BSNL launches hosted, cloud services with six new data centres

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in collaboration with IT solutions provider Dimension Data has launched as many as six Internet data centres across the country, aiming to tap the growing demand for hosted and cloud services from the government organisations and private firms.

As a part of a 10-year-revenue share agreement, Dimension Data will operate and manage BSNL's data centres located in cities namely Mumbai, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Ghaziabad. The state-run organisations such as Employees Provident Fund Organisation, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Punjab Treasuries have already started using BSNL's data centres on a pilot basis.

Dimension Data reveals it has spent Rs. 200 crore on the joint venture, which includes Rs. 80 crore on IT equipment and employees. BSNL hopes to generate Rs.100 crore revenues from data centres and cloud services. From bandwidth and telecom services, the state-run operator aims to generate Rs. 200 crore revenues.

RK Upadhyay, chairman and managing director, BSNL, said, “With the launch of our data centres, we can offer secure hosted and cloud services to support various government initiatives as well as to our enterprise clients.”