Srinagar | : Bharti Airtel has formed a strategic partnership with IBM to enhance its Airtel Cloud services. This collaboration aims to combine Airtel’s reliable and secure cloud infrastructure with IBM’s advanced cloud solutions and AI technologies.
The partnership is particularly focused on enabling enterprises in regulated sectors, such as banking and healthcare, to efficiently scale their AI workloads across various environments, including on-premise, cloud, and edge computing. Airtel Cloud customers will gain access to IBM’s Power systems portfolio as-a-Service, featuring the latest IBM Power11 servers, which are designed for mission-critical applications. This hybrid platform will support essential enterprise workloads, including IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux, and SAP Cloud ERP. The partnership will also facilitate SAP customers in transitioning to SAP Cloud ERP on IBM Power Virtual Server. Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, emphasized that the partnership enhances Airtel Cloud’s capabilities to meet the specific needs of industries requiring migration from IBM Power Systems and AI readiness. The collaboration will expand Airtel’s availability zones in India from four to ten, with plans to establish two new Multizone Regions in Mumbai and Chennai. Rob Thomas, SVP and Chief Commercial Officer of IBM, highlighted the importance of balancing modernization with regulatory and AI requirements. The partnership will enable Indian enterprises to leverage IBM’s innovative cloud offerings to address their strategic business needs. Additionally, IBM’s software stack for AI inferencing, built on IBM watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift AI, will allow clients to run AI inference across hybrid cloud environments, further driving productivity through generative AI in core workflows. Overall, this partnership positions Airtel and IBM to support future innovations in AI and quantum computing, providing a robust framework for enterprises to navigate the evolving technological landscape.
