Jaya Vaidhyanathan has incomparable knowledge and skills in financial markets and disruptive technologies. She started her career in the US as investment banker and specialized in mergers and acquisitions in technology, telecom, and utilities verticals with several top Wall Street firms.
Data is the new oil, they say, and India is expected to play a major role. India’s Finance Minister announced the setting up of data center parks in public-private partnership mode across the country. The announcement came as part of the recent Union Budget, and was widely lauded by the industry.
What is a data center park and why does India need them?
For those who are yet to be familiar with data center parks, here is a quick summary. A data center is massive networked infrastructure that stores data in a highly secure location, using the latest, high-end technology. Authorised institutions can make use of the centrally located, large volumes of data as per their specific need. An example is the recent trend of cooperative banks moving to cloud based Core Banking Systems. Data centers are a critical infrastructure today, as India is all set to take center stage globally. And this is why!
• The Personal Data Protection Bill (draft) mandates data localization. In future, data in Indian organizations will reside within India and not just on a global server in, say, Frankfurt, as is the case now.
• The governments stated goal of 200 smart cities will require data centers for various citizen services.
• Increasing internet penetration as well as cloud adoption by enterprises and businesses, will require large-scale hosting infrastructure.
