From the perspective of international investors and prospective occupants, the megacities of India have their reputations as hubs: Mumbai is well known as a business and financial star, Bengaluru for leading IT, and the greater Delhi area for the government organization that drives the country. But until very recently, one important city that combines features of all these locations has yet to be noticed: Chennai! With its strong manufacturing and financial base, plenty of local IT firms, and the capital of mighty Tamil Nadu, Chennai is now a growing data center market with plenty of scalability for future development.
With these strong location drivers, Chennai is an excellent city for global cloud platforms looking to serve the largest companies both locally and throughout India. Chennai’s thriving economy has also spawned enormous population growth; the metropolitan 
area now includes nearly twelve million people, the fourth largest in India and one that will likely grow with the substantial industry opportunities on offer. For content delivery, the city offers the most apparent home for deployments for the 72 million that call Tamil Nadu home and those areas beyond. It is also worth noting that of India’s 1.4 billion people, roughly only half have consistent internet access, reiterating the massive and unmatched growth opportunity over the coming decades.
Deployments locally will be assisted by nine undersea cables linking Chennai globally, four of which will be arriving between the end of this year and 2026. Collectively these cables will offer direct service to several key coastal markets across India, along with fifteen other nations, including key and growing hubs Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, and a swathe of other emerging locations in the Middle East. The additional bandwidth will further Chennai’s status as the second-leading cable hub in India and provide further competition to Mumbai.
Chennai offers the population density, strong local clientele, and sub-100-megawatt market size making for an under-appreciated opportunity. Expect rapid growth over the next few years as the city scales to a global secondary market and develops a data center ecosystem to amplify an impressive business hub.
The AdaniConneX data center in Chennai offers a secure, carrier-neutral environment for all deployments, with excellent access from the SIPCOT IT Park:
- Tier III designed facility capable of 20 kW per rack
- 33 MW total capacity
- Carrier Neutral with presence of major telco providers, Internet Exchanges
- Dedicated NOC and MMR
To learn more, download the AdaniConneX Chennai data sheet HERE.
Schedule a virtual tour: https://www.edgeconnex.com/virtual-tours/
Download the eBook: ‘Delivering 1 GW of Sustainable Data Center Capacity in India’ HERE.
For more information or to tour our Chennai campus, please contact: capacity@edgeconnex.com