Bharti Airtel, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, has announced a strategic partnership with IBM to bolster its recently launched Airtel Cloud. The collaboration aims to combine Airtel’s secure, high-availability cloud infrastructure with IBM’s leadership in hybrid cloud and AI-ready systems — empowering Indian enterprises, especially those in regulated sectors, to scale AI workloads seamlessly across environments.
Under the partnership, Airtel Cloud customers will gain access to IBM Power Systems-as-a-Service, including the latest-generation IBM Power11 autonomous, AI-ready servers. These systems are designed to handle mission-critical workloads across industries such as banking, healthcare, and government, supporting IBM Power AIX, IBM i, Linux, and SAP Cloud ERP.
Additionally, the partnership will enable SAP customers on IBM Power to accelerate their ERP transformation journeys by adopting SAP Cloud ERP on IBM Power Virtual Server, simplifying modernization for enterprises that rely on robust, high-performance infrastructure.
“Airtel Cloud is designed to be highly secure and compliant, setting new industry benchmarks as an agile and resilient cloud platform,” said Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel. “With the IBM partnership, we are adding substantial capabilities to our cloud to address the needs of industries migrating from IBM Power Systems and preparing for AI workloads. We are also expanding our availability zones in India from four to ten, hosted in our next-gen sustainable data centers. Two new Multizone Regions (MZRs) in Mumbai and Chennai will follow soon.”
IBM will bring its advanced hybrid cloud and AI stack to the collaboration, including IBM watsonx, Red Hat OpenShift AI, and its automation portfolio built to accelerate the impact of generative AI within enterprise workflows. This will allow clients to run AI inferencing workloads across hybrid environments — on-premise, in private or public clouds, or at the edge — with greater efficiency and compliance.
“Enterprises today need to balance modernization with growing regulatory and AI requirements,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “Through our partnership with Bharti Airtel, clients across India can leverage IBM’s cloud offerings designed for workloads that address their most critical business priorities. Together, we will help enterprises drive transformation in the era of AI.”
Through Airtel’s expanding Multi Zone Regions, Indian enterprises will be able to enhance resilience, meet data residency obligations, and ensure uninterrupted operations of mission-critical workloads. IBM’s hybrid cloud architecture — integrating Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift, and Red Hat AI — further positions Airtel Cloud as a next-generation platform for AI, automation, and future quantum innovation.
The Airtel–IBM alliance underscores a shared commitment to accelerating India’s digital transformation, helping enterprises leverage AI and hybrid cloud technologies to drive innovation, compliance, and sustainable growth at scale.
