'Digital Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio and
Digital Realty Company' to develop critical digital infrastructure
to meet rapidly-growing global and local customer demand in Indian
market
AUSTIN,
Texas, July 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital
Realty (NYSE: DLR), the largest global provider of cloud- and
carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection
solutions, announced today a planned three-way joint venture (JV)
with Brookfield Infrastructure and Reliance Industries Ltd. ("RIL")
to develop high-quality, highly-connected scalable data centers to
meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and digital
services companies in India. The
new JV will operate under the brand name Digital
Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio and Digital Realty Company. It
succeeds and builds on the strong foundation laid by BAM Digital
Realty, by including RIL, India's
largest private sector company, that has enabled and led
India's digital transformation
through Jio, as a partner. Each partner will own one-third of the
joint venture. Digital Connexion expects to initially execute
on the development of data center campuses on existing strategic
land parcels it owns in Chennai
and Mumbai.
India represents a key market
opportunity for Digital Realty to extend coverage, capacity, and
connectivity options to cloud providers, hyperscalers and to both
local and global enterprise customers. The Indian data center
market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by the growing
adoption of digital technologies, cloud computing, and the surge in
data consumption fueling the demand for robust and scalable data
center infrastructure.
Data centers developed in India
by the JV will leverage Digital Realty's industry-leading
energy-efficient data center platform, design and operating
procedures, highly-repeatable Pervasive Data Center Architecture
(PDx®) approach and relationships with global customers,
Brookfield's in-depth knowledge of the Indian infrastructure
market, and Jio's massive digital and connectivity ecosystem and
very strong enterprise relationships with an existing client base
of 80% of large named private enterprises in India.
Jio's world class, all-IP, data strong, future proof, 4G and 5G
connectivity network with deep fiber presence, covering ~99.5% of
the Indian population, strategically expands the JV's connectivity
to data centers and other establishments in the country. It extends
the reach of PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty's best-in-class
global data center platform with 300+ data centers, in 50+ metros,
across 27 countries and six continents, giving customers access to
a dense connected data community of partners, solutions and
services, including Jio's network, cloud and other service
solutions in India.
"India is a mostly untapped
market for the data center industry driven by the rapid adoption of
digital business models, the world's largest population, and a
government that recognizes the role of technology for future
economic development," said Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head
of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty.
"This joint venture brings together three global leaders in digital
infrastructure to accelerate Digital India by developing, owning
and operating institutional quality carrier-and cloud neutral data
centers across India."
Speaking about the transaction, Kiran
Thomas, CEO, Jio Platforms Ltd. said, "We are excited to
partner with Digital Realty, one of the most innovative data center
companies globally and with Brookfield, our existing and trusted
partner. The partnership will help us serve our enterprise
and SMB clients with cutting-edge, plug-and-play solutions
delivered from the cloud and lead their digital transformation and
make them more competitive and efficient. The unique and highly
engaging consumer and home experiences that we are offering and
further innovating on, such as high-definition live content, AR /
VR experiences, cloud gaming, immersive shopping experiences and
cloud PC have massive compute capacity requirements. We would like
to thank the Indian government for granting infrastructure status
to data centers and for creating a favorable ecosystem for their
development and operations, which is critical for India's vision to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025."
Arpit Agrawal, Managing Director,
Head of Infrastructure, India
& Middle East, Brookfield,
added, "We are very pleased to expand our existing partnership with
Reliance and add their deep expertise in the Indian telecom, tech
and data landscape to the platform. Data Centers provide essential
services and critical infrastructure to support the digitalization
that is taking place in every aspect of life in India. Together with Reliance and Digital
Realty, we look forward to providing the best of solutions to the
digital transformation needs of Indian and
global corporates.
Digital Connexion will have a dedicated management team in
India, with leadership oversight
from Digital Realty, Brookfield and RIL. With the complementary
strengths of its three partners, Digital Connexion has world-class
skills and resources available to enable it to support global and
local customers seeking to serve the large and growing Indian
market.
About Digital Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio and Digital Realty
Company
Digital Connexion is a joint venture (JV) between
Brookfield Infrastructure, Reliance Industries and Digital Realty.
