Chennai: The Beating Heart of South Asia’s Interconnected Digital Ecosystem

By Deborah Grey, W.Media
May 5, 2025

This May, W.Media is returning to Chennai with the fourth edition of Chennai Cloud and Datacenter Convention. Simultaneously, we will also be hosting the maiden edition of Chennai Interconnect World, a technology conference focused on India’s connectivity ecosystem.

The day-long event will be held at ITC Chola on May 22, and is expected to bring together over 1,500 delegates, including C-level executives, digital infrastructure professionals including architects, engineers and consultants (AECs), key buyers, decision makers, data center owners and operators, representatives of government agencies, telecom majors, submarine networks and services.

What makes Chennai special?

Chennai is the capital city of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and is one of India’s top three data center markets alongside Mumbai and Bengaluru.

According to Mordor Intelligence, the Chennai data center market size is estimated at 202.43MW in 2025, and is expected to reach 551.15MW by 2030, at a Compounded Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.18 percent during the forecast period (2025-2030).

Today Chennai is home to data centers by AdaniConnex, CapitaLand, Colt DCS, CtrlS Datacenters, Digital Connexion, NTT, Nxtra by Airtel, Sify, STT GDC, and many others such as Yotta have projects in the pipeline. Ambattur and Siruseri have emerged as locations of choice for data centers in Chennai.

“Chennai offers a compelling combination of submarine cable landing stations, low-latency connectivity, a pro-investment policy environment, and growing enterprise and cloud demand. These factors, alongside availability of skilled talent and stable power infrastructure, make it a strategic location for our AI-ready hyperscale designed Data Centre facility,” says Surajit Chatterjee, Managing Director & Head, Data Centre, India, CapitaLand Investment. “It complements CapitaLand’s long-term vision of building sustainable digital infrastructure in high-growth markets.”

“Over the past few years, Chennai has emerged as a strategic digital gateway for India and the broader APAC region,” says Vipul Kumar, Vice President, Edge and Network, CtrlS Datacenters. “With a surge in subsea cable landings, robust terrestrial fiber builds, and increasing Hyperscale and edge node deployments, the city’s connectivity ecosystem has matured significantly. The convergence of hyperscalers, data center operators, Content Networks and telcos has made Chennai a critical hub for low-latency, high-capacity infrastructure.”

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