Airtel ties up with Symantec to offer cyber security solutions

Partnership happens in backdrop of growing number of cyber-attacks in India as well as in the world

As it looks to cater to the growing cyber security requirements of businesses in India, country's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel has partnered with Symantec to provide cyber defense to enterprises.

As part of the tie-up, Airtel will be the exclusive cyber security services partner for Symantec and will distribute the latter's enterprise security software, primarily targeting its existing enterprise customers.

The partnership between the two companies has been announced amid the growing number of cyber-attacks in India as well as in the world.

The government also has realised the importance of cyber security and is working on to strengthen the cyber security infrastructure of the country.

As per Gopal Vittal, the MD and CEO (India and South Asia) of Bharti Airtel, cyber security is becoming a mission critical thing for businesses in the country as cyber-attacks have become much more frequent and sophisticated.

Recently cyber-attack incidents like Petya and WannaCry disrupted systems across the world. Due to the immense threat, businesses are now investing in cyber security as they look to secure their operations.

Although Airtel did not share the revenue potential from the tie-up, but the company said it plans to leverage its strength in Business to Business (B2B) segment, wherein it has 2,000 large enterprise accounts, plus more than 250,000 corporate and tech startups. The revenue for Airtel's B2B section stood at Rs 11,000 crore annually.

Through the partnership with Symantec, Airtel will help its enterprise customers to secure their systems. As Indian enterprises embrace cloud applications and infrastructure, they require security technologies built for this new cloud-based environment to gain the upper hand on adversaries. "The partnership will give customers stronger protection and prevention, greater visibility and better control of critical assets, users and data," the company said.

"We are seeing an unprecedented levels of cyber crime and cyber attacks at the moment? The threat environment is more dangerous and complex than ever. The partnership between Airtel and Symantec presents massive value to businesses in India," Symantec CEO Greg Clark said.

Airtel Business has got a diverse portfolio of services including network integration, data centers, managed services, enterprise mobility applications and digital media along with voice, data and video.