Bharti Airtel has completed the first phase of its Open Hybrid Cloud Network built with IBM and Red Hat solutions.

This will enable Airtel customers to build and deploy applications on the Network, enhancing performance, automation and scalability from the core to the edge.

“By adopting an open hybrid cloud network with the support of IBM and Red Hat we are building a scalable and future-ready network to serve our customers with best-in-class services,” said Randeep Sekhon, the CTO of Bharti Airtel.

The first phase of the Network includes a ‘single-click’ automated hybrid cloud design, allowing Airtel to improve and scale network connectivity to accelerate its continued core network transformation and speed in launching cloud innovations.

“Telco companies are at an inflection point in modernizing their networks and harnessing an open hybrid cloud architecture is fundamental to driving the scale, cost efficiencies, and innovation they need,” said Steve Canepa, Global Managing Director for the Communications Sector and Worldwide Head of Telecommunications, Media & Entertainment Industry at IBM.

With their most recent automation benchmarks, IBM has found that they can shorten Radio Access Network service deployment times from weeks to days and improve interoperability for ecosystem partners.

This is all achieved by building the Network on open source technology, including Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift.

“With an open hybrid cloud architecture built on Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift, Airtel can fuel faster innovation with greater flexibility, consistency, and agility,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, the Senior Vice President of Industries and Global Accounts at Red Hat.

Once the Network is fully completed, it is expected to help millions of Airtel partners and customers in adopting 5G and edge computing technologies.

In the future, IBM and Airtel plan to embed AI capabilities as a core part of its network transformation.

This transformation is part of Airtel’s cloudification program to make its network agile, robust and scalable in a time when telecom operators worldwide are expected to spend over US$111 Billion by 2022 in upgrading their network cloud and platform to meet the increasing customer demand for seamless connectivity services and the exponential growth in data traffic.

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