Not Only in APAC Region, India Globally can become a Major Data Centre Hub
The use of automation technologies in data centres is hardly new. For example, Google has explained the use of DeepMind AI for cooling.
As the global leader in data center and networking optimization, Park Place Technologies work with more than 21,000 companies across the globe — boosting infrastructure performance and Uptime, maximizing IT staff and stretching the budget. Mohammed Atif, Director Business Development, India, Park Place Technologies during an interaction with Nitisha elaborates on the data centre industry. While emphasizing the future of the data center industry in India, he says, with the expected market growth in India data centers over the next few years, it is not inconceivable that India could be a major data center hub not only in India, or the APAC region, but a major global hub.
Kindly talk about the talent race in the data centre industry.
We are seeing that there is a race for tech talent, not just in India, but globally, as tech and IT companies look to recruit and retain the industry’s top innovators, developers, and engineers to help drive their businesses forward. Organisations seeking to attract and retain top tech talent must ensure that adequate job roles and career paths our outlined and road mapped, as well as ensure that the modern working culture is attractive to potential recruits if organisations want to attract and retain the best available talent in the market.
What are your observations about the India data centre industry and the latest trends?
Increased cloud adoption, data localisation demand, and adoption of new technologies such as 5G, IoT is driving the data centre (DC) demand in India. enterprise IT started to slowly move towards a new imperative for workloads. The need for regional data sovereignty added a big wheel to this shift. Speed and agility became paramount. This led to modularisation, distributed IT, and a low-latency strategy for data centers. So that is why the data center space forked into two segments – the mega-big, a multi-megawatt category where hyper-scalers reigned, and the dedicated and lean category. The arrival of multi-core processors and virtualisation, followed by containerisation, gave a new shape to the typical data center. Now the data center had to be closer to the source of where the data is generated. While 10% of data is processed outside of the data center today, 75% of data will be processed outside of a traditional data center or cloud by 2025 – as per these edge-oriented projections. Organizations continue to show interest in data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools to monitor and measure their operations.
How will you define sustainable data centres?
Organisations around the world are adopting policies and operations to make their organisations more sustainable. The role of IT and technology in ensuring organisations are sustainable should not be overlooked as many organisations aiming to have net-zero emissions by the year 2050, will need to ensure that their tech and data centres adhere to energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, which is no small undertaking.
Kindly talk about the role of AI and ML in data centre.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for quite some time now, disrupting businesses and sectors with its capabilities to boost performance and bring in operational efficacies. The data centre industry is no exception. In today’s time, data holds a huge significance for any organization, and what is equally important is managing that data effectively. Once filtered and crunched, the harvested data proves vital to making strategic business decisions for companies. Hence, companies are investing in advanced automation tools for data processing and migrating to hyper-scale data centres to upgrade their IT infrastructure. The explosion of data in recent years has led hyperscale to innovate and deploy AI technologies in their facilities to handle tasks autonomously. The use of automation technologies in data centres is hardly new. For example, Google has explained the use of DeepMind AI for cooling. However, companies are yet to leverage AI/ML to the fullest. Factors such as distrust in technology have obstructed many organizations to take a leap toward AI. While the most known use cases for AI deployment in data centres are temperature control and predictive maintenance, AI’s potential to enhance the efficiency of a data centre infrastructure is far more than widely known. Let’s look at some use cases of AI in data centres that will change the future of the industry. Automated technologies in data centre promise less human intervention in regular and repetitive tasks. It frees up staff from mundane activities such as storage optimization, cooling distribution, security settings and so on and allows them time to focus on more critical issues. It not only achieves greater efficiencies but also reduces the risk of human errors while handling complex and diverse workloads. Automation is creating a pathway for data centres to go from reactive to preventative, leading to predictive
Hardware maintenance of data centres – how cost-effective and efficient is it?
Many third-party hardware maintenance providers can cut costs by as much as 40 to 60 percent compared to OEM extended warranties. Getting OEM support from a third-party maintenance partner can help IT managers maintain more systems or reduce their operating budget. This can prove invaluable as more IT teams find ways to create value through their legacy hardware. Older infrastructure often plays a critical role in businesses because the system can host applications that do not translate into cloud environments. Furthermore, many storage and server solutions can meet performance requirements well beyond the initial OEM warranty, making cost-efficient support solutions valuable because they let IT managers avoid unnecessary capital expenses and free fiscal space for innovative projects instead of hardware refreshes. While the promise of reduced costs seems attractive, it may appear too good to be true. One way to get past this disbelief is to understand how dedicated support providers can offer their services at such a low price compared to OEMs. Three reasons why maintenance providers can get by with such low prices
What are your views on the future of data centre industry in India?
The India data centre market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 % over the forecast period 2021 to 2026. The rapid adoption of cloud-based business operations has encouraged businesses to acquire data management capacities to handle huge volumes of data that are being generated. Increased proliferation of online shopping due to the availability of user-friendly interfaces, high-speed internet, and smart devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. is expected to drive the market in the future. The demonetization drive of 2016 has played a pivotal role in the transformation of financial transactions and led to the foundation of electronic payments. Moreover, tremendous growth in the use of debit cards due to push provided through the RuPay cards under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and increased number of POS terminals and various incentives provided by the government and merchants for digital payments had helped India to move towards a cashless economy in the medium and long term. It has increased the dependency of consumers on technology and is expected to propel the development of data centers in India. Proximity to fiber landing stations and uninterrupted and reliable power supply is some of the crucial factors considered for Internet penetration. Therefore, the major portion of the overall investments from local and global companies is mainly in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.
India’s potential to be a data centre hub. Your take on it.
With the expected market growth in India data centres over the next few years, it is not inconceivable that India could be a major data centre hub not only in India, or the APAC region, but a major global hub.
What are the challenges faced by the Indian data centre industry?
Increased cloud adoption, data localisation demand, and adoption of new technologies such as 5G, IoT is driving the data centre (DC) demand in India. enterprise IT started to slowly move towards a new imperative for workloads. The need for regional data sovereignty added a big wheel to this shift. Speed and agility became paramount. This led to modularisation, distributed IT, and a low-latency strategy for data centers. So that’s why the data center space forked into two segments – the mega-big, a multi-megawatt category where hyper-scalers reigned, and the dedicated and lean category. The arrival of multi-core processors and virtualisation, followed by containerisation, gave a new shape to the typical data center. Now the data center had to be closer to the source of where the data is generated. While 10% of data is processed outside of the data center today, 75% of data will be processed outside of a traditional data center or cloud by 2025 – as per these edge-oriented projections. Organizations continue to show interest in data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools to monitor and measure their operations.
