Airtel, Amazon Web Services to help MSMEs, others adopt cloud solutions; offer these services

Airtel Cloud will also help customers adopt new services and migrate to the cloud through the support of AWS’s services. (Image: Reuters)

Technology for MSMEs: Airtel on Wednesday announced a multi-year strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to offer cloud solutions to small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as large businesses in India. According to the agreement, Airtel’s cloud product – Airtel Cloud will set-up an AWS Cloud Practice to offer its customers multiple AWS services such as Windows on AWS, SAP on AWS, VMware Cloud on AWS, database migration, and security and risk governance solutions. Airtel Cloud will also help customers adopt new services and migrate to the cloud through the support of AWS’s services across analytics, data warehousing, Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning (ML). Airtel currently has more than 2,500 large enterprise customers and over a million small businesses.

“For SMBs and even enterprises, the need for digital transformation and cloud-based architecture is more critical than ever. SMBs especially want to be discovered, they want to access their customers through digital channels and they have never done this before. So they need a lot of help to get that. So there is a massive need for us to come together and do this,” Puneet Chandok, President, Commercial Business, India and South Asia, Amazon Internet Services said in a digital press briefing announcing the agreement.

India’s public cloud services market is expected to grow to $7.1-billion size in 2024 at a CAGR of 20.3 per cent from $3.4 billion in 2020, according to IDC Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker – Forecast 2019 H2. To enable small businesses with a competitive edge, the MSMEs Ministry had implemented a ‘Digital MSME’ scheme to offer cloud computing services with a maximum subsidy of Rs 1 lakh per unit over two year period.

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“As part of their (enterprise customers) cloud adoption journey, enterprises are looking for agility, faster migration from legacy systems, and want to work with trusted partners who have the experience and depth in doing this. This collaboration brings AWS, the world’s leading cloud platform, together with Airtel’s deep reach and proven expertise in handling network, data centers, security, and cloud as an integrated solution,” said Harmeen Mehta, CIO & Head – Cloud and Security Business, Bharti Airtel.

The partnership between Airtel and AWS follows similar tie-ups between other leading technology players in the country looking to tap into the vast SMB market. In January this year, Airtel had entered into a similar tie-up with Google to offer latter’s G Suite services including Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, Calendar to SMBs for accelerating adoption of digital services. Last year in August, Microsoft and Reliance Jio had also announced a partnership to “enhance the adoption of leading technologies like data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises to make them ready to compete and grow,” a release had said.