Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, has announced a new partnership with IBM to expand its cloud service offerings through the recently launched Airtel Cloud platform, the companies said on Wednesday.
The collaboration will allow Airtel Cloud customers to deploy IBM’s AI-ready servers and enterprise cloud tools, targeting regulated sectors such as banking, healthcare, and government. The move comes amid surging demand for computing capacity in India, driven by the country’s rapid adoption of artificial intelligence technologies and localized data storage requirements.
The announcement follows Google’s $15 billion investment to build an AI data center in Andhra Pradesh, a project in which Airtel is also a partner. The facility, to be established in Visakhapatnam, underscores India’s growing importance as a digital infrastructure hub.
Airtel’s digital arm, Xtelify, launched Airtel Cloud in August, positioning it as a key player in India’s expanding cloud ecosystem. As part of the new partnership, Airtel and IBM will establish two Multizone Regions (MZRs) in Mumbai and Chennai, which will distribute cloud infrastructure across multiple zones to ensure data security and uninterrupted operations in case of system failures.
“These Multizone Regions will help Indian businesses meet data residency rules while ensuring their critical workloads remain secure and continuously available,” said Gopal Vittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel.
The partnership is part of Airtel’s broader strategy to integrate global cloud expertise with its extensive network infrastructure to serve India’s fast-growing digital economy.