IBM and Bharti Airtel, a premier communications solutions provider in India with more than 358 million subscribers, has announced their intent to work together to deploy Airtel’s Edge Computing platform in India, which will include 120 network data centres across 20 cities.
Once deployed, the platform is designed to enable large enterprises across multiple industries including manufacturing and automotive to accelerate innovative solutions that deliver new value to their clients and operations – securely at the Edge.
Airtel’s Edge Computing platform, deployed as a hybrid environment based on IBM Cloud Satellite and Red Hat OpenShift, extends secured and open cloud services wherever data resides. This can help improve business performance and customer experience by reducing latency while addressing data security and sovereignty requirements – which is critical as workloads increasingly shift to the Edge.
The business value delivered by Edge Computing can be significantly enhanced when combined with 5G. In India, where 5G is expected to be rolled out later this year, it has the potential to create a cumulative economic impact of US$1 trillion by 2035.
Speaking about the work, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO – Enterprise, Airtel Business, said: “As India gears up to experience 5G, we see a massive opportunity to help businesses across industries transform how they deliver goods and services. We have the largest network of edge data centres available in India under the Nxtra brand and we will leverage our work with IBM to help Indian businesses address their critical business needs with greater efficiency, making it significantly easier for companies to process workloads where their data resides.”
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India’s largest passenger car maker, intends to use the Edge platform to increase accuracy and efficiency for quality inspections on the factory floor. By deploying this platform, Maruti Suzuki expects to boost quality control and ensure their data remains protected at the Edge.
“At Maruti Suzuki, we continuously strive to meet the highest quality standards by ensuring our processes and quality control are well above industry standards. Technology is a key enabler in this journey, helping boost quality, efficiency and deliver the next-gen user experience. We are excited to work with Airtel Business and IBM to set an even higher benchmark and explore the vast possibilities of deploying AI and analytics at the Edge to augment the expertise of our workforce,” said Rajesh Uppal, Senior Executive Director, HR and IT, Maruti Suzuki.
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