Interconnected bandwidth sea cables with other countries make Mumbai and Chennai hubs for the data centre industry: Manoj Paul, MD, Equinix India

In an exclusive video interaction with Express Computer, Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India talks about Equinix’s new data centre coming up in Chennai.
Paul explains that both Mumbai and Chennai have well-connected interconnection sea points and bandwidth cables with other countries which make them a focal point for the data centre industry.

Commenting on Equinix’s new data centre in Chennai, he says, “We focus on building data centres and interconnection services for data centres. Customers must leverage cloud services with the support of data centres. We plan to launch services in Mumbai for Indian customers. Soon, we will build a data centre in Chennai. Recently, we have acquired five acres of land from the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd (SIPCOT) to construct a new data centre in Chennai. We do keep communicating with our customers about new data centres, book orders in advance and plan accordingly. We have 10,000 customers who want to come to Mumbai and Chennai.”

Chennai is a data centre hub in India, after Mumbai, says Paul. Speaking about the Tamil Nadu government’s data centre policy, he states, “Chennai has enough space and good talent available. The Tamil Nadu government’s new policy of data centres is engaging and encouraging. In our talks with them, we found that the government is very supportive. Singapore and Hong Kong are getting saturated, many customers want to expand in Chennai, beyond Singapore and Hong kong.”

Commenting on the need for renewable energy, Paul says, “We are working on a program to go carbon neutral. We have similar plans in India too. India has an abundance of renewable energy and we need to consider it. That’s a big focus area for Equinix.”

Watch the full interaction: