PremiumMumbai: The city registered the sharpest increase in data centre capacity in the Asia Pacific region, adding 56MW supply in the first quarter of 2021, recording total supply at 753MW, according to the latest Data Centre Report 2021, by property consultants, Knight Frank.
Knight Frank published the report in partnership with data centre research and analytics platform – DC Byte.
"Pandemic influenced push for digital services resulted into an acceleration of new supply in 2020 with an additional 252MW or 50% added to its development pipeline. This marked up the total supply to 697MW in the year 2020. Between 2016 and 2019, Mumbai’s IT power capacity increased from 148MW to 456MW," the report said, adding that in Asia Pacific markets, total supply increased by about 200MW in Q12021, reflecting a similar pace to 2020 take up – recorded just over 800MW, making a total supply of 5800MW across the region.
The EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) markets, however, have seen a rise of 4% in uptake in Q1 2021, to 120 Mega Watts (MW) with a 10% increase in new supply overall, totalling to more than 180MW.
“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," said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director at Knight Frank India, adding that the presence of established telecom industry in India and the push for digital services during the pandemic has further fuelled the growth of data centres in Mumbai. The rise of emerging markets in APAC has brought Mumbai under the focus of multiple international operators, who wish to establish themselves in this region.
The digital push from the pandemic has resulted in acceleration of data centre supply in Mumbai. With the addition of 56MW, total capacity now stands at 753MW. With respect to take-up, Q1 2021 recorded 8MW, compared to 44MW in all of 2020. Cloud companies are continuing to develop a substantial cloud network in Mumbai, which is aided by an ongoing stream of demand. This has facilitated the creation of multiple new hyper-wholesale colocation facilities. The increased supply can provide plenty of opportunity for creating a rise in take-up in the near future.
With respect to available capacity, Mumbai recorded little under 600MW of available IT power in Q1 2021, against the total capacity of 753MW. Available IT power includes all live, under-constructed and phased IT power.
The Q1 report 2021, which provides comprehensive coverage of 28 key markets, 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.
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 enterprise commanded 8% and 1% by Financial Institutions of the total supply, with 14MW and 2.5MW respectively.
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