Sify data centre in Mumbai goes live; to launch Chennai, Noida units by June

With data consumption exploding in India, Chennaibased Sify Technologies is setting up more data storage centres.

Its data centre at Rabale in Mumbai went live recently, and it will launch two more — in Chennai and Mumbai — by June, said MP Vijay Kumar, Executive Director and Group CFO, Sify Technologies.

The Rabale facility will add 38 mw capacity, with 6 mw operational currently, he told businessline.

The data centres at Chennai and Noida are identical with 86mw capacity each. On day one, each will go live with 4 mw, he said.

The cumulative opera

MP Vijay Kumar, Executive Director and Group CFO, Sify Technologies

tional capacity by end of March 2025 will be 126 mw, as against 80 mw for fiscal ending March 2023. The investment over the last two years was around ₹1,300 crore, he said.

The second phase will commence from 202526 to add 100 mw over three years, he said.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segment leads in data centre usage, followed by manufacturing, retail and distribution, and media and entertainment, he said.

EVOLVING INDUSTRY

There is not much competition in the data centre business currently, he said. Different players are constructing capacity and going operational at different times, he explained.

Sify, for example, did not have enough inventory in the last couple of years and is building it now, as are the others, he said.

Countrywide, there is space for 810 good data centre operators, with some consolidation likely in the future, he surmised.

From 800 mw currently, the country’s data centre capacity would cross 1,000 mw or 1 gig by March 2025, with investment of $4 billion. Adding 1 mw will cost ₹3040 crore, he said.

With artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive AI technology gathering steam, the machines are generating huge volumes of data, which requires storage — both compute and capacities. All this will sit in the cloud infrastructure. This is beginning to happen, he said.