The company provides the full spectrum of highly-connected and
scalable data center, colocation and interconnection solutions
to meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and
digital services companies in India, and brings together enterprises,
network service, cloud and IT providers to give customers and
partners a key connectivity gateway to Europe, the Middle,
East, Africa and
Asia. The JV combines the
complementary strengths of Jio's massive digital and connectivity
ecosystem in India and tech
capabilities with Brookfield Infrastructure, one of the largest
owners and operators of critical global infrastructure, and Digital
Realty, provider of the world's largest data center platform
enabling customers with access to over 50 metros across six
continents.
About Digital Realty
Digital Realty brings companies
and data together by delivering the full spectrum of data center,
colocation and interconnection solutions. PlatformDIGITAL®, the
company's global data center platform, provides customers with a
secure data "meeting place" and a proven Pervasive Datacenter
Architecture (PDx®) solution methodology for powering innovation
and efficiently managing Data Gravity challenges. Digital Realty
gives its customers access to the connected communities that matter
to them with a global data center footprint of 300+ facilities in
50+ metros across 27 countries on six continents. To learn more
about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow
us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Brookfield Infrastructure
Brookfield
Infrastructure is a leading global infrastructure company that owns
and operates high-quality, long-life assets in the utilities,
transport, midstream and data sectors across North and South America, Asia
Pacific and Europe.
Brookfield Infrastructure is focused on assets that generate stable
cash flows and require minimal maintenance capital expenditures.
Further information is available at https://bip.brookfield.com.
Brookfield Infrastructure is the flagship listed infrastructure
company of Brookfield Asset Management, a global alternative asset
manager with over $825 billion of
assets under management. For more information, go to
https://brookfield.com.
In India, Brookfield has
$24 billion in assets under
management across Infrastructure, Real Estate, Renewable Power
& Transition and Private Equity.
About Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance is
India's largest private sector
company, with a consolidated revenue of INR 976,524 crore ($118.8
billion) and net profit of INR 74,088
crore ($9.0 billion) for the
year ended March 31, 2023. Reliance's
activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum
refining and marketing, petrochemicals, advanced materials and
composites, renewables (solar and hydrogen), retail and digital
services.
Currently ranking 104th, Reliance is the largest private sector
company from India to feature in
Fortune's Global 500 list of "World's Largest Companies" for 2022.
The company stands 45th in the Forbes Global 2000 rankings of
"World's Largest Public Companies" for 2023 - top-most among Indian
companies. Reliance has been ranked among the world's 20 best
companies to work with, highest amongst Indian companies in Forbes'
World's Best Employers for 2022. It features among LinkedIn's "Top
Companies 2023: The 25 Best Workplaces To Grow Your Career In
India". Website: www.ril.com
About Jio Platforms Limited
Jio Platforms Limited
("Jio"), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, has built a
world-class, all-IP, data strong, future proof network with 4G LTE
and 5G technologies (through its wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance
Jio Infocomm Limited). It is the only network conceived as a Mobile
Video Network from the ground up. It is future-ready and can be
easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance
to 6G and beyond.
Jio has brought transformational changes in the Indian digital
services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.4
billion Indians and propel India
into global leadership in the digital economy. It has created an
eco-system comprising of network, devices, applications and
content, service experience, and affordable tariffs for everyone to
live the Jio Digital Life.
For Additional Information
Investor Relations
Jordan
Sadler / Jim Huseby
Digital Realty
+1 737 281 0101
InvestorRelations@digitalrealty.com
Media Contacts
Sinhuay Ho
Digital Realty
+65 8125 8380
shho@digitalrealty.com
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains
forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations,
forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially,
including statements related to our joint venture with Brookfield
and Reliance Jio Infocomm, the Indian market opportunity,
expectations regarding the joint venture's development plans and
operations in India, expectations
regarding IT load capacity of the operations of the Digital
Connexion joint venture, expected growth in digital transformation,
sustainability programs and goals, and deployment and benefits of
PlatformDIGITAL®. Our forward-looking statements are generally
identified with words such as "will", "believe", "expect", "intend"
and similar expressions. For a list and description of such risks
and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the company
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company
disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
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