Future of the colocation industry in India
Digital transformation has accelerated the usage of data in multiple folds. It’s perhaps the new fuel for businesses, considering commoditization and the online shift has impacted most industries since the pandemic arrived. In the previous year, the sudden increase in demand for data was felt like never before. As more businesses begin to migrate their IT infrastructure to easily-accessible platforms, the demand for colocation centres is observed to be on the rise.
A colo or colocation centre is a facility that offers space with proper power, cooling, and security, bandwidth for smooth operations, and physical security to host businesses. Considered as an alternative to traditional hosting, colocation facilities may house multiple businesses depending on the requirements of each.
Among the various benefits of the colocation data centre is that it provides a high-performance environment for a loaded IT infrastructure. Moreover, colocation gives access to dedicated, private connection options to hundreds of network, cloud, and IT service providers to help in streamlining architecture. Reduction in ownership and networking costs and the scalability to provide growth in the future are a few other reasons why businesses are beginning to prefer colocation over other setups.
While the process of digital transformation took some time to get adopted by all kinds of businesses, one of the best outcomes the pandemic had was the rapid digitization of these businesses. Data localization is probably going to increase the geographical distribution of colocation providers, thereby increasing the data centre service revenue in the country. According to a recent report from Globenewswire, state governments in the country like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have announced incentives for data centre development in the last two years. Through this step, they intend to support the strong growth of wholesale colocation.
Another major factor that points to a growth in demand for colo in India is the dramatic increase in the demand for higher power density for the latest infrastructure. The continued effort to handle larger workloads within the same potential has created a challenge for purpose-driven data centres. The cost to renovate an older facility to meet the demands of higher workloads is unlikely to fit the budget. A colocation facility is what businesses prefer.
These factors have contributed in favour of colocation for all, so much so that tech giants like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have shown interest in stakes for colocation industry in India. This is also a reason for the recent hype for edge data centres. Colocation has always been the preferred choice for firms that are looking to enhance their end-user experience in multiple locations.
With so much rise and expansion expected in the data and colocation industry in India and abroad, and escalated demand for IT and server racks sounds normal. Netrack India, one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of rack enclosures also believes that the IT and communication infrastructure are likely to grow double in size in the coming years. The maturity of colocation has brought scaling, design, and delivery easier for large deployments. Colocation is sure going to be a compelling option in years to come.
