Bharti Airtel (Airtel) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wednesday have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement (SCA) to deliver a comprehensive set of innovative cloud solutions to large enterprise and small and medium enterprise (SME) customers in India.
Airtel serves over 2,500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging businesses and companies with an integrated product portfolio, including Airtel Cloud, a multi-cloud product and solutions business.
Airtel Cloud will build an AWS Cloud Practice supported by AWS Professional Services, as well as develop differentiated Airtel Cloud products and capabilities leveraging AWS services, Airtel’s data centre capabilities, and Airtel’s network and telecoms offerings, the company said.
Airtel customers will benefit from an integrated sales, consulting, and support approach from both companies, and improved security, scalability, and cloud management capabilities, it said.
“As part of their cloud adoption journey, enterprises are looking for agility, faster migration from legacy systems, and want to work with trusted partners who have the experience and depth in doing this. This collaboration brings AWS, the world’s leading cloud platform, together with Airtel’s deep reach and proven expertise in handling network, data centres, security, and cloud as an integrated solution.” Harmeen Mehta, Chief Information Officer and Head – Cloud and Security Business, Airtel.
Airtel Cloud will offer customers a range of AWS services including Windows on AWS, SAP on AWS, VMware Cloud on AWS, database migration, and security and risk governance solutions. Also, Airtel Cloud will leverage AWS’s innovation and transformation services across analytics, data warehousing, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML) to help customers adopt new services and migrate to the cloud from legacy infrastructures.
"Indian companies are using the cloud to innovate, and to operate at an increased scale and speed, many need partners like Airtel, with deep cloud expertise and an industry-focused approach to support them,” Puneet Chandok, President, Commercial Business, India and South Asia, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, said.
This collaboration will give customers a single point of contact when dealing with complex migrations or custom-built solutions, he said.
According to analysts, businesses in India are rapidly adopting cloud for digital transformation.
As per IDC Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker - Forecast 2019H2, the public cloud services market in India is likely to reach $7.1 billion in 2024, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 20.3 per cent from $3.4 billion in 2020.