Reliance Jio is all ready to foray into more businesses, and it has enlisted Microsoft Azure for help. The company already disrupted the telecom and features phone market in India within three years of existence.
And it has now set its sight on technologies like cloud, broadband, blockchain and IoT.
The two companies announced their partnership that will have the Redmond based technology giant powering the datacenters setup by the Indian conglomerate in the country. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, made things official at the company’s 42 annual general meeting.
As part of this initiative Reliance Jio will commercially roll out its broadband service next month, with an ambitious IoT platform of more than a billion devices on January 1 next year, and one of the world’s biggest blockchain networks in the next 12 months.
The company has made official a 10-year partnership with Microsoft to launch new cloud datacenters in India to ensure customers can access the tools and platforms they need to build their own digital capability.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was at hand:
“At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Core to this mission is deep partnerships, like the one we are announcing today with Reliance Jio. Our ambition is to help millions of organizations across India thrive and grow in the era of rapid technological change.
Together, we will offer a comprehensive technology solution, from compute to storage, to connectivity and productivity for small and medium-sized businesses everywhere in the country.”
As part of this partnership, Jio and Microsoft will jointly offer Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft AI platforms to more organizations in India.
Additionally, plans are in progress to bring Azure Cognitive Services to more devices and in 13 Indian languages to businesses in the country. The companies are tailoring their services for the local market, with cloud services being offered to businesses for as little as Rs. 1500 per month.
$21, more or less.
The first two datacenters will be set up in Gujarat and Maharashtra by next year, while Jio will migrate all of its non-networking apps to the Microsoft Azure platform to promote its adoption.
Cloud services in India are on track to generate a revenue of $2.4 billion this year, up 25% from last year, according to research firm Gartner.
