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The pair will enhance Airtel Cloud by combining Airtel’s telecom-grade platform with IBM’s AI-ready infrastructure and software
In sum – what to know:
IBM–Airtel alliance targets regulated sectors – The partnership will expand AI and hybrid cloud adoption across India’s banking, healthcare, and government industries with secure, compliant, and sovereign cloud infrastructure.
Power11 systems bring AI-ready performance – IBM’s new Power11 servers deliver on-chip AI acceleration and mission-critical reliability, designed for high-performance workloads that require zero downtime.
New multizone regions strengthen resilience – Airtel will expand its cloud footprint from four to ten zones, adding new multizone regions in Mumbai and Chennai to ensure data residency and high availability.
IBM and Indian carrier Bharti Airtel are deepening their collaboration to power the next phase of India’s cloud and AI transformation, particularly across regulated sectors like banking, healthcare, and government.
“India is entering an incredible phase of digital growth,” said Alan Peacock, general manager of IBM Cloud, in an interview with RCR Wireless News. “In the coming years, we expect to see continued momentum in AI and hybrid cloud adoption, especially in highly regulated sectors like banking, healthcare, and government. These organizations are looking for trusted partners who can deliver innovation without compromising compliance. Our partnership with Bharti Airtel positions IBM to help Indian enterprises modernize with confidence, bringing together Airtel’s secure, compliant cloud infrastructure and IBM’s advanced AI and hybrid cloud capabilities,” the executive said.
Peacock said IBM’s technology differentiates itself through reliability and performance. “Enterprises today need technology that can keep up with the pace of AI without compromising reliability, compliance or control. That’s where IBM stands apart,” he said. “Our new Power11 systems are autonomous and AI-ready, designed for workloads that simply can’t afford downtime. With AI-ready infrastructure and built-in on-chip acceleration for inferencing, IBM Power11 can scale to support mission-critical AI workloads through the IBM Spyre Accelerator.”
He added that the combination of Power11, Red Hat OpenShift AI, and open-source toolkits gives customers “the flexibility and performance needed to operationalize AI across hybrid cloud environments.”
The partnership also focuses on data sovereignty and resilience—key priorities for Indian enterprises navigating new AI and compliance regulations. “Together, with Bharti Airtel, we’re empowering enterprises in regulated industries to meet India’s data residency requirements while ensuring their operations remain resilient and agile,” Peacock explained.
“IBM’s hybrid cloud architecture ensures that workloads run securely and seamlessly across multiple zones and clouds. With this partnership, we will enable clients to deploy workloads on new Multizone Regions (MZR) in Mumbai and Chennai so data and workloads remain physically in-country. IBM’s multizone architecture and built-in failover deliver redundancy and the uptime required for mission-critical systems,” he added.
The joint initiative builds on the strategic partnership announced in mid-October, when IBM and Bharti Airtel said they would enhance Airtel Cloud by combining Airtel’s telecom-grade platform with IBM’s AI-ready infrastructure and software. The collaboration will enable enterprises to deploy IBM Power systems-as-a-Service, including the new Power11 servers designed for mission-critical workloads and AI inferencing.
According to the companies, the partnership will also expand Airtel’s availability zones from four to ten and introduce two new Multizone Regions (MZR) in Mumbai and Chennai, hosted in Airtel’s next-generation sustainable data centers.
