Mumbai tops supply increase in data centre capacity in Asia-Pacific

Mumbai has recorded highest supply increase in data centre capacity with 24 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region, adding 200 megawatt (MW) in the third quarter this year, a new report showed on Thursday, as data consumption explodes in the country via OTT, IoT devices and social media.

Total IT capacity in Mumbai jumped from 812 MW in Q2 to 1,006 MW in Q3, according to International Property Consultants Knight Frank.

“Mumbai is among the top established data centre hubs in the APAC region. As digital transformation accelerates amid the 4th industrial revolution, demand for digital infrastructure such as data centres is certain to grow,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director at Knight Frank India.

The “collocation” supply in Mumbai has increased significantly in the first three quarters of this year, and for the first time the city’s total IT capacity has crossed the gigawatt mark (alongside Shanghai and Tokyo in Asia Pacific) in Q3 2021, said the report, published in partnership with data centre research and analytics platform, DC Byte.

The report said that the quarterly take-up of IT power in Mumbai has increased from 2.78 MW in Q2 2021 to 6.42 MW in Q3, the highest quarterly take-up on record.

The Indian data centre market currently houses an estimated 445 MW of critical IT capacity in the seven cities of Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

“India being one of the most populated countries in the world, rising mobile penetration is leading to massive increase in data consumption along with large and growing base of global users for digital mediums such as social media applications, IoT devices and OTT, as well as gaming platforms,” the report noted.

The digital economy in India is estimated to grow to a staggering $1 trillion by 2025.

“The data centres constitute an integral part of this growth story, which has only gathered steam since the onset of the pandemic and its associated disruptions,” Baijal added. IANS