Mumbai Occupies Place of Pride in Asia Pacific Data Centre Growth

Mumbai figures prominently among the top cities driving data centre growth in the Asia Pacific Region, with large IT power capacity in the offing, set to boost supply manifold.

The Asia Pacific Region saw an increase of 488MW (Megawatts) of new capacity in Q1, up from 185MWinthe previous quarter, bringing the total capacity to more than 8,700MW. This growth was mostly driven by Tokyo, Sydney and Seoul, with Sydney crossing a significant threshold to become a Gigawatt market. Across the region, 203 MW of capacity was absorbed this quarter largely due to public cloud activity, a number significantly higher than the average 127 MW per quarter as previously observed in 2021.Mumbai figures as a high growth data center hub in the region. 

These are the findings of a  Knight Frank- DC Byte  latest report , focusing on the APAC data center hubs of Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Shanghai, and Tokyo; and hyper- growth markets including Seoul, Mumbai, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur – to provide the most wide-ranging view of the region.

4MW increase in IT power supply; 2.99MW of IT power capacity absorbed in Mumbai in Q1 2022

Mumbai witnessed a 4MW increase in supply in Q1 2022 which brings up the total IT capacity in the city to 885MW. The supply increase in Q1 2022 was primarily driven by Equinix’s announcement of a third facility called MB3. 2.99 MW of IT power capacity was absorbed during Q1 2022 in Mumbai.

IT POWER MW: Across key Asia Pacific markets

The chart below shows the cumulative figure of IT power since inception

Source: Knight Frank Research

Note: The above table offers no particular ranking for any city

Of the cumulative IT power capacity of 885MW built since inception in Mumbai, live IT power constitutes23% of the overall capacity at 207.14MW. The phased IT power constitutes 53% of the overall capacity at 470.30MW while the remaining 24% or 207.76MW is under construction.

In terms of market composition, Co-location constituted majority of 98% of the IT power capacity at 868MW. The reminder was constituted by Self-build with the IT power capacity at 17MW.

A deeper insight into categorization on IT power capacity in the Mumbai market shows that  Colocation Live leased IT Power stands at 144.7MW; Colocation Live available IT power is  45.94MW whereas  Colocation Under construction leased IT power amounts to 11.5MW, Colocation Under construction available IT power accounts for 195.86MW and Colocation Phased capacity  is of 470.3MW.According to Shishir Baijal, Chairman & Managing Director, Knight Frank India, the Mumbai data center market currently holds enough capacity to absorb the potentially massive data requirements that are bound to arise in a market such as India. Around 700MW of data centre capacity in this market is either under-construction or still to be commissioned. The Data Protection Bill when finalised, will be a pivotal point in the evolution of the Indian data center market and will dictate market volumes going forward.