General Electric said[1] on Monday that it will standardize its Predix platform on Microsoft Azure[2] and integrate the Predix portfolio with Azure's native cloud capabilities, including Azure IoT and Azure Data and Analytics.
GE Digital will also leverage the Azure cloud platform to run Predix-based IT workloads and productivity tools in an effort to bolster efficiencies across the company.
Other businesses under GE's corporate banner will also tap into Microsoft's technology stack, including GE's monitoring and diagnostics centers, internal manufacturing and services programs.
Meanwhile, GE Digital and Microsoft are also forming a co-sell and go-to-market strategy together, offering end customers Industrial IoT (IIoT) services across verticals. Overall, the companies said this marks their largest partnership to date.
Predix, which launched in 2015, is GE's Industrial Internet of Things platform. It was built for managing, analyzing and storing machine sensor data and is aimed primarily at globally regulated industries, including aviation, healthcare, transportation, and oil and gas utility providers.
GE has been undergoing a major shift in its digital strategy[3]. The company initially planned on building its own data centers to host the GE Predix Cloud but abandoned those plans about a year ago. GE said previously[4] that it would run core applications on Amazon Web Services in addition to its plans with Microsoft Azure.
"Our customers are asking for us to make a deeper connection between our two companies," said Bill Ruh, Chief Digital Officer of GE and CEO of GE Digital."Through this expanded partnership, Microsoft and GE are enabling customers around the world to harness the power of the Predix portfolio, including Predix Asset Performance Management, to unlock new capabilities to drive growth."
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