India poised to become a global hub for data centres, serving Asia Pacific and Middle East: Ashish Arora, CEO, Nxtra

In a recent discussion with Express Computer, Ashish Arora, CEO, Nxtra by Airtel, he sheds light on the rapidly growing demand for data centres in India. He discusses how factors such as local data consumption, the rise of the digital economy, and data localisation regulations are driving the need for more data infrastructure. Arora also highlights India’s potential to become a hub for cloud-based AI, benefiting from its large power grid and skilled talent. He touches upon innovative cooling solutions, sustainability initiatives, and the challenges in scaling data centres, emphasising the importance of executing faster to capture market share.

What are the key factors driving the demand for data centres, and how do local data consumption, the digital economy, and data localisation rules shape this demand?

Consumers are generating data, and we’re engaging with businesses and digital companies. Data consumption is happening within the country, and much of it is local. As this grows, it drives the demand for data centres, as most of this data sits in data centres. 

The second source of data is from the digital economy. Initially, it was brick-and-mortar businesses, but now it’s the digital side. This data is also largely local, with companies in e-commerce, fintech, and delivery services being homegrown, keeping the data within the country. As the size of this data grows, so does the need for more data centres.

However, a large chunk of consumer data comes from OTT platforms, social media, and companies like Netflix. This content is usually not stored in the country; what we consume is often cached or delivered just in time from nearby servers. Our data localisation rules allow this data to reside in 7-8 friendly sovereign countries, so there isn’t a need to store everything locally.

The need for data centre growth has mostly been driven by local consumption and the shift to the cloud. In the past, IT infrastructure was often in a captive format, but now it’s moving to the cloud or hybrid models, requiring data centres. There’s still significant room for growth as much of the infrastructure is still not fully on the cloud or in hybrid formats, with 40-50% remaining captive. This growth will continue over the next few years.

How do you envision India becoming a hub for cloud-based AI, considering the large data centre and compute power requirements, and how does it compare to regions like Europe and Asia Pacific in terms of growth potential?

In the AI environment, cloud-based AI requires large data centres and high-capacity compute power, often reaching hundreds of megawatts. Only a few countries can support such growth over time. I believe India will become a hub for these needs, serving not only the country but also the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Europe faces power constraints, and most Asia Pacific countries lack the scale, with small power grids. India, however, has a large power grid, skilled talent for building and operating data centres, and could potentially drive significant growth globally.

With Nxtra operating around 120 interconnected edge data centres across India and autonomous driving gaining traction in the automobile industry, are there any automobile companies currently utilising Nxtra’s data centres?

We work with automobile customers, not specifically for autonomous vehicles, but for OTT services. Modern cars collect massive amounts of data, which is used for automation within the car and communication between the car and the backend systems run by automotive companies. Intel, as a provider of IoT services, offers both SIL model and platform solutions and collaborates with many automotive companies. The IoT platform resides within Nxtra’s data centre, so we are actively serving this market. While autonomous vehicles are still emerging globally and will take time to reach India, we play a significant role in the automotive sector’s automation, both as a data centre provider and an IoT platform and connectivity provider.

Regarding the cooling features for your data centres, do you use liquid cooling or have you experimented with oil cooling, or is air cooling the primary method?

Traditionally, data centres have mostly used air cooling. However, with AI increasing power requirements and rack densities, ranging from 8-10 kW to 30-50 kW, and eventually exceeding 100 kW per rack, liquid cooling is becoming essential. 

We’ve designed our data centres to support all types of cooling, as we don’t know what equipment a customer will bring. Our designs can accommodate air-cooled systems, direct-to-chip cooling, and immersion cooling. We ensure that whatever cooling technology a customer chooses, we can support it.

On the expertise side, our engineering and operations teams are equipped to design, execute, and operate these solutions. We are currently working with multiple customers to help them select the right cooling solution. While large-scale deployments of immersion and liquid cooling are not yet common in India, we expect this to change in the next two years. 

Liquid cooling is more sustainable and efficient than air cooling, reducing energy consumption. However, the choice depends on the customer’s hardware. If their hardware doesn’t support immersion cooling, it can’t be used.

As data centres expand and demand increases, so do power requirements and power consumption. What measures have you implemented to deploy a more sustainable alternative?

We focus on both the supply and demand sides of energy consumption. On the demand side, our goal is to minimise energy usage, particularly the energy needed for cooling IT environments, which is measured by PUE. We’ve taken several initiatives to optimise energy consumption, such as increasing temperature set points. Previously, we ran equipment at 22°C, but now we aim for 26-27°C, which improves efficiency. 

All our data centres are now designed with hot aisle containment, replacing the traditional cold aisle containment. We’ve also moved away from raised floors, opting for true floors in our designs, which is more efficient as power densities increase. Additionally, we use hot air containment to prevent hot and cold air from mixing, further enhancing efficiency. 

On the supply side, we maximise the use of green energy. Regulations now allow edge sites to use green energy, with the threshold reduced to 100 kW instead of 1 MW so we’re expanding green energy use across as many sites as possible. All our sites have rooftop solar panels to generate on-site energy. We’re also investing in innovative green solutions, like fuel cell-based hydrogen-ready technology from Bloom Energy. This comprehensive approach helps us optimise energy use.

What challenges do you still see in the industry, how are you addressing them, and what is your vision for the next year?

The main challenge we face is the demand in the market, but the ability to execute quickly is a pain point. The process of infrastructure creation—from acquiring land and sourcing power to securing permits, starting construction, and finally handing over to the customer—typically takes around three years. As a consortium and industry partner, we collaborate with others to reduce the permitting cycle and speed up execution. The key challenge is that whoever can build faster will capture a larger market share, and that’s the focus right now. Overall, the market is quite exciting; improving the construction cycle is a priority for us and the entire industry.