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Bharti Airtel & IBM India Deepen Cloud Partnership

  • Writer: Corporate World
    Corporate World
  • Oct 22
  • 4 min read

From 4 to 10 Availability Zones Amid India’s AI-Cloud Surge



Bharti Airtel has announced a significant expansion of its partnership with IBM India, enabling Airtel Cloud to scale from 4 to 10 availability zones in India. The collaboration leverages IBM’s power-systems and hybrid cloud capabilities alongside Airtel’s telco-grade infrastructure. In a rapidly growing Indian enterprise cloud market, this move signals strong momentum for ‘sovereign’ data-residency solutions, AI readiness and enterprise digital transformation.


Bharti Airtel and IBM India announce expansion of Airtel Cloud to 10 availability zones across India

India’s cloud market is undergoing rapid expansion. With enterprises increasingly demanding localized data-residency, AI-enabled platforms, and hybrid cloud flexibility, domestic and international providers are positioning accordingly. According to a recent article, India’s public cloud market reached approximately US$14.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to around US$68 billion by 2032. Bharti  Airtel & IBM  India Deepen Cloud Partnership

For Bharti Airtel, one of India’s major telecommunications and digital services providers, the launch of “Airtel Cloud” earlier this year was a strategic move into the enterprise segment—leveraging its extensive network, data centres and telco heritage to serve large-scale business and regulated workloads. Bharti  Airtel & IBM India Deepen Cloud Partnership

IBM, meanwhile, brings decades of enterprise infrastructure expertise, with its Power Systems portfolio, hybrid cloud software (including Red Hat), and increasingly a focus on AI-native workloads and regulated industries.


Details of the Partnership


As part of the renewed agreement:

  • Airtel Cloud will expand from 4 to 10 availability zones across India.

  • IBM will supply its latest-generation IBM Power 11 autonomous, AI-ready servers as-a-service via Airtel’s platform, enabling mission-critical applications for banking, healthcare, government and other regulated sectors.

  • The collaboration emphasises enabling workloads requiring data-locality, regulatory compliance, and AI-inference capabilities within India, combining Airtel’s infrastructure with IBM’s enterprise cloud portfolio.

  • The partnership builds on a longstanding relationship (20+ years) between the two companies; however, this renewed phase is focused on growth in the enterprise cloud market and leveraging AI and hybrid cloud momentum.


Strategic Implications & Market Impact


For Airtel

Bharti Airtel and IBM India announce expansion of Airtel Cloud to 10 availability zones across India

  • The expansion to 10 availability zones enhances Airtel’s competitive positioning versus global hyperscalers (e.g., AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud) and domestic players, especially for enterprise/regulatory workloads requiring data-residency.

  • By offering IBM’s infrastructure “as-a-service”, Airtel can target enterprise customers seeking hybrid/AI-capable platforms but within an Indian-sovereign context—appealing to financial services, public sector and regulated industries.

  • The move aligns with India’s broader digital and cloud strategy, including initiatives such as “Make in India”, local data-centres and sovereign data frameworks.


For IBM

Bharti Airtel and IBM India announce expansion of Airtel Cloud to 10 availability zones across India

  • IBM gains a stronger foothold in India’s enterprise cloud market via a trusted local telco partner with established infrastructure and client reach.

  • By bringing its Power 11 systems and hybrid/AI-cloud services via Airtel, IBM taps into a growth segment focused on regulated workloads, AI inference and data-local solutions—areas where global hyperscalers may face greater constraints.

  • The partnership may help IBM differentiate itself through hybrid, regulated-industry focus, rather than chasing purely public-cloud commodity workloads.


For the Indian Cloud Ecosystem


  • The cloud market in India is projected for rapid growth; combining local telecommunication/cyber-infrastructure with global tech partners creates a stronger domestic ecosystem.

  • Localised availability zones and telco-grade infrastructure help enterprises adopt cloud/AI workloads while satisfying data-sovereignty, regulatory and compliance requirements.

  • This collaboration may spur further competition among global and domestic players to deepen enterprise offerings (particularly in AI, regulated industries, hybrid cloud) rather than purely generic public-cloud services.


Challenges & Considerations


While the announcement is positive, some aspects merit attention:

  • Rolling out 10 availability zones across India with sufficient latency, redundancy and resilience is a major infrastructure investment; execution and uptime will matter.

  • Competing with global hyperscalers (AWS, Azure, Google) is tough: those players bring rich ecosystems, large scale and global reach—Airtel/IBM will need to differentiate via regulatory/local focus, hybrid cloud expertise and regional support.

  • Enterprises may expect a full stack of services (dev/ops tools, AI/ML pipelines, marketplace ecosystem) beyond infrastructure—Airtel and IBM will need to build these capabilities or partner accordingly.

  • Data-sovereignty/regulatory regime in India remains evolving; enterprises may still face compliance, governance and cross-border issues.


“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,” said Rob Thomas, SVP and Chief Commercial Officer at IBM.

“This historic relationship gives us the platform to scale Airtel Cloud from 4 to 10 availability zones, offering telco-grade connectivity, low latency and on-premises feel for enterprise workloads within India — especially for regulated sectors requiring data-residency,” said Gopal Vittal, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel.

Forward Outlook


  • In coming 12–18 months, Airtel and IBM are expected to launch new “joint” enterprise cloud offerings targeted at sectors such as banking/financial services, healthcare, public sector and manufacturing.

  • As India’s enterprise cloud demand grows (including AI inference, sovereign cloud, hybrid workloads), expect further partnerships between telcos + global tech firms, and domestic arms building AI-cloud stacks.

  • Monitoring execution will be key: Are the new availability zones live? What is the latency/redundancy? Are there anchor customers using the platform?

  • If successful, this partnership could signal a shift: India’s cloud market may increasingly depend on local telco-tech alliances rather than purely global hyperscaler dominance — enabling a unique “India-led” cloud ecosystem.


Company Overviews


Bharti Airtel – One of India’s largest telecommunications operators, offering mobile, broadband, enterprise digital services, and increasingly focusing on cloud/edge/infrastructure solutions for business clients.


IBM India – The Indian arm of IBM Corporation, specialising in enterprise infrastructure (Power Systems, mainframe), hybrid cloud and AI solutions, serving large enterprises and regulated industries globally and within India.

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