Global asset manager Blackstone Group has forayed into the data center business in Asia with a planned capacity across two large hyperscale data centers in India. It plans to increase it to 600 MW over the next two years through presence in five locations in the country. Blackstone launched its data center platform Lumina CloudInfra on 15 November 2022. Initially the data center will be set up in Mumbai and Chennai, and later on it will be set up in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Pune.
National Data Center:
- The government data center has been set up and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).The first Data Centre was launched in Hyderabad in 2008, followed by NDC Pune in 2010, NDC Delhi in 2011 and NDC Bhubaneswar in 2018.
- It operates 37 small Data Centres at various State Capitals to provide services to the Government at all levels.
- National Data Centre (NDC) at Bhubaneswar is a Cloud-enabled Data Centre which has been offering cloud services to Government Departments since its inception.
- The National Data Centres form the core of e-Governance Infrastructure in India by providing services to various e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the Government of India.
What is a Data Center?
A data center is a facility that centralizes an organization’s shared IT operations and equipment for the purposes of storing, processing, and disseminating data and applications. Because they house an organization’s most critical and proprietary assets, data centers are vital to the continuity of daily operations.
About the Blackstone:
The Lumina CloudInfra is owned and managed by Blackstone’s Real Estate and Tactical Opportunities funds. Blackstone’s current investments in digital infrastructure include QTS Realty Trust in US, which it bought in 2021 for about $10 billion, a string of data centers in Japan on long-term contracts with top cloud service providers, Phoenix Towers International, a private cell tower platform in America and Europe, and Hotwire Communications, a pioneer in fiber optic technology.