Nxtra by Airtel launches new 38 MW Hyperscale Data Center in Chennai

After over a month after Bharti Airtel rebranded and relaunched its cloud business as Nxtra by Airtel, the company has launched a new hyperscale data center park in Chennai.

Nxtra by Airtel Launches New Hyperscale Data Center

M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, unveiled the facility digitally. Nxtra now has a total of 3 large data centers in Chennai. The latest facility will have a capacity of 38 MW and takes up 270,000 sq. ft. floor space. In a press release, Airtel also said that the new facility has been integrated with its submarine cable network. It will also help the telco provide connectivity solutions to hyperscalers.

On the unveiling, Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business, said, “this is a major milestone in our journey as we scale up aggressively to serve the emerging digital India opportunity. Chennai, with its strategic location and access to cable landing stations, has the potential to become a regional data center hub for South Asia".

Chitkara added, "Nxtra by Airtel is already serving large Indian and global customers from the city and we will continue to invest to expand our operations here".

Nxtra by Airtel has been the largest network of data centers in India. It now has 11 hyperscale and 120 edge data centers. These data centers manage critical submarine landing stations for Airtel.

In October, Airtel had said that it will invest Rs. 5,000 crores in Nxtra by 2025 to scale up its network of data centers. Along with new hyperscale data centers, it will also develop new data center campuses in key metro cities. Airtel will look to more than triple its existing DC capacity to over 400 MW.

While Nxtra looks like another move by Airtel to invest in its assets and later monetize them, the telco has its eyes set on the 5G launch – whenever that will happen. 5G will allow network disaggregation via vRANs; telcos can virtualize their network functions and move them closer to the edge. And this won’t be limited to Airtel; other telcos can lease data capacity and benefit from the same. Since everyone will go with open network infrastructures to cut long-term costs, the telco’s investment in its cloud business couldn’t have come at a better time.