Hyperscale Data Centers: The Need of the Hour for India’s Data Boom
By Srividya Kannan, Founder & CEO, Avaali Solutions
With its massive population of 1.3 billion, India has been experiencing a digital revolution. India’s average data consumption per user rose to 19.5 GB in 2022 versus 9.5 GB in 2018, as per the annual Mobile Broadband Index (MBiT) released by Nokia. Affordable smartphones and data plans have transformed India’s consumption habits and created a data boom. With the rise of social media, smart devices, and cloud computing, the amount of data generated by Indian users is increasing exponentially. This massive growth in data consumption has led to an increase in demand for data centers that can cater to the needs of India’s rapidly expanding digital economy. Enter hyperscale data centers.
What are hyperscale data centers?
Hyperscale data centers are facilities designed to support the needs of high-performance computing (HPC) applications, such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). These massive facilities can house thousands of servers, providing massive computing and storage power. Hyperscale data centers can scale up or down quickly to meet changing workload demands, making them ideal for large organizations.
Advantages of Hyperscale Data Centers
The surge of data in recent years has made it difficult for traditional data centers to keep pace with the storage and processing demands. Hyperscale data centers provide many advantages over traditional ones, making them the preferred choice for organizations that generate and store large amounts of data. Here are some of the critical benefits of hyperscale data centers:
Scalability: Hyper-scale data centers are designed to scale up or down quickly and efficiently, making them ideal for organizations whose computing needs fluctuate. They can rapidly add or subtract computing resources according to demand, avoiding underutilization.
Cost-effective: As hyperscale data centers lease space based on kilowatts rather than racks or square feet, they can provide higher energy efficiency and lower cooling costs. By recycling the energy that flows through their servers, hyperscale data centers minimize the costs involved with cooling.
Efficient power usage: Hyperscale data centers have a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) closer to 1.0, which means they have better energy efficiency than traditional data centers. This translates to lower energy costs and better environmental sustainability.
Secure data storage: Hyperscale data centers provide high-level security, ensuring that data is safe and secure. They employ advanced security protocols and encryption techniques to keep the data secure.
Local storage of data: With the increasing emphasis on data protection and privacy, many countries are limiting cross-border data storage. Hyperscale data centers provide a solution by offering local data storage, making it secure, reliable, and easily accessible.
As more companies adopt cloud computing and data analytics solutions, the demand for hyperscale data centers will likely increase in India. These organizations must store and process massive amounts of data securely and efficiently, and hyperscale data centers provide a solution.
The Role of Hyperscale Data Centers in India’s Digital Revolution
The rise of hyperscale data centers in India can be traced back to several factors. One of the most significant contributors to this trend is the nation’s Digital India campaign. With one of the lowest rates for data in the world, thanks to the Digital India revolution, data consumption per capita has soared like never before. With the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, facets such as encryption, security, processing, and transparency of data have come into sharp focus. With these facets come increasing layers of complexity, rendering many of our existing systems obsolete. With more data protection norms on the horizon and a push for localized content to be stored locally as well, this trend may be expected to continue.
Moreover, factors such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML) are fueling the need for large-scale investments in data centers in India. The widespread uptake of cloud services and data analytics among mainstream firms is further responsible for the explosive upsurge in data utilization that India is witnessing.
The mass adoption of the ‘Smart Cities’ concept, which involves implementing smart technologies to improve urban living, is a significant driver of data growth in India. Data generated by IoT devices deployed in smart cities is expected to increase exponentially. With so much data to manage, hyperscale data centers can help manage data efficiently, providing reliable and secure storage and processing power.
To keep pace with the data boom, hyperscale data centers offer future-proof solutions for businesses that need computing power, storage, and security at scale. Many organizations in India are beginning to recognize the value of hyperscale data centers and are investing in these facilities.
Over the past year, several companies have announced their investment in hyperscale data centers in India. Sify, Atlassian, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are among the companies that have announced plans to expand their data center footprint in the country.
In conclusion, hyperscale data centers are the need of the hour as India’s data boom shows no sign of slowing down. It is easy to understand why hyperscale data centers have become popular, given their agility, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, security, and compliance with data protection regulations. With an ever-expanding digital economy, India is going to need all the resources it can get to manage the barrage of data that will be generated in the years to come. Hyperscale data centers can undoubtedly prove to be the ideal solution to this pressing need.
