Mumbai records sharpest data centre capacity growth in Asia Pacific in June quarter, report

The data centre market has experienced strong momentum in 2021 with Mumbai clocking the sharpest increase in supply as the pandemic has influenced push for digital services that accelerated new supply. Mumbai added 56MW capacity in June quarter, taking the total supply to 753MW. In 2020, the city added 252MW or 50% added to its development pipeline taking its supply to 697MW at the end of 2020, said a joint report by Knight Frank India and data centre research and analytics platform, DC Byte. Between 2016 and 2019, Mumbai’s IT power capacity increased from 148MW to 456MW. The report provides comprehensive coverage of 28 key markets and has closely tracked the significant pandemic-driven data usage shift in 2020, which in turn magnified the traditional “buy” cycle and led to record developments in the global data centres market. This year the data shows it is apparent that whilst some markets have kept up with this pace others, mostly Tier II cities, have reported little supply growth in early 2021. “Mumbai is amongst the better-established data centre hubs in the APAC region. The city’s location has a strategic importance as a landing destination for undersea data-cables connecting the east and west. The presence of an established telecom industry in India and the push for digital services during the pandemic has further fuelled the growth of data centres in Mumbai,” said Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India. He believes the rise of emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region has brought Mumbai under the focus of multiple international operators, who wish to establish themselves in this region. With respect to market composition, Colocation wholesales comprised the largest chunk with 126.68MW, accounting for 73% of the overall market. Colocation retailers commanded the supply of 31.42MW registering 18% of the overall supply. Telecom enterprises commanded 8% and 1% by Financial Institutions of the total supply, with 14MW and 2.5MW respectively. Source: Economic Times