Vodafone Idea selected IBM Services to manage its big data platform, seeking to streamline its analytics capabilities and reduce costs by using open source technologies.

In an expansion of an existing partnership, IBM explained it is leading the implementation, system integration and management of the platform on an open source Hadoop framework, to enable Vodafone Idea to more effectively optimise and analyse data points from more than 200 systems across the company.

IBM said the deal builds on its work to advance the Indian operator’s hybrid cloud transformation using open technologies.

Vishant Vora, Vodafone Idea’s CTO, said: “The open source approach has helped us in modernising infrastructure and network experience, helping our people and partners in quicker business decision making. The power of data will help transform our cloud and AI journey in the future.”

IBM India and South Asia MD Sandip Patel added the “data platform is helping Vodafone Idea get daily actionable insights to make strategic and operational level decisions effectively”.

He added the pair “worked together in challenging times” caused by Covid-19 (coronavirus) lockdown to “seamlessly execute a complex and enterprise-wide deployment remotely”.