Airtel launches new cybersecurity product with CISCO, Radware, VMware, and Forcepoint for enterprises — it took ₹100 crore and over a year to set up

• Bharti Airtel has officially launched its Security Intelligence Centre to protect enterprises from cyberthreats.
• The company’s CEO Gopal Vittal claims that it took around ₹100 crore of investment and over a year to set up.
• Vittal also revealed that the company already has 20 paying customers using the new platform and is hoping that the commercial launch will bring in more clients.
  

To address the growing threat of cyber attacks on data and information, Bharti Airtel has now launched a new cybersecurity product called Airtel Secure for enterprises. It operates out of the Airtel Security Intelligence Centre set up in Manesar.

According to Bharti Airtel’s CEO Gopal Vittal, the hub took an investment of over ₹100 crore and over a year to set up. But it’s a small price to pay for a piece of the cybersecurity market that is estimated to grow to $13 to $15 billion over the next five years.

“We already have a couple of large companies who are already using our Security Intelligence Centre. We’re starting to bundle it for small and medium enterprises as well,” said Vittal, citing that around 20 paying customers already live on the product. The Government of India is also one of the potential customers with it already working hand-in-hand with the National Security Advisor (NSA).

Vittal highlighted that there’s a team of over 500 cybersecurity experts behind the ‘integrated and automated’ facility.

Airtel’s new global partnerships
To make the new portfolio possible, Airtel has reeled in CISCO, Radware, VMware, and Forcepoint for this project. “You will see the launch of more and more partnerships. You will hear about that in the coming weeks and months,” said Vittal.

Airtel and Radware also have plans to set up a scrubbing center in India.

Roy Zisapel, Radware’s President and CEO, highlighted the recent attack on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, expressing the importance of a product like Airtel Secure for companies as the threat of cyberattacks has increased during the coronavirus pandemic with more people working from home.


Vittal is optimistic that companies will sign up because security is no longer something to mull over but ‘basic hygiene’. “It’s become a very serious subject. It’s only going to grow with respect to importance over time. Every business we spoke to is acutely conscious of cyber security,” said Vittal.

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