Vodafone Idea ropes in IBM for 'big data' platform

NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) on Tuesday said it has selected IBM for deployment and management of its 'big data' platform.

The move translates into key business and technology benefits such as "significant cost reduction" and streamlining operational complexity, as Vodafone Idea chases new revenue streams and opportunities backed by a future-ready network to leverage the transformational power of 5G going forward, a joint release said.

"The power of data will help transform our cloud and Artificial Intelligence journey in the future," VIL Chief Technology Officer Vishant Vora said.

As VIL's strategic technology partner, IBM is leading the end-to-end implementation and management of the 'big data' platform.

IBM is responsible for program management, consulting, system integration, infrastructure services, application operations and maintenance support.

Apart from this, IBM is helping in enhancing network security, the release said.

"The result of this collaboration is a modernised and future-ready data platform which is helping Vodafone Idea get daily actionable insights, with its strategic and operational level decisions very effectively," Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia told reporters.

IBM has been a strategic IT partner to Vodafone Idea for over a decade.

The implementation builds on IBM's existing work to advance VIL's hybrid cloud transformation using open technologies.

This includes a pact earlier this year to deliver its Open Universal Cloud with IBM and Red Hat to accelerate network and IT modernisation.

With the IT and network integration, VIL has a need for large-scale data transformation with a focus on architecture modernisation, open-source adoption and using predictive analytics for data modernisation.

By partnering on this implementation, IBM is helping VIL transform the way data is optimised and delivered to partners, employees and internal systems, the release said.

Fragmented, siloed data can now be streamlined for seamless data availability.

VIL will also be able to combine insights from the big data platform and better leverage cloud native technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance revenues, reduce costs and elevate customer experiences, it said.

Currently, insights derived from the data are leveraged for management dashboards, campaign management, network analytics, usage traffic analysis, product analysis, among others.