According to research carried out by Gartner, the value of the Indian data center infrastructure market will show a 5.2 percent increase year-on-year, totaling $2 billion in 2016.

Aman Munglani, a research director at Gartner said: “Within the Indian IT infrastructure market, server revenue is forecast to reach $698 million in 2016, an increase of 5.3 percent over 2015. Enterprise networking will continue to be the biggest segment with revenue expected to touch $963 million in 2016.”

“This segment will also be the fastest growing market, as spending is forecast to increase 5.9 percent in 2016. With increased focus on mobility and big data activities in India, software defined networking has the highest adoption rate amongst Indian enterprises.”

Gartner projects the Indian storage market will reach $307 million in 2016. This will be a three percent increase on 2015 (see table 1).

 Table 1: Indian IT Infrastructure Revenue By Technology (Millions of USD)

IT Infrastructure201520162017 2018 2019

Enterprise Networking

910

963

1019

1042

1040

Storage

298

307

317

321

323

Servers

663

698

732

760

756

Total

1,871

1,969

2,068

2,123

2,120

Source: Gartner (October 2015)

“Mobile, and the proliferation of data, are having a dramatic impact, and pressure, on the supporting infrastructure and operations (I&O) infrastructure,” said Munglani. “All this data is having a dramatic impact upstream on servers, storage, networking, facilities and IT operations, not to mention creating new security challenges.”

The other trend which is having an impact is the pressure to deliver solutions more quickly. According to Gartner, IT can no longer tell the business to stand in line and wait for support. If a new initiative needs to work through the pipeline for 12 months, business units will procure outside instead. How internal I&O departments change their approach and culture will be critical to I&O leaders in the near future.

”In 2016, data center modernization will continue to be a key driver for infrastructure spend in India. Automation and orchestration are becoming high priorities for Indian leaders as well. Software defined infrastructures, and an increased focus on disaster recovery and business continuity, will also lead to an increased spend on infrastructure,” said Munglani, while speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Goa, India last week.