Airtel platform backed
by IBM Cloud Satellite will power
Maruti Suzuki's initiatives to streamline plant
productivity and quality operations
ARMONK,
N.Y. and MUMBAI,
Sept. 14,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Bharti
Airtel, a premier communications solutions provider in India with more than 358 million subscribers,
today announced their intent to work together to deploy Airtel's
edge computing platform in India,
which will include 120 network data centers 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 $1 trillion by
20351.
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 centers 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.
The work between IBM and Airtel around embracing 5G was
announced today at Think Mumbai. Airtel's solution leverages IBM
Maximo Visual Inspection for AI-enabled quality
inspection. IBM Consulting is to lead the systems
integration for the IBM platform. Through this hybrid cloud
platform and IBM Consulting's industry expertise and access to
best-in-class technology and partners, IBM and Airtel Digital
engineering teams will build use cases that leverage Airtel's
5G connectivity and IBM's hybrid cloud capabilities to address the
pressing business issues faced by enterprise clients.
Harnessing Airtel's 5G connectivity and highly secured edge
computing capabilities from IBM can enable enterprises to deploy
and manage workloads in near-real time. Industries including
telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and government
can benefit from reduced latency, high availability and increased
connectivity speeds.
"As businesses – particularly those in regulated industries –
work to modernize their infrastructures, they need to be able to do
so in a way that enables them to stay compliant, without becoming
overburdened by their compliance obligations -- regardless of where
their data resides," said Howard
Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform. "Teaming with Airtel to
bring IBM's hybrid cloud offerings to their Indian multi-access
edge compute customers will help them embrace the opportunities
presented by 5G and edge, like innovating with greater speed and
security."
For more information about IBM's hybrid cloud capabilities,
visit https://www.ibm.com/cloud/satellite.
Statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are
subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals
and objectives only.
###
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI,
and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175
countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline
business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in
their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities
in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services,
telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud
platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital
transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's
breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing,
industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and
flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's
legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility,
inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more
information.
About Airtel
Headquartered in India, Airtel
is a global communications solutions provider with over 490 Mn
customers in 17 countries across South
Asia and Africa. The
company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and
its networks cover over two billion people. Airtel is India's largest integrated communications
solutions provider and the second largest mobile operator in
Africa. Airtel's retail portfolio
includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber
that promises speeds up to 1 Gbps with convergence across linear
and on-demand entertainment, streaming services spanning music and
video, digital payments and financial services. For enterprise
customers, Airtel offers a gamut of solutions that includes secure
connectivity, cloud and data centre services, cyber security, IoT,
Ad Tech and cloud based communication. For more details
visit www.airtel.com/
Contact:
Hannah Slocum
IBM Global Communications
hslocum@us.ibm.com
Rishiraj Barik
External Relations, IBM India & South
Asia
rishiraj.barik@ibm.com
Madhur Kalra
DGM Corporate Communications, Bharti Airtel
Madhur.Kalra@airtel.com
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1 Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman PD Vaghela
|
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SOURCE IBM