The growing importance of data centres in digitally connected world

In the current digital era, the reliance on data from day-to-day business activities to financial transactions has increased like never before. With life becoming more data-driven, the data centres today have emerged as economic warehouses in the digitally connected world. They are not only storing data but also the platforms and apps which are prevalent. Today, many companies and government organisations rely on data centres to safely store important operational and proprietary assets in a secured and centralised digital environment.  Moreover, the pandemic has catapulted digital operations. With people working and learning online remotely, increase in data generation, improvement in access to the internet are driving the demand for large data centres in India.

Owing to this, the data centre market has registered a phenomenal growth recently, and this strong momentum is set to continue in the coming years as well.  Currently, there are more than 7.2 million data centres across the globe and as the world continues to produce 2.5 million terabytes of data daily, backed by the growth of 5G, IoT, and Industry 4.0, the demand for data centres is set to reach stratospheric heights in the next five years.

Preparing For The Future

As the world transforms itself into a digital ecosystem, the data centres are also evolving and adapting. From being additional storage facilities, they will join energy and power as utilities. The next generation of data centres will be fully automated and will eliminate the need for human assistance. This will optimize the scalability, flexibility and storage of data centres to transform the IT infrastructure.  Moreover, tapping the expertise of cloud and edge providers will further lead to retooling data centres to support the 5G-powered data landscape and huge information inflow from edge devices. Built on open source software, the futuristic data centres will further bring interoperability between traditional and cloud models. They will also pave the way for seamless integration of hybrid infrastructure and support organisations in building a resilient software ecosystem.

Edge Technology And Mobile Data Centres

The adoption of smart solutions has increased the demand for edge computing devices. Edge computing allows processing of data closer to the source which reduces latency. This is likely to lead to development of mobile data centres which can be easily situated near music concerts, sports complexes, etc.  This can remove connectivity challenges mainly in remote areas. Edge computing is essaying an important role in development of future data centres.  Also, the advent of 5G will enable hyper connectivity, and this will make organisations depend on edge devices in their data centres.  

Data Protection With Data Centre Infrastructure

India is fast transforming into a digital ecosystem with accelerated digitalisation of services across industries and initiatives such as Digital India. The rise in e-commerce, social media and OTT platforms, and growing subscriptions to e-governance services have resulted in growth of data volumes, leading to expansion of data centres.  Additionally, the data localisation norms under the proposed personal data protection legislation have further made it crucial to set up a robust data centre infrastructure India. This is also necessary to protect India’s digital sovereignty in the connected world.

Green Data Centres For Sustainable Future

The country at this juncture is playing a leading role in the global fight against climate change. Under its Nationally Determined Contribution to Paris Agreement, it has committed to cut its emission intensity by 30-35% by 2030. As sustainability takes centre-stage, building green data centres in India will become a top priority. Committed to reducing carbon footprint, the group operates in various countries and derives 43% of its electricity from zero-carbon renewable sources. 

As mitigating climate change becomes a global and collective responsibility, it is crucial for businesses to lead the change, maintain the social license to operate and remain well-aligned with national and global sustainability agendas such as the Singapore Green Plan 2030.​

The opportunities and benefits of data centres are huge and as technologies continue to evolve, companies will be able to fully utilise its capabilities to gain competitive edge and stay ahead of the race. India, with favourable geographic location and policy support is set to become a global data centre hub very soon and the country will be catering to the Southeast Asian region in the coming years.