Bharti Airtel launches Cloud Enablement Platform powered by HP

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, has launched its Cloud Enablement Platform (CLEP) based on the HP Aggregation Platform for Software as a Service (AP4SaaS). Bharti Airtel will offer hosted SaaS and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) applications to the small and large enterprises on a pay as you go model.

Initially, Airtel will offer solutions like ERP, accounting packages, storage and compute on the Airtel CLEP Platform. Going forward the company will introduce diverse SaaS applications on the same platform especially for SMB customers, thereby helping them to meet the ever evolving business demands.

Airtel Cloud Services will enable businesses of all sizes to optimize their IT costs while providing security, scalability and flexibility.

Introducing Airtel CLEP, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO (India & South Asia) Bharti Airtel said, “Cloud computing market in India is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 40 percent by 2014. Bharti Airtel, with our end to end telecom solutions bundled with the latest technologies like 3G and 4G, is uniquely poised to lead this space by offering a wide range of Cloud based services /applications to our customers. Our strengths as an integrated telecom provider combined with HP's technical expertise will help us unlock the potential of the rapidly growing Cloud services market in the country thereby enabling our customers to increase their business agility and productivity."

HP Enterprise Services built a CLEP using the HP AP4SaaS, integrated into Bharti Airtel's existing network system. A key component of the HP Cloud Services Enablement portfolio, the AP4SaaS is a common platform from which Airtel can not only deliver IaaS but also Communications as a Service and SaaS, either hosted on operator premises or integrated with third-party SaaS providers. It provides a flexible set of web service interfaces for enhancing the Cloud Service Provider’s (CSP) customer portal and facilitates distribution, subscription, and consumption via a marketplace portal.

“Communications service providers need flexibility, innovation and speed to market to attract new customers and drive new revenue streams,” said Neelam Dhawan, managing director, HP India. “HP Aggregation Platform for SaaS eases the integration of SaaS and IaaS into the CSP environment, expediting the delivery to Airtel’s small and medium business customers.”

HP will offer implementation and management of the end to end Cloud Enablement Platform.