BSNL, Dimension Data intro enterprise cloud services in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and ICT solutions and services provider, Dimension Data, came together to unveil enterprise cloud services in India on Tuesday.

Dimension Data is investing Rs. 200 crore, while BSNL is offering physical assets, such as space, for the initiative. The offering, with standardized architecture, is based on Managed Cloud Platform.

At the launch, BSNL chairman and managing director, R.K. Upadhayay, said that they have commissioned nine data centers across the country. "We have robust communications and IT infrastructure in the country with 38,000 digital telephone exchanges," he said.

BSNL, Upadhayay said, was supplementing government's mission to bridge digital divide to facilitate citizen services.

The partnership aims at large enterprises as well as SMEs that have monetary constraints. Both entities have entered into a 10-year contract that can be extended, and are working on a common go-to market strategy. BSNL, however, eyes 25 per cent growth in enterprise business during the current fiscal.

"The partnership is based on revenue-sharing model. The Union and state governments can leverage cloud services to roll out e-Governance services," said BSNL CFA director, N.K. Gupta. The standardized cloud architecture, Gupta added, would offer several benefits, including interoperability.

Kiran Bhagwanani, chief executive officer of Dimension Data, said that this initiative would bring managed collocation, hosting and IT services as well as cloud computing to the Indian enterprise sector. "We have a joint go-to market strategy. BSNL is providing assets such as space and power," he added.

The initiative would help customers with cost and risk optimization and strategic agility, and help client in every stage, said Bhagwanani. The global cloud exchange, he said, was highly secure with 99.95 per cent guaranteed SLAs.

The joint initiative has also roped in 15 large enterprises across government and private sectors.