ITI to expand data centre in Bengaluru

State-owned telecommunications equipment manufacturer ITI, as part of its new revival projects, is planning to establish data centres in Bengaluru and Naini in Uttar Pradesh. ITI's Bengaluru plant is also venturing into new point-to-multipoint communication, smart city and IoT projects.

Currently, ITI has been operating a Tier-III Data Centre at its Bengaluru plant. The company's data centre is spread over more than 2 lakh sq feet, and it has the capability to house thousands of IT Infrastructure equipment, and is designed to offer a wide spectrum of core hosting services.

The company achieved a turnover of Rs 17.80 crore during 2017-18 with Data Centre Services.

It is also providing IT solutions like e-Banking and Aadhaar based authentication on SaaS basis from the data centre. "Looking into high demand for data centre business and the expected growth in India, under the revival plan, our existing data centre is being expanded to level of Tier III plus to cater for 1,200 racks. About 1,000 racks at Bengaluru plant and 200 racks at Naini plant are planned as disaster recovery site," the company said in its annual report.

The company's Bengaluru plant is also gearing up for manufacturing GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) products.

The company had participated in GPON turnkey project tenders for BharatNet phase I project for providing high speed broadband connectivity to 1 lakh gram panchayats across the country, and secured orders from the BBNL and BSNL. It is expecting to get some more orders under BharatNet Ph 1 project.

"In view of huge requirement of OFC deployment for Govt of India under BharathNet project there would be corresponding requirements of GPON solution. ITI is also aggressively bidding for BharatNet Ph II project and expected to get orders for which ITI will manufacture and supply GPON products. The Bengaluru plant has also geared up for manufacturing GPON products to meet the expected additional requirements," the company said.

The company said its Bengaluru plant achieved a turnover of Rs 301.80 crore during the year 2017-18 registering a profit of Rs 45.15 crore.

Fiscal year 2018 has been a breakthrough year for ITI and it is a year of turnaround for the company as it made profit without grants after a gap of 16 years. "Without the grants from the government, net profit for the period before tax (after exceptional and/or extraordinary items) increased to Rs 102 crore for the year ended March 31, 2018 as against a loss of Rs 56 crore for the previous year," the report pointed out.

ITI has six manufacturing units, including one in Bengaluru, and it employs around 3,576 people.