INDIA'S DATA CENTRE BOOM

THE BURGEONING NEED FOR DATA ACROSS INDUSTRIES HAS ATTRACTED SEVERAL NEW PLAYERS INTO INDIA’S FLEDGELING DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY, EVEN AS EXISTING PLAYERS ARE ALSO RAMPING UP BIG TIME

- NIDHI SINGAL

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: A plane hijacked by terrorists crashes into the iconic World Trade Center in New York, killing thousands and causing billions of dollars of losses for businesses. Not to mention setting off a war and other long-term geopolitical consequences.

MARCH 11, 2011: A deep-sea quake triggers a tsunami of monstrous power and scale, which smashes into Japan and wreaks havoc on its citizens and infrastructure. Again, the loss to life and business is mind-boggling.

APRIL 6, 2018: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asks payments system providers in India to use data collected within the country to be locally stored within six months. Reason: Perceived data security risks associated with sensitive data being parked overseas.

A terrorist attack. A natural disaster. A policy change. Three incidents, three different locations, three different points in time. Isolated. Unconnected.

Yet, they had one common impact. They impressed upon businesses the need to protect their digital frameworks and data, preferably on the cloud, and within very large 'warehouses' of servers, networking infrastructure and software systems, called data centres. As data centres mushroomed in developed markets, the RBI's action and a subsequent government proposal for a new data protection Bill in 2019 in particular-brought home the boom to a digitally savvy India.

Described as the 'data factory to the world', data centres are a key element in today's internet experience. Without it, you wouldn't be able to send a WhatsApp message or initiate a UPI transaction or binge-watch your favourite show on Netflix. Why so? Practically all the data we generate and consume-when we use our smartphones and the internet, trade in stocks, access banking services, purchase goods, or engage in any other online activity is stored, processed and managed through these huge computing powerhouses.