Reliance Jio, Microsoft ink 10-year partnership to offer digital solutions to Indian startups; to set up data centers across India

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited, and tech giant Microsoft, on Monday, signed a long-term strategic partnership aimed at accelerating the digital transformation of the Indian economy.

The 10-year commitment comprises both companies to offer a detailed set of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications essential for Indian businesses, and will span the broad Reliance Industries ecosystem including its existing and new businesses.

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Speaking on the partnership, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, said,

“This is a unique and first-of-its-kind partnership that brings the capabilities of two large companies focused on creating significant value to Indian enterprises — small and large. By working together to develop innovative and affordable cloud-enabled digital solutions built around Jio’s world-class digital infrastructure and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.”

Through this partnership, Jio and Microsoft aim to enhance the adoption of leading technologies like data analytics, AI, cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises to make them ready to compete and grow.

As part of this new agreement, Jio will provide its internal workforce with cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools available with Microsoft 365 and will migrate its non-network applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. In addition to this, Jio’s connectivity infrastructure will promote the adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform within its growing ecosystem of startups, as part of Jio’s cloud-first strategy.

“We have an incredible opportunity to apply advances in technology to help organisations across India innovate and grow. The combination of Jio’s leading connectivity and digital solutions with Azure, Azure AI and Office 365 will bring powerful tools and platforms for compute, storage, productivity and more to millions of businesses in the country,” said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.  

Jio will also set up data centers in different locations across India, consisting of next-generation compute, storage and networking capabilities, and Microsoft will deploy its Azure platform in these data centers to support Jio’s offerings.

The initial two data centers are being set up in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. These are targeted to be fully operational in calendar year 2020.

Jio will also leverage the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to develop innovative cloud solutions focused on the needs of Indian businesses.

Through these Jio-developed solutions, Indian startups will have access to efficient and affordable cloud infrastructure and platform services, enabling them to develop innovative products and services faster and more cost-effectively.

Also, small and medium businesses in India will have access to a range of cloud-based productivity, collaboration, and business applications including Office 365, enabling them to compete more effectively in the Indian marketplace. 

The partnership will also allow Jio to be executing on its vision of integrated speech and computer vision solutions for Indian customers by working together with Microsoft to develop solutions that support major Indian languages and dialects.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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