Data centre certification framework to be tweaked for AI readiness

The government is considering tweaking the data centre certification framework it is developing to align with the emerging requirements of facilities designed to support artificial intelligence workloads, officials informed The Economic Times. The move comes amid a strong investment cycle for data centres in India.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is working on establishing national standards for the operations and maintenance of AI data centres, which have significantly different requirements compared with traditional facilities, according to The Economic Times report. Industry estimates suggest that AI data centres require five times higher power and nearly 10 times more water, while their floors must support up to 20 times more weight per unit area than conventional data centres.

An official said that the Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification Directorate under MeitY had been working on standards for data centre operations and maintenance, but the emergence of AI data centres has altered the physical parameters and security risks associated with such facilities. The official stated that consultations have been held with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Telecommunication Engineering Council and other central agencies to account for these changes, adding that the industry has also sought specific operational guidelines.

An executive at a Mumbai-based data centre operator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the government could consider implementing a Make in India mandate for data centres, given their importance to national security. The executive added that the industry would be open to guidelines promoting the optimal use of indigenous technology and would welcome any move to prioritise operators using higher levels of renewable energy.

Other industry participants involved in the consultations stated that while hyperscalers typically follow their own frameworks when setting up data centres, smaller and mid-sized players would benefit from clearly defined and fixed standards.

Another executive said that stronger security norms were required to protect fibre lines connected to data centres, noting that these facilities rely heavily on interconnected systems and the Internet of Things for remote monitoring and operations. The executive stated that preventing unauthorised access by malicious actors would be a critical consideration.

The official further stated that, given the rapid evolution of AI data centre technology, the proposed certification guidelines could be incorporated into an updated national data centre policy. The draft national policy, released in November 2020, is yet to be implemented.

According to global commercial real estate advisory firm CBRE, India has received around $60 billion in data centre investments up to 2024.