Top 10 data centre service providers in India in 2023

India’s data centre sector is poised for growth, thanks to a thriving digital economy, widespread internet access, and the transition to 5G networks from 4G. To ensure uninterrupted internet access, data security, and cloud computing, the government is prioritising stable data centre infrastructure. 

With 138 data centres, India is currently the world’s 13th largest market. And 45 new data centres — covering 13 million square feet and 1,015 MW of capacity, are expected to pop up by the end of 2025, as per research by real estate services firm ANAROCK-Binswanger. In terms of cities, Mumbai has emerged as the biggest data centre destination today. Chennai, because of its undersea cable network, is at second spot. Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune follow closely behind. 

Here is a list of the top data centre companies in India in 2023: 
 
1. Tata Communications 

Tata Communications, Tata Group’s data centre arm offers data centre solutions including cloud hosting, disaster recovery, and other services. The Mumbai-based company has 26% stake in Singapore’s ST Telemedia GDC, which now has 300 MW of data centres, including 100 MW under construction. With this acquisition, Tata Communications operates in the co-location market in India and Asian markets, offering managed services including IP, cloud enablement and unified communications services to the enterprises. The joint venture will now house Tata Comm's 14 data centres in key cities across India and its three Singapore facilities. The data centres currently service a highly-diversified customer base, including blue chip enterprises in Asia, e-commerce platforms and global multinational corporations. 
 
2. CtrlS Datacenters 

Hyderabad-based CtrlS is a homegrown provider of data centre services in India. Currently, it has 12 data centres with 234MW capacity across seven Indian cities, namely Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Noida, Lucknow and Patna. In October, it announced its plans to invest $2 billion over the next six years to scale its operations and expand business, which includes adding 350MW capacity across new and existing hyperscale and edge data centres in India and some Southeast Asian markets. In July, CtrlS announced its foray into the Thailand market by collaborating with the Thai state-owned telecom company National Telecom. It also plans to enter the Middle East market. Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Chairman, CtrlS Datacenters said that the company will invest in technologies and strategies in areas such as advanced cooling, power management and overall infrastructure design in its new hyperscale data centres as a result of a massive surge in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud adoption. 

 
3. Sify Technologies 

Sify Technologies is a significant player in India's hosting, cloud computing, and colocation management. Their data centres, spread across multiple major cities, offer improved connectivity and redundancy in emergency situations. They customise and construct robust data centres to cater to individual requirements. Sify’s current data centre capacity stands at a little over 100 MW and it prioritises renewable and sustainable energy sources, making them a provider of green data centres that produce no greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
4. NTT GDC India (formerly Netmagic) 
In a move to expand into the growing data center market in India, Japan’s NTT Communications acquired 74% stake of Mumbai-based Netmagic Solutions, a provider of datacenter services in India. The entity known as NTT Global Data Centres and Cloud Infrastructure India invested around Rs 2,700 crore last year and is currently in the midst of a $400 million capex programme in the current fiscal. At present, the company operates 16 data centers from 13 campuses across India, with several others at various construction stages. Its current capacity stands at 205 MW, which the company said will grow to 349 MW by end of this year.  
  
5. Web Werks India 

Web Werks is a leading provider of data centre services in India, offering a comprehensive suite of hosting services. It currently operates three Tier 3, carrier-neutral data centres in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi NCR with a combined footprint capability of 225,000 square feet. In 2021, the company entered into a joint venture with NYSE-listed Iron Mountain, who will invest $150mn primary equity into Web Werks over the next two years. In October, the JV said that it has acquired a four-acre parcel of land in Chennai to house two new data centres and will invest over ₹1,800 crore to build the Chennai data centres, which are expected to be commissioned by mid-2025. Web Werks aims to take its total India capacity to 200MW from 40MW at present, and further expand in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida, it said.
 
6. ESDS Software Solutions 

Founded in 2005, ESDS is also one of the leading providers for data storage including managed cloud solutions, virtualisation, and disaster recovery hosting, backed with technical support. ESDS Mumbai Data Centre is located in Navi Mumbai. The site offers 5MW of IT Load. They prioritise long-term relationships with customers and provide ample technical support. 
 
7. NxtGen Datacenter

Started in 2012, NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies offers a number of IT services including cloud, CDN, colocation, and disaster recovery. According to its site, the company currently operates four data centres in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Faridabad, and Mumbai. The company is looking to develop new facilities in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Visakhapatnam. The company said in May  that it plans to invest ₹1,300 crore to establish approximately 10 additional data centres and 236 edge centres across the country. Its current investors include Intel Capital, IFC, and Iron Mountain; it raised $13.5 million in 2015. Axon Partners Group sold its stake in the company to Iron Mountain last year.

8. AdaniConnex

Adani Group’s AdaniConneX was launched in 2021 as a 50:50 joint venture with EdgeConneX to develop a network of hyperscale data centres in India, starting with Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad. In 2022, AdaniConneX announced that it was building a hyperscale data centre in Kolkata's Bengal Silicon Valley tech hub. The company said, it will finance two data centres with an aggregate capacity of 67 MW that includes 'Chennai 1' campus with Phase 1 of 17 MW and Noida campus of 50 MW. The company has set itself a target to build a 1 GW green data centre platform in India.
 
9. Airtel Nxtra 

Airtel Nxtra, the data centre arm of Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest service provider, serves around 450 customers through its 12 data centres and 120 edge data centres nationwide with a total of 200 MW power capacity. The company aims to leverage its parent company, Airtel's enterprise subscriber base to expand its customer base. Airtel Nxtra is owned by Airtel, with a 24% stake held by the Carlyle Group. Ashish Arora, CEO of Airtel Nxtra, said, "We will be establishing seven new facilities in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi to double our capacity to 400MW by 2025.” 
 
10. Yotta Data Services 

Yotta Infrastructure, a subsidiary of the Hiranandani Group, offers services in hyperscale and colocation data centres. The Mumbai-based data centre company has set up two data centre parks in Mumbai and Noida and plans to expand to more locations. Sunil Gupta, co-founder, managing director, and chief executive officer, told TechCircle that the company is also exploring markets beyond India. They plan to launch a two-building campus of 30MW in Dhaka, Bangladesh by July 2024. The company also has edge data centres in tier-2 and 3 cities like Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Indore, Nagpur, Jaipur, and Chandigarh, and plans to build more in the coming year.