Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and GeneralElectric Company (NYSE:GE) have inked a breakthrough partnership to bring together Microsoft’s cloud and GE’s Internet-of-Things (IoT).
Under this partnership, GE’s Predix software platform will integrate with Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Intelligence Suite and Microsoft business applications.
The duo will release a developer preview at the end of this year and a commercial rollout is slated for the second quarter of 2017.
What’s in Store for Microsoft?
The partnership will open up opportunities to reach out to a larger industrial customer base and cover more locations.
By teaming up with GE and making Azure more appealing, the company could leapfrog rivals such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) , IBM Corporation (NYSE:IBM) , Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc. and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding Ltd. in the cloud computing race.
Benefits for GE
As far as the perks of the deal are concerned, the scales seem to tilt slightly in favor of GE. Its Predix platform offers industrial clients an opportunity to connect to and manage their remote devices via cloud. Leveraging Azure will equip Predix with additional capacities like artificial intelligence, natural language processing, enterprise application integration and advanced data visualization.
Furthermore, integration with Office 365, Dynamics 365 and Power BI will help GE integrate industrial applications with business process and analytics
Currently, Microsoft is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock.
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