Airtel taps Amazon Web Services’ digital solutions to help SMEs migrate to cloud

Leading telecom service operator, Bharti Airtel is gung ho on boosting its cloud offerings in the demand-filled Indian market.

To give that necessary boost Airtel has signed a multi-year, Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver a comprehensive set of innovative cloud solutions to large enterprise and small and medium enterprises (SME) customers in India.

Airtel Cloud service expansion plans fulfilled

Businesses in India are rapidly adopting cloud for digital transformation. According to the IDC Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker - Forecast 2019H2, the public cloud services market in India is likely to reach US$7.1 billion in 2024, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.3 percent from US$3.4 billion in 2020.

And Airtel wants to strike the market when it is hot, as its business services arm serves over 2,500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging 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 center capabilities, and Airtel’s network and telecoms offerings.

This deal would help Airtel customers to benefit from an integrated sales, consulting, and support approach from both companies, and improved security, scalability, and cloud management capabilities.

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.

In addition, 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.

Harmeen Mehta, CIO & Head – Cloud and Security Business, Bharti Airtel sees great potential in this deal. Mehta says that this collaboration brings AWS together with Airtel’s deep reach and proven expertise in handling networks, data centers, security, and cloud as an integrated solution.

Additionally, Airtel leverages AWS services for the development of its digital applications. Airtel is also an AWS Direct Connect Delivery Partner. AWS Direct Connect is a cloud service solution that makes it easy to establish a dedicated network connection from a customer’s premises to AWS, providing customers with increased bandwidth throughput, consistent network performance, and private connectivity.

Puneet Chandok, President, Commercial Business, India and South Asia, Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, views this collaboration as a good win-win for both. This collaboration, according to him, gives customers a single point of contact when dealing with complex migrations or custom-built solutions.