India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has partnered with IBM to offer the American tech firm's services through its recently launched cloud platform, the companies said on October 15 as demand for computing capacity grows.
Through this partnership, Airtel Cloud customers will be able to deploy IBM's offerings, such as AI-ready servers for applications, in regulated industries like banking, healthcare, government and others.
"Through this partnership, Airtel Cloud customers will be able to deploy the IBM Power systems portfolio as-a-Service, including the latest-generation IBM Power11 autonomous, AI-ready servers for mission critical applications in regulated industries like banking, healthcare, government and others. The Power11 hybrid platform will also support critical enterprise workloads including IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux and SAP Cloud ERP. Additionally, this partnership will help enable SAP customers on IBM Power with
their enterprise resource planning transformation to SAP Cloud ERP on IBM Power Virtual Server," said Airtel in a stock exchange filing.
This comes just a day after Google said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an AI data centre in Andhra Pradesh. Airtel is also partnering with Google to jointly establish the data center in the port city of Visakhapatnam.
Bharti Airtel's digital unit Xtelify unveiled its Airtel Cloud service in August.
IBM and Airtel will also establish two new Multizone Regions, or MZRs, in Mumbai and Chennai soon, said Gopal Vittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel.
MZRs account for cloud infrastructure that is spread across physical locations in different zones to ensure data and operations remain safe and uninterrupted in case of faults in any distinct region.
This will help Indian businesses address data residency requirements and keep mission-critical workloads and applications up and running at all times, the companies said.
Indian firms have been working to expand the availability of cloud platforms as the growing prominence of artificial intelligence technology and some localised data storage requirements have boosted demand for cloud services in the country.
Gopal Vittal said: “Airtel Cloud is designed to be highly secure and compliant, setting new industry benchmarks as an agile and resilient cloud platform. Today, with the IBM partnership, we are adding substantial capabilities to our Cloud platform to address the unique needs of several industries that require migration from IBM Power Systems and allow for AI readiness. With this partnership, we are also extending the footprint of our availability zones in India from four to ten, hosting these on our own next-gen sustainable data centres. We will, together, also establish two new Multizone Regions (MZRs) in Mumbai and Chennai soon.”
Rob Thomas, SVP and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM, said: “Enterprises today need to balance modernisation with the growing regulated technology and AI requirements. Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, clients across India can leverage IBM’s innovative cloud offerings designed for workloads that address their strategic business priorities. Together, we will help clients drive true transformation in the era of AI."
At 10:35 am on October 15, Bharti Airtel shares were trading 0.7% higher at Rs 1,959.1 apiece.
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