With artificial intelligence, especially generative AI becoming an integral part of our lives with each passing day, protecting the data that train AI models, and ensuring data sovereignty has become pertinent. However, in India, it is a massive challenge.
In a conversation with Firstpost, Intel’s Vice President and Managing Director, India Region, Santhosh Viswanathan, explained that ensuring data sovereignty is crucial for Indian businesses. However, one also has to consider the state of cybersecurity in the country which “definitely is a big challenge,” he said.
Viswanathan was speaking at the unveiling of a joint report created by Intel and the IDC, or International Data Corporation, where he was joined by IDC’s Associate Vice President, Sharath Srinivasamurthy.
“India accounts for 20 per cent of all the data that is generated in the world ,” added Viswanathan. “However, we barely have 2 per cent of the world’s data centres to store and process it.” This leaves Indian businesses no choice but to store their data in the cloud, which are often stored on servers and data centres that are located outside India’s sovereign borders.
This presents two problems. First, ensuring data sovereignty becomes a task, especially if we want to ensure that we have access to, and are using all of the data that we generate. Secondly, this makes computing unnecessarily expensive, especially at an enterprise level.
India, however, has a unique opportunity. “We are seeing investments increasing in data centres,” said Viswanathan. “We also have laws, like the DPDP (Digital Personal Data Protection Act), that will help businesses working in that direction.”
India’s data centre sector is experiencing significant growth amid the digital transformation era. With cost advantages, a skilled labour pool, low climate risks, stable governance, and robust data protection laws, India is emerging as a key data centre hub. Global data centre operators, cloud service providers, hyperscalers, private equity investors, and developers are increasingly investing in the country.
Moreover, the recent government announcement granting infrastructure status to data centres will facilitate access to long-term institutional funds, driving additional investments in the sector. This is set to provide a substantial impetus to India’s rapidly evolving digital infrastructure landscape.
Another interesting aspect would be that most Indian businesses, who are working with AI, have the chance to bypass the need for expensive cloud storage and processing.
The IDC X Intel Asia/Pacific AI Maturity Study of 2024, revealed that by 2025, at least 75 per cent of enterprise-generated data globally will be created and processed outside of traditional data centres or the cloud, but on the edge.
At least 75 per cent of Asia/Pacific organisations will be increasing their spending on edge in 2024. Furthermore, at least 50 per cent of organisations believe edge computing will account for at least 16 per cent of their overall IT expenditure.
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