Airtel partners with IBM to enhance its cloud services
What's the story
Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecom operator, has announced a strategic partnership with tech giant IBM. The collaboration will see the integration of IBM's services into Airtel's recently launched cloud platform. The move comes as demand for computing capacity continues to grow in India, driven by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and localized data storage requirements.
Service expansion
Partnership to benefit regulated industries
The partnership will enable Airtel Cloud customers to utilize IBM's services, including AI-ready servers for applications. These offerings will be particularly beneficial for regulated industries such as banking, healthcare, and government. The move is part of a larger trend among Indian companies to improve cloud platform availability in response to the increasing demand for cloud services driven by AI technology.
Joint initiative
Google to invest $15 billion in AI data center
The announcement of the partnership with IBM comes a day after Google revealed its plan to invest $15 billion over five years in an AI data center in Andhra Pradesh. Airtel is also collaborating with Google on this project, which will be set up in the port city of Visakhapatnam. The joint venture highlights the growing importance of cloud services and AI technology in India.
Service expansion
Airtel Cloud launched in August
Airtel's digital unit Xtelify launched the Airtel Cloud service in August. As part of the partnership with IBM, two new Multizone Regions (MZRs) will be set up in Mumbai and Chennai. MZRs are cloud infrastructure spread across different physical locations to ensure data safety and uninterrupted operations even during regional faults. This will help Indian businesses meet data residency requirements while ensuring mission-critical workloads remain operational at all times.