Under the terms of the agreement, Airtel will build its next-gen core network, analytical tools and new consumer and enterprise services on top of this cloud platform based on open standards.
“Our goal with this powerful, seamless horizontal approach is to make our network future ready and enable Airtel to efficiently serve the massive surge in data consumption,” said Randeep Sekhon (pictured), CTO, Bharti Airtel.
“The hybrid cloud architecture will resonate with our customer-obsession by providing improved flexibility, network stability and performance and bringing agility and automation in our network operations."
With this new network cloud, Airtel aims to deliver improved customer experience through enhanced network performance, improved availability, operations automation and scaling the network to the edge.
This is turn will reduce latency and improve bandwidth availability and automation, thereby strengthening the overall quality of the network.
"Through its collaboration with IBM and Red Hat, Airtel will be building a modern, innovative and more responsive network infused with automation and AI, that will provide the consistency and agility needed for today's rapidly changing marketplace," said Steve Canepa, global managing director, communications sector and worldwide head of telecommunications, media and entertainment industry, IBM.
Airtel will adopt an open cloud architecture that uses Red Hat OpenStack Platform for all network workloads and Red Hat OpenShift for newer containerised workloads. In addition, Airtel will also use Red Hat's ecosystem of network OEMs.
Airtel's open hybrid cloud platform will enable new revenue streams with the on-boarding of third-party services including gaming, remote media production and enterprise services.
"Red Hat is providing innovative open source solutions to help Airtel improve flexibility and reduce development time, so they can stay competitive in the rapidly evolving telecommunications market," said Darrell Jordan-Smith, global vice president, vertical industries and accounts, Red Hat.
"By adopting a more agile approach to network operations based on Red Hat's open hybrid cloud technologies, Airtel is building a future-ready platform to meet the evolving needs of its customers."
