Bharti Airtel partners with IBM to expand Airtel Cloud for AI-ready enterprise workloads

Bharti Airtel has partnered with IBM to enhance Airtel Cloud, offering AI-ready infrastructure and IBM Power Systems as-a-Service. The collaboration enables Indian enterprises in regulated industries to scale workloads across hybrid cloud, edge, and multi-cloud environments.

Hyderabad: Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading telecommunications providers, has entered into a strategic partnership with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to enhance its recently launched Airtel Cloud. The collaboration aims to combine Airtel Cloud’s telco-grade reliability, high security, and data residency with IBM’s advanced cloud solutions, infrastructure, and AI-ready software technologies.

The partnership will enable enterprises in regulated industries to scale AI workloads efficiently while ensuring interoperability across on-premise infrastructure, cloud, multi-cloud environments, and edge computing.

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Under the collaboration, Airtel Cloud customers will have access to IBM Power Systems as-a-Service, including the latest-generation IBM Power11 autonomous AI-ready servers. These servers are tailored for mission-critical applications in sectors such as banking, healthcare, and government. The platform also supports workloads including IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux, and SAP Cloud ERP, facilitating ERP transformation for SAP customers on IBM Power Virtual Server.

Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman & MD of Bharti Airtel, said, “Airtel Cloud is designed to be highly secure and compliant, setting new industry benchmarks as an agile and resilient platform. With the IBM partnership, we are enhancing our Cloud capabilities to meet the needs of industries requiring AI readiness and migration from IBM Power Systems. We are also expanding our availability zones in India from four to ten, hosted on next-gen sustainable data centres, and plan to establish two new Multizone Regions in Mumbai and Chennai.”

Rob Thomas, SVP and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM, added, “Enterprises today need to balance modernization with regulated technology and AI requirements. Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, Indian clients can leverage IBM’s innovative cloud offerings designed to meet strategic business priorities and drive transformation in the era of AI.”

With IBM’s software stack for AI inferencing, built on IBM watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift AI, Indian enterprises can run AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments. IBM’s platform also provides IaaS, PaaS, and automation solutions, enabling generative AI integration in core enterprise workflows. Customers will have access to Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, and Red Hat AI for hybrid cloud management.

The Airtel Multi Zone Regions (MZRs) will enhance enterprise resilience, ensure data residency compliance, and maintain continuous uptime for mission-critical workloads. Together, Airtel and IBM aim to accelerate digital innovation at scale for Indian enterprises.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction are subject to change and represent forward-looking goals only.