Airtel Announces Sovereign Cloud in Data Localization Bet

India's second-largest telecom operator is tapping into a market dominated by US tech giants

- Jatin Grover

Bharti Airtel Ltd has announced its sovereign cloud offering amid growing focus among Indian enterprises on securing sensitive data. With the Monday announcement, India's second-largest telecom operator by market share taps into a market dominated by US tech giants such as Microsoft Corp. and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In India, too, companies such as Google, the Hiranandani group's Yotta Infrastructure, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and E2E Networks are vying for a share of the market.

Sovereign cloud refers to a digital platform based entirely within the country to store and process data and run applications. From the code base to the physical data centers, everything is located fully in India.

Bharti Airtel vice-chairman and managing director Gopal Vittal said Airtel's sovereign cloud offering would be a differentiator in the market as it can reduce cloud spending for enterprises by 30-40%, because of the fact that, as a telecom operator, it offers both its network and cloud to its customers.

"The network combined with the cloud has a very strong value proposition because that's what enables us to reduce the total cost of ownership," Vittal said at a press conference on Monday in New Delhi.