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Colliers India Data Centers Report 1669962126
Colliers India Data Centers Report 1669962126
Colliers India Data Centers Report 1669962126
Data centers:
Scaling up in the
green age
Table
of Contents
Overview
The Indian data center market is constantly growing and evolving, with the pandemic hastening the
growth of this space. Technology upgradation, mobile and data penetration have spurred the need for
data center services for storing large volume of data. Increased usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI),
multi-cloud adoption and 5G in near future will further accelerate demand for best-in-class data center
facilities in India. Currently, India has about 770 megawatt (MW) of data center capacity spanning 10.3
million sq ft. We expect data center stock to double in next 3 years to 20 million sq ft by 2025. Future
data centers are likely to be more agile, efficient and sustainable.
20
2.7
0.6 1.5
807 mn1
from 277 mn in 2015
7X
between 2018
and 20212
2X
in the last 3 years
44%
CAGR during 2016-21
to 17GB/user3
India has always been the frontrunner in adopting technology. However, the last two years have seen
an explosion of data usage. Apart from the growth of e-commerce, the pandemic has lent itself to
increased usage of over the top (OTT) platforms, social media and gaming, spurring demand for cloud
services in India. As most industries embrace deep technology, the need for computing resources to
store huge volume of data will only get bigger hereon.
Notes:
1 Data as of September-2022 TRAI- Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
2 The economic survey 2021-22
3 Nokia annual Mobile Broadband index 2022
4 IBEF
The growth of Indian data center industry is driven by a diverse range of consumption and
demographic trends. This is compounded by favourable regulatory policies that will fuel the growth
and investments in this sector.
Demographic advantage
Availability of
skilled workforce
High data
consumption
Notes: 5-Industry
Investments in data centers have been on the rise since last 2-3 years owing to rising demand and
supportive government initiatives.
- The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 proposes a localization framework that restricts the data flows by
limiting physical data storage and processing within the jurisdiction of the country from which it originates.
Data localization would result in strong demand for data storage, which shall fuel the growth of data centers
in the country. The government has currently withdrawn the Data Protection Bill, 2019, and will likely present
a new bill that fits into the comprehensive legal framework.
Led by the aforementioned factors and data explosion in the country, investors across the spectrum
are now viewing data centers favourably. Since 2020, data centers have received cumulative
investments of USD10 Bn.
Data centers are an interplay of technology, real estate, and infrastructure. About 1 MW of data
center facility requires investments of about USD4 mn, making it more capital intensive than most
pure-play real estate asset classes. Hence, a long-term investment approach is required where
developers and data center operators collaborate to develop large built-to-suit facilities customized
to occupiers’ needs.
Data center
cost split
Fully Fitted /
Bare shell Powered Shell
Built-To-Suit
Rent Bare shell space Bare shell space + Complete data center
inclusions premium for power facility including
source structure +
infrastructure
Charged on per MW
basis
USD17.6 mn USD9 mn
2021 | Mumbai REIT 2022 | Chennai
Source: Colliers
Data center facilities are capital intensive and high in specifications in terms of
their design and construction. Real estate costs constitute only 20-25% of the
total data center development costs. Hence, developers can partner with data
center operators in developing data centers with varied number of
responsibilities to secure long term returns.
Uttar Pradesh
Maharashtra
• Stamp duty exemption
• Electricity duty
exemption
• Value Added Tax (VAT)
refund
Telangana
• Sales tax and building fee
rebates
• Land at subsidized costs
Karnataka
• Subsidized power supply &
fuel prices • Capital & Land subsidy
• Dual power grid supply • Stamp duty exemption
• Electricity duty exemption
Tamil Nadu
Key data center site
• Stamp duty & fiscal incentives on selection parameters
land/building
• Electricity exemption Environmental Hazard free
• Incentives for Green data centers Availability of dedicated land parcel given by
the govt at subsidized costs
• Incentives on power & connectivity
Power availability at subsidized costs
49% Mumbai
Mumbai holds the largest data center
capacity at 49%, followed by Delhi NCR at
17%. Chennai also holds 10% of the total
stock. Submarine cable connectivity,
presence of landing stations and internet
exchanges are the key advantages for data
17% Delhi-NCR centers in Mumbai & Chennai
NCR has about
17% of the total
data center
inventory owing to
the presence of
government
institutions and
BFSI and telecom 12% Bengaluru
players. Cheaper
rates of land
parcels has led to
Noida having
about half of the
total data center 10% Chennai
stock of NCR. Bengaluru and
Hyderabad are best
placed in terms of
environment hazards
criteria as they do not
1% Kolkata fall into high seismic
zone and high flood risk
areas. They also have
prominant presence of
technology companies
and startups which
5% Hyderabad create significant
demand for data.
