Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Thursday unveiled a refreshed brand identity ‘Nxtra by Airtel’ for its data centre business and outlined investment of ₹ 5,000 crore by 2025 to scale up its data centre network to serve the requirements of India’s fast growing digital economy.

This will include new data centre parks in key metro cities. The investment will triple Nxtra by Airtel’s installed capacity to over 400 MW to meet the surging demand and consolidate its network leadership.

Nxtra by Airtel has the largest network of data centres in India and it currently operates 10 large and 120 edge data centres located strategically across India and manages critical submarine landing stations, the company said. Coupled with Airtel’s global network, it offers secure and scalable integrated solution to global hyperscalers, large Indian enterprises, start-ups, SMEs and governments, it said.

“Airtel has built the largest data centre network in India and we are now doubling down on this business to scale up our network that will be at the core of 5G and Digital India. Our experience of operating secure data centres, deep brand trust in the enterprise segment and the ability to deliver end-to-end digital transformation solutions positions us well to serve the emerging requirements of India’s connected economy,” Ajay Chitkara, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Business said. The new brand identity embodies this vision and ambition, he said

Also read: Green energy push: Airtel commissions captive solar power plant for data centres in UP

With 5G around the corner, a fast-growing digital economy, enterprises transitioning to cloud and local data storage regulations, India is witnessing strong demand for reliable data centre solutions. The Indian data centre industry is expected more than double its installed capacity from around 450 MW to 1,074 MW by 2023.

Focus on sustainability

Sustainability will continue to be its big focus given the huge energy requirements of data centres. Nxtra by Airtel is already scaling up use of green energy for its data centres and aims to source 50 per cent of the power requirements of these centres through renewable sources as part of Airtel’s overall GHG emission reduction targets, the company said.

Nxtra by Airtel also recently commissioned captive solar power plants in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra with still more in the pipeline.

Airtel Business, the B2B unit of Airtel, is a provider of information communication technology services and offers a diverse portfolio of products and services covering voice, data, collaboration, work from home solutions, cloud, data centre, cyber security, IoT, network integration, managed services, enterprise mobility and digital media across a range of industries.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW