Sudhir Kunder of DE-CIX India on AI-Ready Interconnection, Cloud Connectivity, and Building India’s Digital Backbone

StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future.

In this edition of Recap’25, StartupTalky speaks with Sudhir Kunder, Chief Business Officer of DE-CIX India, who reflects on how interconnection infrastructure is becoming a strategic pillar of the digital economy. As AI workloads, cloud adoption, and data localisation accelerated in 2025, the conversation around connectivity shifted from bandwidth to latency, resilience, and ecosystem proximity — redefining how networks, enterprises, and cloud platforms interact.

Kunder shares how DE-CIX India evolved from a traditional internet exchange into a multi-service interconnection platform, introducing innovations such as Cloud Router, advanced Data Center Interconnection (DCI) services, and the world’s first AI Internet Exchange. The discussion explores the operational and ecosystem metrics that signal real growth, the importance of educating the market on interconnection as a revenue enabler rather than a cost centre, and how India’s rapidly scaling digital economy is creating opportunities to leapfrog legacy infrastructure models.

StartupTalky: What service does DE-CIX India provide? What was the motivation/vision with which DE-CIX India started?

Sudhir Kunder: DE-CIX India operates neutral, carrier- and data center agnostic Interconnection Platforms that enable networks, cloud providers, enterprises, and content players to interconnect directly, securely, and efficiently. Our founding vision was clear: to build a resilient, scalable digital interconnection fabric that supports India’s rapidly growing internet economy. We believed early that connectivity would move beyond transit to become a strategic business enabler. By reducing latency, improving performance, and lowering network costs, we aim to empower businesses to innovate, scale, and compete globally while ensuring the internet remains open, reliable, and future-ready.

StartupTalky: What new services have been added in the past year? What is/are the USP/s of your service?

Sudhir Kunder: Over the past year, DE-CIX expanded its portfolio with Cloud Router, advanced Data Center Interconnection services, and launched the world’s first AI Internet Exchange. Cloud Router enables SMEs, SMBs, and enterprises to securely access multiple cloud platforms through a single, scalable interface. Our AI Exchange supports low-latency, data-sovereign, and AI-ready interconnection environments. The core USP lies in delivering multiple services peering, cloud access, and DCI through a single access port. Backed by the world’s largest Internet Exchange operator, our neutral, carrier-grade platform ensures predictable performance, cost efficiency, and scalable growth without compromising control. 

StartupTalky: How has the industry changed and how has DE-CIX India adapted?

Sudhir Kunder: The interconnection industry has shifted from bandwidth-centric models to latency-sensitive, cloud-driven, and AI-ready architectures. Workloads today demand proximity, resilience, and deterministic performance rather than best-effort connectivity. DE-CIX India adapted by expanding into more data centres, enabling multi-cloud access, and focusing on ecosystem-led growth. We aligned our strategy with emerging needs such as edge computing, AI workloads, and data sovereignty. Internally, we strengthened partnerships with hyperscalers, enterprises, and data centre operators. This allowed us to transition from being a connectivity provider to becoming a strategic interconnection partner for India’s digital economy.

StartupTalky: What key metrics do you track to check the DE-CIX India’s growth and performance?

Sudhir Kunder: We track a balanced mix of network, commercial, and ecosystem metrics to measure growth and performance. Key indicators include port capacity utilisation, traffic growth, number of connected networks, and service adoption across peering, cloud access, AI Exchange, and DCI. Customer retention, expansion within existing members, and time-to-activation are critical commercial metrics. We also track ecosystem depth data centre presence, cloud on-ramps, and partner integrations. Together, these metrics provide a holistic view of scalability, reliability, customer value creation, and long-term sustainability rather than short-term volume-driven growth alone.

StartupTalky: What were the most significant challenges DE-CIX India faced in the past year and how did you overcome them?

Sudhir Kunder: One of the biggest challenges was keeping pace with accelerated demand driven by AI adoption, cloud migration, and enterprise digitisation, often faster than traditional infrastructure planning cycles. Another challenge was educating the market on the strategic value of interconnection beyond cost savings. We addressed this by investing ahead of demand, expanding our footprint, and intensifying ecosystem engagement through industry forums, roadshows, and thought leadership. Close collaboration with data centre partners and customers helped us co-create scalable solutions. This proactive approach ensured resilience, trust, and uninterrupted growth despite market volatility.

StartupTalky: What are the different strategies you use for marketing? Tell us about any growth hack that you pulled off.

Sudhir Kunder: Our marketing strategy is centred on enablement-driven engagement rather than conventional promotion. We conduct focused workshops, closed-door sessions, and regional engagements aimed at helping ISPs transition into Digital Service Providers (DISPs). These sessions address real business challenges, monetisation, cloud readiness, latency optimisation, and service diversification. A key growth hack was positioning interconnection as a direct revenue opportunity rather than a backend cost. By equipping ISPs with practical frameworks, use cases, and white-label opportunities, we accelerated adoption, strengthened partner confidence, and created organic advocacy driving sustained growth without dependence on high marketing spends.

StartupTalky: What are the important tools and software you use to run your business smoothly?

Sudhir Kunder: We rely on a combination of network operations platforms, automation tools, and business systems to ensure operational excellence. Advanced network monitoring and traffic analytics tools help maintain performance, resilience, and security across our infrastructure. CRM and partner management platforms support customer lifecycle management, onboarding, and engagement. Automation tools streamline provisioning, reporting, and capacity planning, reducing operational overhead. We also use collaboration and project management tools to align cross-functional teams. This integrated toolset enables us to scale efficiently while maintaining carrier-grade reliability and a high-quality customer experience.

StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

Sudhir Kunder: India is at an inflection point where AI, cloud, 5G, and data localisation are converging. This creates massive demand for distributed, low-latency interconnection platforms. Globally, similar opportunities exist around edge AI, sovereign cloud, and cross-border data exchange. An Interconnection Platform Like DE-CIX India will play a critical role as neutral digital hubs connecting ecosystems efficiently. For us, growth lies in deeper enterprise penetration, enabling regional digital economies, and supporting emerging markets with globally proven interconnection models. The future belongs to platforms that enable ecosystems, not just connectivity and that is where our focus remains.

StartupTalky: What opportunities do you see for future growth in your industry in India and the world? What kind of difference in market behavior have you seen between India and the world?

Sudhir Kunder: India is a fast-growing, price-sensitive, and scale-driven market, while mature global markets focus more on optimisation, resilience, and service differentiation. In India, adoption accelerates rapidly once value is clearly demonstrated; however, education and trust-building are critical and often time-intensive due to legacy mindsets and fragmented ecosystems. Globally, interconnection is already embedded as a strategic layer of digital infrastructure, whereas in India it is transitioning from “nice-to-have” to “must-have.” This transition creates a unique opportunity for India to leapfrog legacy models and adopt cloud-first, AI-ready interconnection architectures at scale. 

StartupTalky: How are you using AI, whether in service delivery, internal processes, or customer experience, and what impact has it created?

Sudhir Kunder: AI is reshaping global network infrastructure as it evolves from language models to agentic systems making real-time decisions, where milliseconds of latency define success. At DE-CIX, this shift drove the launch of the world’s first AI Internet Exchange, designed to support low-latency, secure, and data-sovereign AI workloads. We enable inference closer to the edge, with data processed at the point of generation. Internally, AI enhances traffic analysis, predictive capacity planning, and network optimisation. The impact is faster decision-making, smarter networks, and a future-ready interconnection foundation for autonomous AI applications.

StartupTalky: How do you plan to expand the Customers, service offering, and team base in the future?

Sudhir Kunder: Our expansion strategy is ecosystem-led. We plan to on board more SMEs, SMBs, Enterprises, Cloud Providers, and ISPs by deepening our presence across key data centre hubs and emerging regions. On the services side, we will continue enhancing cloud, AI, and interconnection-centric offerings that support evolving workloads. Team expansion will focus on domain expertise network engineering, ecosystem partnerships, and customer success. We believe strong teams build strong platforms. By investing in people, partnerships, and scalable infrastructure, we aim to support sustainable growth while maintaining service excellence.

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