- Investments in data centers increase in the last five years
- Knight Frank report reveals
During the past four or five years the flow of investments into data centers grew manifold with private equities investing huge amounts in data canters apart from major players in realty sector. The private equity investments in data centers grew by 259 per cent during 2016-21. The investments grew from $ 616 million in 2016 to $ 2.2 billion in 2021. Majority of the investment flow is from the overseas, nearly 96 per cent, while domestic investment flow was limited to 4%. The investment in data canters took precedence over the investments in warehousing and residential sectors, pushing them back from their second position.
The investors mainly focused on tier-1 cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. The cities like Pune and Indore also hogged the lime light. Globally, data has become a fuel for consumption, according to Knight Frank. Companies always analyze data of consumers to come to grips with the changing consumer needs. In this backdrop, data has grown voluminously over a period of time.
According to International Data Corporation statistics, the size of the global data in 2018 was 33 zettabytes. It is going to increase to 175 zettabytes by 2025. With the use of Internet and OTT, the data consumption has increased in India manifold, according to Knight Frank. India has emerged as the largest user of Internet after China creating a record of sorts.
· In 2015, a consumer on an average used 0.8 GB data, but it grew to 14.1 GB by 2021. It is predicted to increase further to 25 GB by 2025. Knight Frank said that the demand for data centre has increased due to the increase in the use of data.
According to Cloud scene data of 110 countries, as of January 2022, there were 8,347 data centers globally. Of these countries, the top five house more than 50% of the data canters: the United States (33.1%), the UK (5.8%), Germany (5.5%), China (5.4%) and Canada (3.9%). India’s share in the total pie stands at 1.5%.
The Knight Frank report said that the flow of investments into Indian real estate sector is high. In 2021, this sector attracted investments to the tune of $ 6.2 billion.
