Bharti Airtel Announces a Strategic Partnership with IBM to Augment Airtel Cloud
Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, has entered into a strategic
partnership with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to augment its recently launched Airtel Cloud. The
partnership is expected to bring together the telco-grade reliability, high security, and
data residency of Airtel Cloud with IBM’s leadership in cloud solutions, and advanced
infrastructure and software technologies designed for AI inferencing.
Together, Airtel and IBM will aim to enable enterprises in regulated industries to scale AI
workloads more efficiently, delivering interoperability across infrastructure, including on-
premise, in the cloud, across multiple clouds, and at the edge.
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.
Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, 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 centers. 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 modernization 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.”
With IBM’s software stack for AI inferencing, built on IBM WatsonX and Red Hat
OpenShift AI clients in India will have the ability to run AI inference across hybrid cloud
environments. These capabilities are coupled with IBM’s enterprise-grade cloud platform
with innovative IaaS and PaaS offerings, as well as IBM’s automation portfolio designed
for accelerating the impact of generative AI in core enterprise workflows to drive
productivity. Customers will be able to access Red Hat’s hybrid cloud solutions, including
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift, and Red Hat AI. Beyond these
capabilities, IBM’s hybrid cloud architecture is designed to help clients enable future
innovation in AI and quantum computing.
Airtel Multi Zone Regions will help Indian enterprises strengthen their resilience, address
data residency requirements, and keep mission-critical workloads and applications up
and running at all times. Together, the Airtel and IBM partnership will enable Indian
enterprises to accelerate digital innovation at scale.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or
Withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.
About Bharti Airtel
Headquartered in India, Airtel is a global communications solutions provider with over
600 million customers in 15 countries across India and Africa. The company also has its
presence in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka through its associate entities. The company
ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally, and its networks cover over two
billion people. Airtel is India’s largest integrated communications solutions provider and
the second largest mobile operator in Africa. Airtel’s retail portfolio includes high-speed
4G/5G mobile, Wi-Fi (FTTH+ FWA) that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with
convergence across linear and on-demand entertainment, video streaming services,
digital payments, and financial services. For enterprise customers, Airtel offers a gamut
of solutions that includes secure connectivity, cloud and data center services, cyber
security, IoT, and cloud-based communication. Airtel’s digital arm – Xtelify- empowers
telcos globally to leverage the power of AI, data, and technology to accelerate their digital
transformation and drive growth. Xtelify also offers Airtel Cloud in India, enabling
enterprises with a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform that guarantees secure
migration, effortless scaling, lower costs, and no vendor lock-ins. Within its diversified
portfolio, Airtel also offers passive infrastructure services through its subsidiary Indus
Tower Ltd. For more details, visit www.airtel.com
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