Eric Bell 0:01
Thank you for joining our first ever mobile podcast. We've never shot on location like this, but we're here at ptc 26 Yep, glad to be here. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. So we're, we're actually on opposite ends of the earth, right? You're in India, yeah? And I'm in Denver, and that's probably about 12 hours apart, so I think it's the best for our first time, it's best to have someone who we're on the UpStack ends of the earth. We could be here in the same room. Yep, we're not 12 hours apart. So tell me you're with SIFI, your CEO of SIFI? Yes, datacenters. Tell me a little bit about SIFI. I understand that it's Indian data center.
Sharad Agarwal 0:39
Yes, yes. SIFI is India's first data center company. SIFI launched India's first rated three commercial data center back in September 2000 This is 25 years since then. We are celebrating 45th year of data center design, Bell and operation. We kept up with the time. We maintained our leadership position. We are the third largest data center company of India. From that beginning in 1000, we are now 188 megawatt operational data center capacity. We are looking at at least doubling it in next few years, if not beyond. When we did our first large campus, we felt 300 megawatt campus was good enough. Doesn't look like it's anymore. So we are thinking now kilos
Eric Bell 1:39
Sify is not alone in that. Yeah, everywhere that we're we went from something that was so small, you know, in retrospect, it was large at the time, but it has now become small.
Sharad Agarwal 1:52
So we are keeping up with that and making sure that was all kinds of demands we grew also with the time in the manner that first it was enterprise, and when hyperscale has came in, we were the first host of this. Then it grew with the hyperscale is now hyperscale. US are bringing liquid pool, kind of a setup. So we are growing with that. And then there are also, we are seeing the need for edges in the dear remove cities. So we are setting up the edges also. In fact, our first edge data center went live in a city called Lucknow. Last water, we are looking at bringing another life, and then looking forward to bringing some life in some major news and markets. Of course, Mumbai, yes,
Sharad Agarwal 2:52
Mumbai and south in Chennai, North national capital region, which is Delhi, but more in Noida, which is the neighboring city,
Eric Bell 3:05
and then what, in terms of the edge, right? I'm more familiar with the ranking market, and this working. But edge in India is it just, you know? How? How do you think about edge in India? It's obviously smaller datacenters.
Sharad Agarwal 3:20
Yeah, so edge is the way we see it is obviously based on the utility. It is for caching purpose. It is for, probably the future, for inferencing purpose. But the primary need is network optimization, network caching, data caching, so that the customers could be or the streaming companies or social network or content companies could be closer to the customers. But the key piece is now the demand has increased from few 10s of kilowatts a few hundreds of kilowatts into megawatts and a kind of telco switching center is not any more a good edge, what used to be called Edge in India, it needs a critical facility, which is rated three redundant data center. So we think of that way, a rated three data center anywhere between one to 10 megawatt of the capacity could be called Edge, and that's how we are thinking about it.
Eric Bell 4:24
So of course, like edge is kind of outside those major markets. But also the key thing is also Internet connectivity, like connectivity. So if you don't have connectivity local in that either that data center, that edge market, than an aspect in through Mumbai or another, another interconnection node. So are you also kind of solving this piece?
Sharad Agarwal 4:47
Yes, yes, yeah. So SIFI, as a board organization, is a network organization. SIFI, since last 20 years, had been focusing on enterprise and. Work business. It is a licensed in India. You need telecom license, communication license, to be able to do wide area network services. So yes, SIFI is established in both bank, National Bank, have established and expanding. SIFI has presence in hundreds of cities in India, where connects some of the largest, most expensive customer base, connects them. So these edges, these edge data centers, are the connected data centers.
Eric Bell 5:33
So and then, from that perspective, if SIFI has that network, it sounds like there could be more, and we didn't talk about this before, but could be more potential Edge locations, almost not infinite, but there are many more. Based on where your network is, you can continue further on the edge.
Sharad Agarwal 5:49
Idea is that as it grows organically, secularly, the demand grows. The idea is that these edge sites should be everywhere, yeah, in the fullness of time, I would say that it has to be at least in every single state of the country. India is close to 30 states and union territories,
Eric Bell 6:14
administration units. I would say that every geography should have that. Yeah, that would make sense. You said 30 states effectively. Okay, so let's talk about, you know, historically, like, at least, when I thought about India, that the electrical grid was not as stable, and this my information was 1020, years old, you know, and that sort of thing. So maybe talk to me about the grid in India and how it supports the data center infrastructure. Is it stable? Are you doing things to stabilize the grid? Or what are your solutions? From that
Sharad Agarwal 6:48
perspective, no Indian grid is reliable, and it's stable, at least ever since I'm operating the data centers for last 10 years, and the high voltage connections that typically the datacenters will take at 220 KV or 400 KV. These have extremely high reliability. So look at Indian power infrastructure in the ways that there is a surplus generation capacity. India has close to 500 gigawatt of generation in comparison to that peak demand closer to 250 Giga or so there is that second is a lot of generation capacity. Additional generation capacity in India is coming from renewable sources, so huge investments in solar and wind. Government of India has taken initiative to involve private sector in the nuclear and whenever that research happens and conclusion happens, and small modular reactor starts coming in, let's say, 10 plus years document, then there will be the nuclear also available. So enough energy available, enough renewable energy available, to be able to give our customers confidence, the community confidence that the datacenters are using renewable power, then we send back to the environment, and then energy security of the long term, because for the base power, you still need something to replace coal and gas. That ensures you 24 by seven supply. So, so that way? No, it is great. 220 KMZ connection that comes to over 300 megawatt campus. I haven't seen any non scheduled downtime in this campus for last more than two, three years.
Eric Bell 8:37
So part of the solution, it sounds like, connecting directly to the transmission in the network, rather than distribution.
Sharad Agarwal 8:44
And then, and the this is the art of site selection that you want to make sure that you take a land which is closer, or even right next to such transmission lines, and with that, assure that there is a good energy reliability.
Eric Bell 9:03
I know in the US, we're in Europe as well Singapore. There's so many markets out there that are limited on power. And when you talk about those numbers, like the generation of the Indian grid is about 500 the usage about 250 there's a lot of unused Yes.
Sharad Agarwal 9:22
And then the way to look into is that that whole 500 is not probably the longer clock. If you normalized it, it will get closer to what the usage numbers are. So. So that way to look into it, but also to look into it this way, that consistently more generation capacity is being added. And this 500 used to be only 400 just two years back. So the more and more generation capacity being added. So there's no way there is a constraint on the other way to also look into is that currently, datacenters in India must be consuming no more than two gigawatts. That's less than. 1% of the peak demand. And even if this demand that the Giga scale kind of a growth happens to be 1020, gigawatt during this period, generation capacity also likely to scale similar weight, so it won't be more than 434, percent of the peak demand.
Eric Bell 10:19
Yeah, careful what you wish for, the hyperscale or coming. They'll take that all the gigawatts,
Sharad Agarwal 10:27
bring it down. In fact, I would like to motivate everyone to get to, yeah, because there is a good not just the good power and infrastructure, but the regulatory Wise Government is super supportive to the data center industry. The main drivers are that the government and in general, the private sector also wants to keep data within India, Indian data in India. India is taking strides or initiatives now to grow India based cloud service providers also. So with all those factors, good amount of assurance coming from the regulatory bodies also, and a large population, the largest and the local demand, lots of local demand.
Eric Bell 11:17
So yeah, thanks for thanks for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it that PTC taking some time out here to join on our first ever episode live.
Sharad Agarwal 11:28
Thank you, Eric, thank you. Thank you for inviting me into this podcast and looking forward to stay connected. Yeah, all right. Well, cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.