India's data centre industry is on a steep growth curve, with installed capacity potentially increasing more than fourfold by 2030, even as the sector grapples with mounting risks around power availability, cyber security, and infrastructure resilience, according to a report released on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 by global insurance broker Aon. The findings arrive as demand for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and digital services accelerates across the country.

Scale of the Expansion

The Aon report notes that significant new data centre capacity is already under development in India, positioning the country as one of the fastest-growing markets in the sector globally. The company also cited research indicating that global data centre power demand could rise by 165 per cent by 2030, underscoring the scale of energy requirements that will accompany this build-out.

Separately, Aon disclosed that capacity under its Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program has grown from $3.5 billion to $5 billion, reflecting sustained insurer interest in financing and covering the sector's expansion.

Power Availability: The Defining Constraint

Power availability is emerging as a primary determinant of where new facilities can be built and how quickly they can become operational, the report said. Rising AI workloads are intensifying energy consumption, placing greater strain on electricity infrastructure.

To navigate grid constraints and connection delays, developers are increasingly exploring on-site power generation, battery storage, and hybrid energy systems, according to Sushant Sarin, Managing Director and Head of Commercial Risk Solutions, India, at Aon. While such alternatives can strengthen resilience, Sarin noted they also introduce fresh operational, maintenance and fire-related risks that operators must plan for.

AI-driven growth is also reshaping the physical risk profile of data centres by driving up power density and cooling requirements. Water availability is becoming a growing concern, particularly in water-stressed regions, making site selection considerably more complex.

Cyber Threats Intensify

The Aon report draws a direct line between expanding data centre operations and heightened cyber exposure. Modern facilities rely on interconnected control systems, digital monitoring tools and third-party vendors, meaning a single cyber incident could disrupt operations, damage physical assets and trigger prolonged business interruptions.

This comes amid a broader global trend of ransomware attacks and supply-chain compromises targeting critical infrastructure. For India, where data centres are increasingly central to financial services, government platforms and consumer internet, the stakes of a successful attack are rising accordingly.

Lifecycle Risk Assessment Gains Ground

Insurers are responding to these compounding risks by moving toward a lifecycle approach to data centre risk assessment, the report said. This involves evaluating factors spanning design and construction through to power resilience, cyber exposure and long-term operational performance — a departure from the more static, asset-based models used in earlier years.

Aon said that integrating risk planning across power, water, climate and cyber exposure will be critical as data centres become central to India's digital and AI ambitions. The sector's trajectory suggests the window to embed such planning is narrowing as development pipelines accelerate.