Pacnet, a provider of network and data solutions to enterprise and carrier customers, is planning data center in India.

Pacnet India MD Sunanda Das said the company would set up a data center in India next year. Pacnet would also consider to partnering with an Indian data center provider to lease facility.

“We are evaluating several options at present. But we will have our data center presence next year,” Das told TelecomLead.com.

Pacnet currently operates data centers across 16 cities in Asia Pacific that are interconnected by Pacnet’s high speed network.

Pacnet, which has four Points of Presence (PoPs) in 4 cities — Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, competes with companies such as Tata Communications, Airtel, SingTel, Verizon, etc.

The company does not share revenue details from India business. Its main Indian rival Tata Communications’ revenues rose 10 percent to $806 million in Q1 FY 2014 from $761 million  in the same quarter last year. The revenues for the core business increased 10 percent to $720 million from $676 million in Q1 FY 2013.

In fact, Pacnet has been on an expansion spree in the last 18 months. Recently, Pacnet announced a $90 million investment to build a new Tier III data center in Singapore to meet the region’s accelerating demand for connected, advanced data center and managed services.

The new data center facility will build on strategic initiatives, that Pacnet previously announced, to focus on managed services deployed in data centers and leveraging its substantial network assets throughout Asia to serve enterprise and carrier customers.

Pacnet also opened its Tier III data center in Chongqing, China, bolstering coverage of its network in China and adding to its advanced data center footprint in the Asia Pacific region.

India strategies

Pacnet India MD Sunanda Das says the company would expand content delivery network (CDN) to more centers in phases from the present two centers in Bangalore and Mumbai.

By deploying more CDN PoPs across Asia-Pacific, Pacnet is able to store and deliver digital content at CDN PoPs in local markets, which accelerates the speed and distribution of content, such as rich media and applications, to Internet users.

Pacnet works with major enterprises in verticals such as BFSI, IT and ITES, digital commerce companies, etc.

“Our focus is to tap Indian enterprises which are increasing their presence in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines in the Asia Pacific region. The demand for customized services are growing. Enterprises are looking for service providers who are strong in specific regions and understand market better,” Das said.

Pacnet, which has reduced its manpower to 45 from the earlier 60 due to its exit from SMB business, is hiring resources. “Our manpower is growing in India in double digits,” Das added.

According to Pacnet MD, there is a strong demand for flexible, innovative and customized solutions from enterprise CIOs. Though connectivity is becoming a commodity business, managed services and cloud solutions need customized configuration. This is one area Pacnet would like to give more thrust.

Enterprise CIOs look for flexible solutions, transparency, real time access to network, updated information when there’s an outage, etc.

Meanwhile, Pacnet recently announced several expansion plans for China including the launch of new CDN PoPs and plans for a data center in Tianjin capable of holding 2,000 racks.

Baburajan K
[email protected]