Processing, storage and retrieval of data getting complicated

According to Benoit Coquart, Global CEO, of Legrand Group, the areas of growth in India in terms of segments are government (both central and state), Hyperscalers, telecom, finance, logistics and e-commerce-related DCs.

Is India emerging as a data center hub of the world and what are the areas of growth and challenges?

When we say Hub and imply that it is going to serve other countries outside of India – the answer is NO. However is building up the infrastructure for its own needs – current and future – and the scale for that is huge. DC industry is expected to have additional investments of US$5 billion over the next 3 years.

The areas of growth in terms of segments are government (both central and state), hyperscalers, telecom, finance, logistics, e-commerce-related DCs, etc.

The challenges get compounded as more and more devices get connected to the network, and the network expands to remote areas. It’s a cat and mouse game – the security managers keep adding processes, layers, etc. and the hackers keep trying to exploit vulnerabilities. This is an ongoing relationship that is unlikely to end.

Today nearly 75% of DCs are concentrated between Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai and the scenario is not likely to change for the next few years. This puts pressure on the local infrastructure. Hence, the challenges are in terms availability of the core infrastructure – power, network connectivity, skill sets, etc. outside a few cities. It’s not that these are not available but if one wants to expand to other geographical areas then it is not easy.

Can you throw light on both micro and hyperscale data centers?

These two are at opposite ends of the DC spectrum. While Hyperscalers are addressing the mass market through their High Compute Capacities and processing large volumes of Data, the Micro DCs are enabling the digitization process in remote areas and specific segments like retail, hospitals, and education. Micro DCs play the role of bringing ‘inclusiveness’ in the process of digitization of the economic value chain.

What are the security and data privacy challenges that the global data center network face?

Security issues are pretty much the same all over the world – both physical and network security. The challenges get compounded as more and more devices get connected to the network, and the network expands to remote areas. It’s a cat and mouse game – the security managers keep adding processes, layers, etc. and the hackers keep trying to exploit vulnerabilities. This is an ongoing relationship that is unlikely to end.

Specifically regarding data privacy, most countries have some legislation on how and where the country-specific data needs to be processed and stored. Besides security, the ‘processing, storage and retrieval’ of data is getting more and more complicated. Some sectors require data to be mandatorily stored for many years. How to manage this effectively with the volumes increasing exponentially is quite challenging.

What is your India strategy?

It is simple. We want to be a major player and preferred vendor in this space. In this regard, we have set up a team of Data Centre professionals who advise on the best possible solutions for our customers. In this dynamic environment, our objective is to enable our customers to be agile.

What are the global data center trends and the business overview for India?

Global Trends: Improving efficiency in DC operations and sustainability are the main focus points. (This does not mean aspects like security, business continuity, etc are not there). Looking at alternate sources of power, scalability, and cooling technologies are vastly being explored.

Indian market is likely to grow at about 10% for the next few years and our focus is to increase our footprint in this space.

sunilr@cybermedia.co.in