6% Pune
Source: Colliers
Growth of data centers in Tier-II cities is currently power infrastructure will provide a boost to
at a nascent stage as they hold only about 3% of data center development in these locations.
the total data center stock in India. However, as Tier II cities can also serve as disaster recovery
more businesses and startups move towards sites. Organizations use disaster recovery site
smaller towns, investments in data centers are facilities to recover and restore their
likely to surge. Tier II / III cities are now being technology infrastructure and operations when
looked at as key locations for setting up edge their primary data center becomes unavailable.
data centers. Strengthening connectivity and
Jaipur Patna
Ahmedabad
Durgapur
Raipur
Nasik
Nagpur
Indore Bhubhneshwar
Vishakhapatnam
Manglore
Vijaywada
Kochi
Trivandrum
Over the last two years, data centers have received about USD10 bn of inflows
from institutional investors and operators. While key data center policies remain
at proposal level, various state governments have already enabled incentives
such as stamp duty exemption, power subsidies, etc to foster the growth of data
centers. Mumbai has about half of the data center stock in India, followed by
Delhi-NCR. Non metro towns, are also witnessing growth as businesses move
towards smaller towns creating demand for data storage.
In-house / captive DC
facilities in the wake of
dot-com boom
Emergence of Hyperscale DC
infrastructure as occupiers use hybrid
Rise of Colocation data
clouds and multi-cloud deployments
centers amidst increased
cloud computing
Data centers: Scaling up in the green age 14
Core components of a data center infrastructure
Data centers provide facilities and infrastructure to businesses for storage and processing of large
volumes of data they generate daily. A data center contains racks of servers, maintenance
infrastructure, network streams, physical security, and other equipment required to store data.
Computing resources
• Storage networking technologies
such as storage area network (SAN) Storage Infrastructure
• Network attached storage (NAS)
• Hard disk drives, tape drives, &
• Power and cooling devices other forms of internal and
• Networking server racks external storage
Note:
• Storage and backup management
*The infrastructure can be based on the guidelines for design and establishment of a data centre facility, software utilities
by the globally-adopted ANSI/TIA Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard for data Centres
• Data center management software
Data centers are classified into four tiers basis infrastructure facilities, reliability, security and uptime.
Tier 1 data centers consist of basic infrastructure while Tier 4 offer complex infrastructure that is
completely fault tolerant and have better uptime. Hence, majority of the upcoming data centers are
Tier 4 level data centers.
Strength Owned and operated More flexibility for Higher computing Reduced latency; lower
by companies, located businesses, as they can capabilities, agility and bandwidth leading to
on premises offering up-scale and downsize superior quality lower cloud storage
higher security data storage as per infrastructure expenses; increased
requirements scalability and
versatility
Limitation These facilities require Since these are shared Not ideal for smaller Higher costs for
constant upgradation spaces, clients may not businesses converting old IT
to meet the changing have control over infrastructure to edge
requirements facilities, security etc network
Future Scope Very limited Currently hold the Growth will be driven Likely to see higher
opportunities for highest share in total by Hyperscalers which demand in the next 3-5
operators in enterprise stock, demand from are taking up large years driven by
data centers as they retail and wholesale spaces buoyed by demand for faster data
offer limited scalability occupiers will remain cloud-adoption led processing in smaller
and are captive strong demand space
facilities
Providing scalability Agility and scalability
shall drive demand shall drive the demand
Automation and tech
enhancement remains
critical
Increased data consumption and cloud adoption have accelerated demand for higher bandwidth as
well as larger storage capacities. Moreover, high capital costs and maintenance costs and fluctuating
demand are driving enterprises towards managed data centers over owned data centers. This has
led to emergence of hyperscale data centers. A hyperscale data center is a large data center facility,
with more than 5000 servers, that offers highly scalable applications and storage services to suit the
needs of Hyperscalers. Hyperscale data centers are typically larger facilities with more than 20 MW
capacity, while enterprise and edge data centers are smaller facilities, usually having less than 3 MW
individual capacity.
