Modern enterprises and service providers looking to expand in Asia Pacific have much to consider, especially when it comes to managing their digital infrastructure.

The region is home to some of the world’s fastest growing and most rapidly digitalizing markets, including India. Simultaneously, Asia Pacific is on track to have the world’s highest volume of incremental data created and used by enterprises. The region is forecast to produce 461,000 exabytes by 2025, according to Digital Realty’s Data Gravity Index™ 2.0 report.

In this dynamic environment, it’s essential to plan carefully for data-first growth while managing data gravity. This is the phenomenon where increasing masses of data place cumulative demands on digital infrastructure, such as challenges with user experience optimization and data protection.

Expanding in the region, therefore, demands a robust digital infrastructure strategy, as well as the right data center partner and locations to help support that strategy.

This article offers three tips for developing just that, starting with why India is an ideal data hub to help organizations boost growth.

1. Leverage India’s considerable business benefits

There are multiple reasons why a growing business seeking to expand in Asia Pacific might choose India as a location to house cloud and AI workloads and other critical digital infrastructure. Among its many advantages, the country offers access to:

The world’s fifth-largest economy.ⁱ It is predicted to become the third largest by 2027ⁱⁱ
A highly connected population. With more than 800 million broadband users, India is the world’s largest connected nation.ⁱⁱⁱ More than half (52.4 percent) of the population has access to the Internet, and 78 percent own a mobile phone^iv
A thriving center of innovation. Analysts forecast that India will be home to over 250 unicorns by 2025, second only to the United States^v
A high-speed global data hub. India is Asia’s second-largest internet exchange point.^vi It is connected to 17 international subsea cables that land in stations across five cities, including Chennai and Mumbai, with four new cables planned or in construction.^vii This robust connectivity infrastructure helps it play a critical role in regional and global data exchange.

2. Re-examine your data architecture

Choosing India as a data gateway enables organizations to decentralize their data architecture and manage the placement of complex IT workloads—an essential strategy that leading global enterprises are now adopting.

Digital Realty’s 2022 Global Data Insights Survey found that 62 percent of large global enterprises now have more than 50 IT infrastructure locations. More than nine in 10 companies said they would also add new points of presence in the next two years.

By decentralizing their data architecture, organizations can more easily ensure they locate workloads in the right places to fulfill regulatory requirements and control bandwidth costs. This also minimizes performance issues so local customers and employees receive outstanding digital experiences.

Of course, it’s vital to accommodate location-specific needs while also ensuring that your data architecture can support your organization’s global requirements. That likely means supporting complex hybrid infrastructure across multiple locations. Additionally, your architecture must enable secure data exchange between multiple data sources and destinations, ranging from public cloud infrastructure and software-as-a-service providers to private cloud and legacy systems hosted in data centers.

Your infrastructure may also need to support data aggregation for advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), along with high-speed, distributed workflows to and from customers, partners, and employees anywhere. It needs to be scalable and flexible to support growth plans, changing business conditions, and, almost inevitably, data gravity.

To meet these challenges, your enterprise needs a global data center strategy that can deliver fast, secure interconnections between workloads in the locations you need—ideally, managed seamlessly through a single interface.

3. Ensure your local facility is highly connected

As one of the world’s largest multi-tenant data center providers, Digital Realty brings companies and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions.

Enterprises that select India as their preferred data gateway can take advantage of Digital Connexion, a joint venture (JV) between Brookfield Asset Management, Reliance Industries Limited, and Digital Realty.

This JV brings together complementary strengths of the three parents to deliver a world-class experience to our customers leveraging:

Digital Realty’s industry-leading global data center platform, design, construction and operating procedures
Brookfield’s access to capital, access to land and on-ground experience with real estate in India
Jio’s leading wireless and fiber infrastructure as well as deep expertise and enterprise relationships

Digital Connexion is strategically located in the connectivity hub of Chennai, on India’s southeastern coast. Its campus spans 10 acres in the city’s well-connected Ambattur Industrial Estate.

The facility’s first development phase, MAA10, is a high-density cooling-ready facility spanning 196,000 square feet. Today, it offers up to 20MW of critical IT capacity for requirements at any scale and various configurations, reducing the need for costly customization. Additionally, it provides a carrier-neutral and carrier-dense environment with the presence of key carriers and internet exchanges, as well as multi-cloud connectivity.

Importantly, MAA10 also supports emerging technologies such as AI and large language models. The facility provides standardized configurations and high-density power (up to 150kW per rack) that can meet AI workload demands for power, suitable cooling infrastructure, and interconnectivity.

With these advanced connectivity facilities, global network, open platform, and sustainable solutions, we can help your organization enter the booming India market and scale across Asia Pacific—one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly growing regions.

For more details on how to plan your APAC growth strategy using India as a gateway, see our eBook.

3 Tips on How Choosing India as your Digital Infrastructure Hub Can Boost Your Business