Software giant Microsoft has made an announcement declaring its new partnership with GE, according to which both the companies will look to penetrate the Industrial IoT (IIoT) market by offering a combination that can benefit businesses across a number of industry verticals. The move could provide a major boost for promoting the adoption of the internet of things in the industrial world.
As per the agreement, GE Digital will move its IIoT application development platform, Predix, on to Azure, which is the cloud computing service of Microsoft. In doing so, companies using the GE’s platform will now experience the benefits of Microsoft’s end-to-end expertise in cloud technology.
For the record, Predix consists of several IoT-centric applications such as the Predix Asset Performance Management and Predix ServiceMax, while also allowing customers to design their own services. Maersk and BP are examples of industrial players that employ the features of Predix on a regular basis.
GE’s chief digital officer and CEO of GE Digital, Bill Ruh commented that all the industrial companies need to develop digital expertise for connecting machines, in an effort to increase the efficiency and productivity by making them more intelligent. A long-term alliance with Microsoft will enable clients all over the world to capitalize on the utility of Predix applications and discover new avenues to achieve growth, he added.
Sources close to the deal informed that GE will be able to realize a better integration of Predix with Microsoft’s foremost cloud tools including Azure IoT and Azure Data & Analytics. Azure will be utilized across the business by GE Digital for supplementing IT workloads and efficient productivity tools, further assisting the integration process.
Judson Althoff, the Executive VP at Microsoft stated that they have a reliable cloud platform which provides flexibility and scalability for delivering extraordinary results, and the new strategic partnership will help GE and other mutual customers to maximize their business potential.