Mumbai headquartered data center firm Web Werks has announced plans to invest Rs 200 crore for its new hyperscale data center in Noida.
Web Werks is among the first data center players to receive a go-ahead from Uttar Pradesh government to setup capacity under the state’s data center policy. Web Werks will be part of the approved data center parks approved by the government with additional investments to launch edge facilities in key cities in Uttar Pradesh.
The construction of the new Noida data center will begin in 2022 with 20 MW gross power capacity and will be live for its customers by Q2 2023.
Web Werks earlier had an existing one-acre plot in Noida (Sector 63) and the company has also acquired an additional acre land for the expansion.
Under the state’s data center policy Web Werks will be receiving all the benefits such as special provisions in building norms, electricity supply and other exemptions.
With its data center policy, the Uttar Pradesh government plans to invest around Rs 20,000 crore in the data centre industry in the next five years. The policy aims at developing 250 MW of data centre industries in the state and setting up at least three modern private data centre parks.
The policy will also ensure an adequate and uninterrupted supply of power, the lifeline of data centres, through the ‘Open Access Scheme’.
“The locational advantage of Uttar Pradesh has made the state attractive for investments in the IT and Electronic industry from many leading players; both Indian and global. The expanse of the state also makes it viable for Web Werks to scale up its investments and launch Edge facilities in key cities furthering its presence in the region. Multiple e-governance services and online service delivery platforms will turn the state into a major cloud storage consumer for these data centers,” said, Nikhil Rathi, Founder & CEO of Web Werks.
Apart from its expansion of Noida facility, Web Werks has two existing facilities in Mumbai and Pune. Since the last year, the data center firm has been on an expansion spree with its new facilities coming up in Bengaluru, Chennai, Navi Mumbai and Hyedrabad soon.
In the next five years, Web Werks plans to have a gross power capacity of 360MW across India, Rathi told ETCIO.
Going forward, Web Werks also has plans to spread a network of edge data centers across Tier-2 cities as well as some of the state capitals. These edge data centers will have a capacity ranging from one to three megawatts.
In early 2021, Web Werks entered into a joint venture with the US-based Iron Mountain Data Centers. Through the partnership, Iron Mountain expects to invest $150 million over the next two years and anticipates being the majority investor the venture after the investment period.
DC industry booming
While the volatile economic situation is one of the major concerns for many businesses, Rathi said the DC industry is thriving.
“Digitization is about becoming more efficient and controlling costs, and businesses are doing that aggressively. In any scenario, businesses will be using data centers either through cloud services or directly. We have seen an uptick in demand and our business has increased manifolds,” he added.
According to ratings agency ICRA, The Indian data centers industry’s capacity is expected to witness a five-fold increase as it is expected to add overall 3,900-4,100 MW of capacity involving investments of Rs 1.05-1.20 lakh crore in the next five years.