutions in sectors spanning power distribution, cooling, environmental monitoring, security, and scalability, offering tailored solutions to optimise performance, reduce costs, and ensure long-term reliability.

The 3 golden S’s – Sustainability, Scalability and Security are of topmost priority for data centres. Apart from this, a couple of more focus areas for data centres are:

• Adopting energy-efficient hardware,
• Adopting renewable energy sources,
• Working at a cost reduction of the infrastructure and
• Focusing on environmental sustainability. 

As India paces into this age of AI, data centres are working towards or some are already offering innovative solutions and standing strong as trusted partners, offering customisable and modular solutions.