The rise of Data Center build and investment globally at 18% Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is unprecedented, with India outpacing this growth at 35% CAGR.
India is experiencing the Data Center boom mostly driven by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI). But there are some country-specific reasons for this exceptional growth as well. The mandate of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) to localize data and the massive adoption of internet use in our country means that we need to build many Data Centers, at scale, with speed.
India has historically had a challenging environment for Data Center build projects. Many global players choosing to build in India have derisked by partnering with well-established Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) companies with Data Center focus.
So what does a mature EPC with Data Center domain expertise bring to the table in these projects:
Engineering Innovation: Deep experience in Data Centers resulting from multi-project, multi-technology and multi-vendor exposure allows EPCs to bring together a best-of-breed solution leveraging the most advanced, effective options available in the market.
Cost Optimization: Aggregation of volumes from various projects, combined with vendor frame agreements and strong value engineering capabilities make buying from these Data Center EPCs advantageous to project costs.
Fast Track Delivery: Sound planning practices, tools, execution rigour and the understanding of long lead-time equipment, parallel work, inter-dependencies allow these Data Center EPCs to crash project schedules. In today’s Data Center projects, fast and reliable execution directly impacts the time value of the massive investments in the AI Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) hardware.
Technical Standard Conformity: Data Center-specific standards linked to availability and safety, among others, underpin every aspect of design, planning, build of these projects. Data Center EPCs know these standards well and make them central to all phases of delivery.
Compliance To Statutes: Having navigated applicable local norms, the understanding of risks and potential impact on timelines is known to Data Center EPCs, allowing them to build these upfront into project schedules.
Higher Quality Standard: Established projects controls specific to Data Centers result in minimizing timelines, cost and waste.
Safety Management: Data Center EPCs deliver to the gold standard in safety guidelines, serving global clients that set the bar high, often exceeding them.
Technology-led Projects: Tools leveraging AI in Building Interface Modelling (BIM), Digital Twins for visualization and capacity planning, Computational Fuild Dynamics (CFD) for thermal design validation are commonly used by Data Center EPCs.
Specialized And Experienced Talent: Data Center EPCs maintain Data Center experts not just in their engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning teams, but also in enabling functions such as supply chain management, planning, construction methods, to name a few.
As the Data Center industry in India evolves and quadruples in the next 4 years, the most viable option to build these large facilities quickly, on budget, safely and to required standards would be to engage a specialist Data Center EPC.
Shaheen Meeran,
Vice President & BU Head - Data Centers,
Tata Projects Limited
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