Building India’s digital highways: Why the nation needs its own cloud infrastructure
By Amin Habibi, Co – Founder and COO, VergeCloud
As India continues its rapid digital transformation, a new kind of infrastructure is taking centre stage—digital highways. These aren’t made of asphalt and concrete, but of fiber, data centres, content delivery nodes, and cloud security frameworks. And just like physical highways catalysed economic growth in the past, digital highways are now the foundation of India’s future economy.
At the heart of this transformation lies a fundamental question: Can India rely on foreign cloud infrastructure to power its digital destiny?
Why India needs its own cloud infrastructure
Today, many of India’s digital services—whether public or private—are still built atop foreign-owned cloud platforms and global content delivery networks. While these platforms offer convenience and reach, they come with three critical limitations that India can no longer afford to ignore:
- Lack of data sovereignty
When data is hosted on cloud platforms controlled by companies headquartered in other countries, India loses control over its most critical asset—data. This not only exposes national and user information to extraterritorial jurisdictions, but also creates compliance challenges under India’s evolving data protection frameworks.
With the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the need for locally hosted, sovereign infrastructure has become non-negotiable.
- High latency and performance bottlenecks
Most global CDN and cloud providers don’t prioritise India-specific routing, leading to higher latency for end users in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. When streaming buffers, apps lag, or checkout pages take too long to load, the root cause often lies in distance from infrastructure.
To truly support Smart Cities and BharatNet, India needs edge-first platforms that are built and optimised for local performance.
- Economic and strategic dependence
Relying on foreign infrastructure means Indian enterprises, startups, and even government bodies are dependent on external pricing, availability, and policies. In a world shaped by geopolitics and digital sovereignty, this creates long-term vulnerability.
Cloud is no longer just a utility—it’s a strategic national asset.
Powering India’s digital future with homegrown infrastructure
The future of India must be built in India—starting with the internet infrastructure that powers it. Our mission is to develop India’s first homegrown, regulation-compliant CDN and edge cloud platform, designed specifically for the needs of Indian enterprises, users, and public sector initiatives.
1. Sovereign infrastructure
Our infrastructure complies with India’s data localisation requirements, ensuring that critical user and business data stays within national borders. For sectors like e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, and governance, this is no longer optional—it’s essential.
2. Low-latency edge delivery
With 10+ Points of Presence (PoPs) strategically located across the country, which ensures ultra-fast delivery of content, video, and apps, even in underserved regions. We help bridge the digital divide, supporting initiatives like Digital India and BharatNet with scalable and secure content distribution.
3. Enterprise-grade security
In a time when cyberattacks are rising, there are certain offers which provide multi-layer DDoS protection, Web Application Firewall (WAF), secure link tokens, and TLS-based SSL handling to protect digital assets and user trust.
4. Built for India, open to the world
While our foundation is Indian, our architecture is global-ready. Whether you’re an OTT platform scaling to millions or a government department digitising public services, delivers performance, resilience, and control—without dependency on foreign systems.
The road ahead: Smart cities, public infrastructure, and a smarter India
India’s Smart Cities Mission, BharatNet, and the rise of cloud-first startups are pushing demand for localised digital infrastructure at an unprecedented rate. As more critical services—from education and healthcare to mobility and governance—move online, data must flow securely, quickly, and locally.
Building highways has always been a catalyst for development. Now, the highways are digital—and we must ensure they’re owned, optimised, and protected by India.
