India expected to experience 5-fold increase in data centre capacity: Report

Driven by steep data usage and digital adoption, India is likely to see a five times rise in data centre capacity expansion in years to come, a new report said on Thursday.

The country requires an additional 1.7-3.6 GW (gigawatt) data centre capacity over and above the planned development of 2.32 GW (colocation) capacity.

It is estimated that India will be adding 464 MW of new colocation data centre capacity each year until 2028, according to the report by Cushman and Wakefield.India's colocation data centre capacity stood at 977 MW across the top seven cities in the second half of 2023.

About 258 MW of Colo capacity came in 2023 alone.

“This is a formidable number and surpassed the capacity addition in 2022 which stood at 126 MW, indicating a 105 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth,” the report mentioned.

“This exponential growth is driven by several factors, including increased data consumption due to widespread digital adoption and the use of data-intensive technologies.

An average Indian cell phone user consumes over 19 GB of data per month — the highest in the world.

The country is experiencing an exponential rise in adoption of internet services, smartphones, social media, and OTT channels.

Consequently, the demand for data centres is of high interest to transform India's digital infrastructure.

“Both colocation data centres and cloud firm-owned data centres are being built at growing speeds over the last few years,” the findings showed.

While adding an average of 464 MW of Colo capacity each year until 2028 may seem like good delivery speed, India shall keep building more to capitalise on its digital transformation story, it added.

Over the next five years, India is likely to see fastest growth in penetration of smartphones, internet, OTT subscriptions, and social media usage.