Airtel has emerged as a reliable telecom partner for large companies, smart enterprises and government institutions across India. As part of its infrastructure transformation journey from Telco to Techco, Airtel’s enterprise arm has invested heavily in data centers and connectivity to participate in India’s digital transformation. Airtel’s cloud-building efforts have won the Cloud and CDN mandate from Digital India Corporation (DIC), allowing it to power DIKSHA – India’s national platform for open education digital content. The Airtel Cloud will manage DIKSHA’s online platforms, providing students across the country seamless access to free educational content in their preferred Indian language.
In an exclusive conversation with Express Computer, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO – Enterprise Business and Business Head – Cloud, Airtel Business informs that the DIKSHA project is a significant validation of Airtel’s cloud journey. By digitizing the textbooks, DIKSHA adds a 3D aspect to the content, including video and multimedia, making it more interactive. With DIKSHA running on their infrastructure, Airtel is proud of the work it has been doing in the cloud space. This is a noteworthy achievement that positions Airtel as a strong player in the cloud computing space.
Airtel Business has made significant strides in the cloud computing industry with the development of about 10 data centers across the country and a total of 120 edge data centers, with plans to continue expanding throughout India. One of the key benefits of these edge data centers is their ability to effectively deliver content to a wide range of players, with content delivery networks (CDNs) being a vital component of this process. The CDNs allow for low latency access, enabling students to efficiently download and access educational content without experiencing buffering issues.
Airtel’s success in the cloud space has sparked plans to help SMBs, public enterprises, and PSUs banks securely and efficiently transition to the cloud. The company sees this as a significant opportunity to expand its customer base and product offerings, with the focus being on customizing local private cloud solutions to meet the unique needs of government and public sector institutions. Additionally, Airtel plans to offer cloud solutions to existing customers, extending their mobility and data consumption.
“Despite significant growth in cloud consumption in India, there is still a lot of potential for expansion, especially in the digitisation of India. We recognise this vast potential and is exploring new business cases for emerging technologies such as edge computing, 5G, augmented reality, drones, and autonomous cars. With these strategies in place, we are well-positioned to continue leading the way in the cloud computing industry in India,” adds Lakshminarayanan.
When it comes to the product dimension of its cloud offerings, Airtel has taken a unique approach to provide a well-rounded and comprehensive suite of products tailored to meet the diverse needs of its customer base.
The first product that Airtel offers is the Airtel Vultr, which caters to SMBs and enterprises just starting their cloud journey. This option offers reliable and cost-effective compute model storage paired with telecom-level connectivity, making it an ideal option for businesses that need to optimise their cloud experience while lowering costs.
Airtel’s CDN (Content Delivery Network) is another crucial component of its cloud offerings, providing customers with the best latency and video error rates when consuming content on an Airtel connection. This ensures maximum efficiency and speed of content delivery, giving Airtel a competitive edge in a fast-evolving technology landscape.
Airtel also recognises the growing importance of Edge compute and its potential for enabling low-latency and innovative use cases. “With 10% of compute predicted to move towards Edge, we have placed a strong focus on leveraging its extensive network of edge data centers to provide solutions for businesses of all sizes.”
Finally, Airtel is committed to providing secure, reliable, and customizable private cloud solutions that meet the unique needs of government and public institutions, both on-premise and on the cloud. Overall, Airtel’s focus on the product dimension of its cloud computing offerings highlights its commitment to lead the way in the fast-evolving cloud computing landscape in India.