Sanjay Tyagi, Director, Software Technology Parks of India; Joseph Abraham, Vice President, Network Operations, Sify Technologies Ltd.; S Arun Raj, Executive Director, ELCOT; Prashanth Perumal, Assistant Editor, The Hindu, during a panel discussion in Chennai on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran
After Ambattur in Chennai, Sriperumbudur is emerging as a market for data centre, said S.Arun Raj, Executive Director of ELCOT, in Chennai on Tuesday.
“Ambattur is developed when it comes to data centres and now Sriperumbudur is emerging. We have a data centre policy that was released recently and we are seeing interest from lot of companies in this space,” he said during a panel discussion on ‘Destination Tamil Nadu: IT Infra Hub’ as part of Tamil Nadu Unlimited summit, organised by The Hindu in association with Guidance Tamil Nadu.
“The investments that come into data centres are huge. Even a medium size firm will bring in investments to the tune of ₹300 crore to ₹400 crore,” he said at the session moderated by Prashanth Perumal Jeyathilagar, Assistant Editor, The Hindu.
Besides, the State’s Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) policy is in its final stages and would be rolled out soon. He added that the IT sector would play a key role in helping the State achieve its $1 trillion economy aspiration by 2030.
Joseph Abraham, vice president (Networks Operations), Sify Technologies, said, “Data centres are a critical infrastructure for the nation. And a lot of investments have to go into the data centre.”
Stating that it was the age of data explosion, he said, “Amount of data being consumed is humongous. It is the need of the hour. Somewhere we need to focus on getting into the trend of data centre technologies as well.”
He further explained: “If we go a little back in history, Tamil Nadu was historically known for agriculture and manufacturing. Now, for manufacturing or any other sector, IT is the enabler. When we talk about IT, it is about data, and the data has to be connected data. And where do we store this data? Data is stored in these data centres. These centres are becoming cloud centres.”
Sanjay Tyagi, Director of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Chennai, said Tamil Nadu had become the hiring ground for the IT industry in the country. “We have better educational institutions, we not only attract big industry to come and hire, but also produce world class professionals in the State. We are all set to leap frog from here. And this is the right time to strengthen the IT sector in the State so that we can go to the next level,” he said.
Noting that the State had made a huge progress in the IT sector in the last 25 years, Mr. Tyagi said, “IT infrastructure is definitely the requirement for the State, but IT infrastructure is only the enabler. We have to bring the industries here which will use this infrastructure and grow further.”