Vodafone Inks 5-year Deal With IBM For Cloud, AI
This is the second major cloud agreement Vodafone has signed with IBM this year.
Vodafone Idea Limited, India’s largest telecom operator, has signed a five-year, multi-million deal with IBM to modernize and consolidate its IT infrastructure. By leveraging IBM’s hybrid and multi-cloud services, analytics and AI security capabilities, Vodafone plans to serve its customers’ growing data usage and develop AI and IOT initiatives.
In addition to better serving its 387 million customers, Vodafone is updating its infrastructure to realize the efficiencies of Vodafone India’s 2018 merger with Idea Cellular. Specifically, IBM will consolidate applications, and infrastructure including data centers, disaster recovery centers, and further accelerate existing cloud usage. Moreover, solutions deployed by Vodafone India Limited and Idea Cellular Limited earlier will be merged and big data capabilities be enhanced.
Vodafone Idea will also leverage dynamic automation and robotic process automation to drive efficiency and standardization across IT operations. AI and machine learning based Cognitive Solutions aim to provide Vodafone Idea with a secure environment ensuring regulatory compliance, intelligent threat detection, and data protection.
This is the second major cloud agreement Vodafone has signed with IBM this year. In January, the company announced a a $550 million cloud services agreement with the IT major.
“Consumers have come to expect mobile networks that effortlessly meet their data demands providing the consistency and flexibility required in today’s era of interconnectedness,” said Juan Zufiria, IBM Senior Vice President of Global Technology Services.
“Our collaboration with Vodafone Idea will take advantage of Hybrid and Multicloud, Analytics and AI, to enable Vodafone Idea to further differentiate itself in the market, including by leveraging the convergence of Network and IT in the Cloud.”
With its focus on hybrid and multi-cloud management, IBM has won business from telcos modernizing their networks to leverage 5G. Eight of the 10 largest mobile operators, including AT&T and Verizon, are using IBM Services.
