Reliance-backed Digital Connexion Expects Data Center Capacity to Quadruple by 2028
Not so long ago, AIM had predicted that the next big hyperscaler would emerge from India. Looks like the prophecy is already set in motion. In July 2023, Reliance Industries invested INR 370 crore to acquire an equal stake of 33% to become part of a joint venture between Brookfield, one of the largest asset management firms, Reliance, India’s telecom and digital services giant, and Digital Realty, one of the world’s leading data centre providers. “The fact that Brookfield, Reliance, and Digital Realty have come together to invest in India is exciting on multiple levels. It reflects their recognition of the immense opportunity that the Indian market presents,” said CB Velayuthan, the CEO of Digital Connexion, in an exclusive interview with AIM. He said that the company believes in responsible and sustainable expansion, “building capacity to be able to solve customers’ problems of the future”. Velayuthan emphasised on Digital Connexion’s distinctive position in India, collaborating closely with Reliance, one of its parent companies. “In India, we hold a unique position through our close partnership with Reliance. They provide solutions such as private cloud, cloud on demand, and are actively working on offering AI on demand, which is the next step in their digital offerings,” he stated. Digital Connexion leverages the power of its parent companies, including Reliance, to provide GPU solutions to enterprises. Velayuthan stated, “Compared to other players in the market, we can leverage the deep involvement and capabilities of our parents in this domain, allowing us to deliver these solutions very effectively.” The company also has unique partnerships with NVIDIA. “We have a very close relationship with NVIDIA globally,” said Velayuthan, adding that one of their parent companies has a strong global partnership with NVIDIA, which we can leverage for our data centres in India. Velayuthan highlighted the strong partnership between Reliance and NVIDIA. “The close relationship between Reliance and NVIDIA was evident during Jensen Huang’s visit to India. It is one of the strongest and deepest relationships out there,” he noted. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel or duplicate efforts. With one of our parents being deeply involved in this, we work closely with them to ensure that our customers can access these solutions,” Velayuthan explained. As Digital Connexion embarks on its journey to become the leading data centre provider in India, Velayuthan shared his outlook on the industry’s growth prospects. He expects the country’s data centre capacity to quadruple to reach 4.5 to 5 gigawatts by 2028. “We think that over the next two years, the country’s data centre capacity will double. It’s simple,” said Velayuthan. “From where it is today, I think it’s around 800 megawatts of capacity. That’s going to double in the next two years and then double again in the two years after that. This means that it’s going to hit close to 4.5 to 5 gigawatts by 2027-28, which is a massive build-up.” Furthermore, Digital Connexion is well-positioned to capitalise on this growth opportunity as it can leverage global partnerships with HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and others as part of Digital Realty’s global data centre platform. Chennai and Mumbai: The Data Center Capitals The company told AIM that it chose Chennai and Mumbai as the locations for its initial SOTA data centres, with 100MW facilities in Chennai and 40 MW in Mumbai. Chennai, known for its connectivity to Southeast Asia through subsea cables and its thriving manufacturing and electronics industries, is an ideal hub for data centre operations. “In India, the two major cities known as data centre hubs are Mumbai and Chennai,” Velayuthan explained. “And Mumbai, being the financial and commercial capital of the country, is an obvious choice for data centres [besides Chennai].” Several major companies like NTT, AdaniConneX, Digital Realty, and Sify Technologies have launched large hyperscale data centre campuses in Chennai in recent years. Meanwhile, Mumbai hosts more than 40% of India’s data centres with major global and Indian data centre operators like NTT, Yotta Infrastructure, Web Werks, STT GDC, CtrlS and others launching large campuses. Velayuthan highlighted the progress of the Chennai data centre, which has a total capacity of 100 megawatts and is already operational with committed power. “We are currently in an active expansion phase, working on the next stages of development,” he said. “If you consider the initial 20 megawatts as phase 1, we are already progressing to the subsequent phases,” Velayuthan added, emphasising the rapid growth of the Chennai facility. Sustainable and Efficient Operations The company is also committed towards building sustainable and efficient data centres that minimise environmental impact. “We have built one of the most efficient data centres in the country with cutting-edge technology in air conditioning, design, and other aspects,” Velayuthan stated. He further added, “Our proprietary technologies enable customers to focus on Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) at a floor level rather than a building level, which sets us apart.” Velayuthan also highlighted the Chennai data centre’s onsite solar panels, which harness renewable energy. “We plan to power our data centres with renewable energy,” he said. “While we must comply with state guidelines on the balance between renewable energy and grid power, our goal is to provide up to 100% renewable energy to customers who request it, once we have met the necessary thresholds.” Sustainability is an important factor if data centre growth in India is to be fast-tracked. However, concerns remain due to several bottlenecks resulting in data centres’ huge reliance on non-renewable power sources like coal and water usage for cooling and other needs. AI-Ready Infrastructure Digital Connexion’s data centres are built to support the growing demands of AI workloads with a capacity of up to 150 kilowatts per rack, surpassing the typical requirements of traditional workloads. With the increasing adoption of AI technologies across industries, the company has also designed its facilities to accommodate the unique power and cooling requirements of AI applications. “Unlike many data centre providers who are now trying to retrofit their existing facilities to accommodate AI workloads, we have proactively designed our data centres to be AI-ready from the ground up,” Velayuthan explained. He added, “Our experience in handling AI data workloads over the past few years, through our partnership with Digital Realty, has given us a significant advantage in ensuring our customers are well-equipped to support the unique requirements of AI applications.” Carrier Neutrality and Cloud Connectivity Digital Connexion is part of Digital Realty’s global PlatformDIGITAL ecosystem. This provides access to over 300 interconnected data centres worldwide. Deploying across multiple geographic regions enables robust disaster recovery strategies. Moreover, this carrier-neutral data centre provides access to over 300 interconnected data centres worldwide. The Chennai facility, for instance, launched with seven carriers already connected, providing customers with the flexibility to choose their preferred network providers. “We give customers that choice there,” said Velayuthan. “We also just announced our partnership with DE-CIX, which is part of the global internet exchange company that’s here in India. So we have them as an internet exchange, which actually provides customers on-ramps to all the cloud providers.” The company has also extended a virtual point of presence (PoP) of Reliance’s submarine cable landing station to its data centres, enabling customers to seamlessly connect to international networks without the need for additional hops or contracts. “This way they can actually configure it and go international directly and seamlessly also,” explained Velayuthan. “We are conscious and intentional about providing customers complete choice and flexibility in terms of whatever application they want to host in our data centre,” he added. Deploying across multiple geographic regions enables robust disaster recovery strategies. Having multiple diverse network paths improves availability and allows data to be rerouted if issues occur. Digital Connexion believes that its interconnection services ensure high availability and enhance disaster recovery plans.
Its data centres are built to support the growing demands of AI workloads with a capacity of up to 150 kilowatts per rack.
Its data centres are built to support the growing demands of AI workloads with a capacity of up to 150 kilowatts per rack.
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Shyam is a tech journalist with expertise in policy and politics, and exhibits a fervent interest in scrutinising the convergence of AI and analytics in society. In his leisure time, he indulges in anime binges and mountain hikes.