India is home to just over 1.3 billion people and is rapidly closing the gap with the global population leader , China . As the country ’ s population continues to grow , India ’ s digital economy is on the cusp of a boom , the likes of which have never been seen before .

“ Right now , there are only about 700mn Indians online ,” says Nikhil Rathi , Founder , Director , and CEO of Indian Tier-III data centre operator Web Werks . “ With only about half of the whole country connected to the internet , as the other half comes online , just imagine the data consumption .” Rathi paints a picture of a digital India consuming more data than any other country in the world , as everything from streaming video content to advanced analytics is adopted at record speeds . “ All of those things are going to require compute infrastructure that doesn ' t exist yet ,” Rathi adds .

At this moment , the entirety of India ’ s data centre industry comprises approximately 400 MW of capacity . “ That ' s less than Singapore , London - it ' s less than a quarter of the capacity in Northern Virginia alone ,” says Michael Goh , the General Manager for APAC operations at Iron Mountain Data Centers . “ Given the size of the population , how young they are , and how much they ' re embracing digital services , that capacity is going to boom .”

In the context of this pivotal moment in Indian history - the threshold of the country ’ s dawn as a digital superpower with the potential to go head to head with China and

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Sustainability Magazine September 2021 | Page 95

Inside Iron Mountain Data Centers and Web Werks Data Centers ’ US $ 150mn joint venture to capitalise on India ’ s data centre boom

India is home to just over 1.3 billion people and is rapidly closing the gap with the global population leader , China . As the country ’ s population continues to grow , India ’ s digital economy is on the cusp of a boom , the likes of which have never been seen before .