Greening data infrastructure for AI at a scale

As AI adoption accelerates, India must rethink data infrastructure with energy efficiency, circular design, and sustainability at its core.

- BY RAMANUJAM KOMANDURI

The scale of today's environmental challenges demands continuous action. Each day, individuals and institutions are called to confront the impact of their choices and commit to safeguarding the planet's precious lives and resources. Take the digital domain, for instance. India's digital economy is growing strongly and, with over 850 million internet users, the country is already one of the world's largest digital markets.

The build-out of this fast-expanding digital ecosystem entails, among other things, the establishment of a large and growing number of data centres. And while this is inevitable, it is equally important to keep a watchful eye on the impact of data centres on energy consumption, e-waste generation, and plastic pollution.

Data centres consume a significant amount of electricity, accounting for approximately 0.5% of India's total electricity usage at present, and are expected to increase to around 3% by 2030. This growth will be driven by multiple factors, including the rapid digitalisation of businesses, the localisation of data as per regulatory requirements, and the adoption of AI across sectors. The data centre market in India is expanding rapidly, underscoring the need to enhance energy efficiency and adopt new, sustainable technologies to replace outdated, resource-intensive ones.

India's AI ambitions demand more than compute power—energy-smart infrastructure is now central to responsible digital transformation.

A flash-first, modular storage strategy is not just greener—it is smarter, slashing energy use while future-proofing data-intensive Al workloads.

WHY ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN STORAGE MATTERS