JSA TV Interview with Naren Dhanaram, Business Development Director of Airtel Business
The inaugural Datacloud USA kicked off last week, connecting decision makers from across data centers, cloud, edge, HPC, content, big tech, and regional and international enterprise. Naren Dhanaram, Business Development Director of Airtel Business, sat down with JSA Media Relations Manager Kealey Dorian during a JSA TV livestream to discuss the latest Airtel Business news, their recent shortlist nomination for the Global Carrier Awards and some background information on Airtel Business, India’s leading provider of information and communication technology services. View the whole video below and read on to catch the highlights.
Sustainability: The Biggest Topic in the Data Center Industry
Naren shared details about some recent exciting news from Airtel Business subsidiary, Nxtra by Airtel: Nxtra has partnered with Bloom Energy to deploy low environmental impact fuel cell installation at its data center in Karnataka, India. By committing to using the cleaner, hydrogen ready fuel supply, Nxtra became the first data center company in India to deploy the fuel cell tech to reduce carbon emissions at its data centers, which will help the company meet its mission to meet net zero by 2031.
“I’m very excited about this announcement,” said Naren. “The Nxtra data center team has embarked on a journey to deploy new innovative energy solutions in India and they want to set new benchmarks in the Indian data center market because India is emerging as a lead destination in the APAC region in terms of data centers. I’ve very proud to say Nxtra data centers is the first company in India to deploy fuel cell technology. To start with, Nxtra will be deploying natural gas and eventually migrate to hydrogen without any significant investment in the future.”
As the largest data center provider in India, the announcement sets Nxtra apart as an industry leader in reducing carbon emissions, setting a new standard for other operators. Additionally, Nxtra data centers has committed investments to the tune of $600M plus USD to build more capacity to increase their capacity by almost 3X over a period of the next 3-4 years
Recognition as a Leader in Sustainability
Capacity Media is also recognizing Nxtra by Airtel for its sustainability efforts. As a result, the company has been shortlisted for the prestigious Global Carrier Awards for Best Environmental, Social, Governmental (ESG) Initiative.
“We have implemented some of the global best practices in our data center,” Naren said. “We are innovating all the time trying to bring in some new technologies, the fuel cell being one such example. I’m really looking forward to this event.”
Airtel Business has also been shortlisted for Best Security Innovation for its iSOC based managed security services.
“This is something very innovative in a market like India,” Naren said.
Airtel by the Numbers: More About India’s Leading ICT Services Provider
Airtel is India’s leading provider of information and communication technology services and is present in 17 countries in South Asia and Central Africa. With more than 491 million wireless subscribers, Airtel is the second largest wireless operator worldwide and has a broad global footprint. Airtel Business owns and operates about 12 hyperscale data centers in India, 120 edge data centers, 355K terrestrial route kilometers and about 365K subsea fiber network route kilometers, making it a top choice of enterprise customers. The company offers a wide portfolio of services, including data center colocation, managed services, network connectivity, IP transits, CDN, collaboration services, cybersecurity and cloud solutions.
“Airtel is very uniqurely postioned in terms of owning data centers assets, owning network assets and also the eyeballs: both B2B and on the consumer side. That’s the biggest value we bring to the table to our global customers,” Naren said.
Visit our website to learn more about Nxtra and Airtel Business.
