An investment of Rs 5,000 crores by 2025 has been earmarked by Airtel towards its subsidiary, Nxtra by Airtel, its data centre business, according to a press release by the company. The telco said that the capital will be used to augment its network of hyperscale and edge data centres which includes new data centre parks in key metro cities. Nxtra is targeting an installed capacity of over 400 MW on account of this investment. The subsidiary currently operates 10 large and 120 edge data centres across India and manages critical submarine landing stations. What does Nxtra do? The company’s mandate consists of offering integrated data solutions to global hyperscalers, large Indian enterprises, startups, SMEs, and governments. India’s demand for data centres is increasing as it inches towards the 5G rollout coupled with an acceleration in adoption of technology due to the pandemic. Businesses are now making the transition to cloud which will need to be facilitated by data centres. They will also need to comply with the local data storage mandates like the Reserve Bank of India’s data localisation guidelines for payment companies. These guidelines will require companies to store all user data in India thereby necessitating the need for a robust data infrastructure. ‘Will focus on sustainability’ Nxtra said that the expansion will be undertaken keeping sustainability in mind as data centres guzzle a lot of electricity. The company will be sourcing 50 percent of its energy requirements through renewable sources. It has commissioned captive solar power plants in Uttar Pradesh…
