Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Microsoft India Sign a Memorandum of Understanding

The business pact between the two companies aims to provide complete suite of telecom and IT solutions for enterprise businesses

India: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), headquartered in new Delhi is an Indian state owned telecommunications company engaged in the provision of numerous telecommunications services and solutions.

The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Microsoft India Private Limited, a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. The agreement was signed with respect to a Request for Proposal (RFP), floated by BSNL to cater the needs of different segments, which include government-to-government, government-to-consumer, government-to-business, and business-to-business.

The strategic alliance is intended to garner more business either by being in the forefront or as a support to offer the different connectivity and telecom solutions as per the requirement of the user. The deal would help to meet the demands pertaining to the various IT segments and allied services which include, cloud services, Software as a Service (SaaS), along with the various audio and video solutions in accordance with the demands of the BSNL’s enterprise customers which includes the various government organisations as well.

TechSci Research depicts that the growing focus of the organisations such as BSNL and Microsoft India on the Indian market is expected to develop the overall technology ecosystem. The alliance between the two companies lays emphasis on the leverage of the various IT and telecommunication services and solutions, aid in accelerating digitisation.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “India Cloud Computing Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020”, the market for cloud computing services in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 22% during 2015-2020. Increased government spending on National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and various e-governance portals, coupled with growing acceptance of cloud services in SME segment is expected to drive the market for cloud computing. SaaS is set to top the charts as the largest cloud service segment, occupying over 40% share in the market by 2020. However, cloud services are likely to face stiff challenges pertaining to data security, vendor lock-in period and less availability of quality IT hardware infrastructure in semi-urban regions across the country.