A Web Werks data centre in Noida, southeast of Delhi
Iron Mountain has acquired 100 percent ownership of joint venture partner Web Werks, giving the US records storage giant complete control over the Mumbai-based company’s 14-megawatt portfolio of six data centres in India.
Web Werks Data Centers India was rebranded as Iron Mountain Data Centers from the first of April, NYSE-listed Iron Mountain said in a release. Since setting up their JV four years ago, the companies have expanded their digital infrastructure partnership in the key markets of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Noida. Iron Mountain is currently developing three new campuses in Mumbai, Chennai and Noida with a collective potential capacity of 152MW.
Industry veteran Rajesh Tapadia has assumed day-to-day direction of the business as CEO of Iron Mountain Data Centers in India. Tapadia will work closely with Arvind Subramanian, executive vice president and managing director for India at Boston-based Iron Mountain.
“By bringing our teams and customers together under Rajesh Tapadia’s leadership, we are creating a seamless experience and unlocking new opportunities for growth and innovation,” Subramanian said Tuesday in a LinkedIn post. “This milestone underscores our commitment to India’s digital future.”
Founding Boss Exits
Iron Mountain’s consolidation marks the departure of Web Werks founder and CEO Nikhil Rathi, who started the company as a teenager in 1996 and stewarded the entry of Iron Mountain into the JV in 2021.
Arvind Subramanian, executive vice president and managing director for India at Iron Mountain
At the time of the partnership’s launch, Iron Mountain expected to invest $150 million within two years and ultimately become the majority shareholder in the JV after the investment period. In 2023, the partners announced plans to spend $170 million to develop a 32MW data centre in Navi Mumbai with an expected go-live date in the second half of 2025.
In a Tuesday LinkedIn post, Rathi welcomed the leadership of Subramanian and Tapadia and said he and co-founder Nishant Rathi would remain “closely involved” with Iron Mountain Data Centers, offering support and guidance. The two brothers continue to own NeoSOFT Technologies, a Mumbai-based IT outsourcer and software developer with a list of over 1,500 global clients.
New CEO Tapadia joined Iron Mountain in February after five years in leadership roles at Nxtra, a data centre subsidiary of Indian telecom titan Bharti Airtel. He also spent four years as a senior executive vice president and board member of NTT’s Netmagic data centre unit in India.
Big Players, Big Plans
The Iron Mountain announcement comes as global behemoths continue to up their bets in India’s data centre space, with Microsoft in January making a $3 billion commitment to digital infrastructure in chairman and CEO Satya Nadella’s home country.
That same month, Bloomberg reported that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group was building what could become the world’s biggest data centre in Jamnagar, with a planned capacity of 3 gigawatts.
In February, local media revealed private equity giant Blackstone’s plan to construct a 500MW facility in Navi Mumbai alongside development partner Panchshil Realty.
Iron Mountain’s publicly traded status discourages the company from making future-looking statements, but it said Tuesday that its commitment to the Indian market would likely involve further significant expansions.
“India is one of the fastest-growing markets for digital infrastructure, and Iron Mountain’s investment in world-class Indian operations will continue, with an ambitious pipeline of expansions, upgrades and service improvements,” the company said.
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