French web-hosting firm OVH launches India data centre

Visitors stand at the new headquarters of the French web-hosting and server provider OVH Group in Paris.

OVHcloud launched its first data centre in India in order to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region in order to capitalise on growing cloud adoption amid concerns over data privacy, it said on Monday.

The data centre in Mumbai will provide Indian businesses with local computer and storage infrastructure to meet changing data compliance needs as India digitalises and pushes for more data protection, OVH said.

International Data Corporation IDC, a market intelligence firm focusing on the tech sector, predicted in December that the Indian market for public cloud services would reach $13.0 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 23.1% between 2021 and 2026.

OVH already sold a few hundred servers, according to Michel Paulin, CEO of the fast-growing market.

By 2024, OVH's strategy bank will open 15 new sites around the world, including in Sydney and Singapore. Paulin said that it could fund growth over the next four years because of its high debt loans capacity credit and additional 200 million-euro funding from the European Investment Bank.

The company already has over 30 data centres in the world and employs over 2,200 people.

Paulin said that OVH had created jobs in Mumbai last year to prepare for the launch and implement the technical infrastructure and that they will continue to recruit in India.

Many European companies have been forced into layoffs or hiring freezes because of the impact of war in Ukraine. Paulin said that the need for digital and cloud solutions was still there.

There is an understanding that it is very important to the public institutions. OVH is in close relationship with the European Commission and France on these matters, according to Paulin, who said they would address these data sovereignty issues.

Following announcements by the U.K. and the European Union, the use of Chinese TikTok on government corporate devices was banned by the U.K. on Thursday.