Source: Colliers
<3 MW 4 - 20 MW 21 - 50 MW >50 MW
Exponential growth in data consumption will require data centers to be closer to the end-user,
translating in increased demand for edge data centers. Currently, the penetration of edge data
centers in India is very low. However, the demand for edge data centers is likely to surge in next two
years as they offer low latency and faster data processing. Key data center providers like CtrlS and
NTT-Netmagic are already planning edge data centers at 200+ locations in next 5 years.
Data center facilities are complex in terms of their infrastructure design and
specifications and are constantly evolving to cater to the accelerated digital
transformation of businesses. Current data center advancements are largely
focused on customization, automation and optimization. This has led to an
emergence of hyperscale and edge data centers. The emergence of edge
computing will give a leg-up to edge deployments in next 4-5 years.
• IGBC (Green data center rating system) • LEED rating system focuses on
measures the whole data center sustainability of the built
development including energy efficiency, environment in its entire life cycle
operation & maintenance, water including environmental impact,
consumption, building materials & location & transportation, water
resources, indoor environment quality and efficiency, energy & atmosphere,
innovation & development. regional priority and are not certified
only the basis of PUE level.
• The system helps in achieving sustainable
development with both tangible and • The system helps to reduce 25%
intangible benefits. The tangible benefits energy consumption and lowers 34%
include 20-25% reduction in energy CO2 emissions.
consumption and 25-30% reduction in
water consumption.
Reduced
operational
costs
Reduced
impact on
Environment
Higher
resale value on
property
Improve
indoor air
quality
Green data centers are facilities that utilize energy efficient technologies to maximize the energy
efficiency and minimize the environmental impact. The green data center strategies range from
minimizing the building footprints and using sustainable materials to recycling the e-waste.
With Edge data centers slowly gaining momentum and Gartner’s prediction of 75% of the computing
needs moving to edge data centers by 2025, it is very much imperative for the data centre industry to
relook at various initiatives that are being used currently.
As sustainability is taking center stage, businesses are leveraging technology even more to create
intelligent, automated systems designed to increase efficiencies. Companies are increasingly
investing in low-carbon and energy efficient technologies to reduce the environmental impact.
1 Cooling technologies
Precision cooling of racks - Liquid
cooling reduce temperature in a
targeted manner and requires less
2 Wind and Solar power
technologies
Solar and wind power
generation through
energy to cool down than technological intervention
air-based cooling helps to generate own
onsite-power sources
3 Power distribution
Rack mount power distribution,
metering, Distribution Management
System (DMS), Data Center
4 Security system
Access control system and
video monitoring system
(CCTV) will help to monitor
Infrastructure Management (DCIM), the physical security of the
Intelligent racks to monitor and property
check the power distribution
7 Uninterrupted power
supply (UPS) system
Rack mount modular UPS
system to ensure uninterrupted
8 Digital tools/sustainable
designs to lower power
usage effectiveness (PUE)
Digital strategic tools and
power supply and battery analytics to identify and
modules to support user defined quantify energy reduction
backup time opportunities
9
Currently, about 22% of the
current data center stock is
LEED-certified. Since data centers
Monitoring system are highly energy intensive, there
Collecting, displaying and digital is ample room for more
sustainability elements to be
monitoring system helps to
adopted. The next phase of
monitor the downtime and active
growth will be to leverage
server conditions
technology to create intelligent,
automated systems designed to
increase efficiencies. Edge data
centers will further support the
sustainable transition of data
centers through smaller footprint,
and lower energy consumption.
Tiers
Tier 1: A Tier 1 DC has a single path for power and cooling and few, if
any, redundant and backup components. It has an expected
uptime of 99.671%
Tier 2: A Tier 2 DC has a single path for power and cooling and some
redundant and backup components. It has an expected uptime
of 99.741%
Tier 3: A Tier 3 DC has multiple paths for power and cooling and
systems in place to update and maintain it without taking it
offline. It has an expected uptime of 99.982%
Tier 4: A Tier 4 DC is built to be completely fault tolerant and has
redundancy for every component. It has an expected uptime of
99.995%
Uptime
Latency
Data latency is the total time elapsed between when data are acquired
by a sensor and when these data are made available to the public.
Ramesh Nair
CEO | India & Managing Director
Market Development | Asia
ramesh.nair@colliers.com
Srinivasa Rao
Managing Director
Data centers | Project Management
rao.srinivasa@colliers.com
Vimal Nadar
Senior Director & Head of
Research India
vimal.nadar@colliers.com
About Colliers
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