In what looks like a mutually beneficial deal, Microsoft and Adobe have teamed up for a cloud-computing deal. The news was made public at Microsoft’s Ignite conference for information technology workers in Atlanta, Georgia. Under the agreement, Adobe will shift to Microsoft Azure (from Amazon Web Services) and its network of on-demand data storage and processing to power its Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud, and Adobe Document Cloud services. While Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 business planning and sales software product is going to use and promote Adobe Marketing Cloud as its preferred marketing partner.
Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s combined Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Dynamics ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) product. The shake of hands could also hint at Microsoft gaining ground against exiting providers such as Oracle and SAP
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft, said:
“Business leaders in every industry are focused on how to better engage their digital customers, wherever they are. Together, Adobe and Microsoft are bringing the most advanced marketing capabilities on the most powerful and intelligent cloud to help companies digitally transform and engage customers in new ways.”
Locked in a cloud borne battle, Microsoft potentially plans to skip a few and leap before its competition including AWS and Google. And the Photoshop maker will apparently help it do so. Nadella’s counterpart Shantanu Narayen, President, Adobe also echoed the former’s thoughts.
“Customers today expect a well-designed, personalized and consistent experience every time they engage with a brand. Adobe and Microsoft will bring together the cloud horsepower and end-to-end capabilities brands need to design and deliver great digital experiences,” Narayen stated.
The two companies are collaborating on data integrations to ensure that mutual customers can easily work across Adobe Marketing Cloud and Dynamics 365 business applications, leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and advance analytics. According to the partnership the underlying data models will be extensible to enterprise customers, as well as third-party developers.
Connected Car Initiatives
In another revelation, Microsoft has also agreed to provide cloud-computing services for Renault-Nissan (alliance) — Signed on March 27, 1999 –manufactured cars to further the duo’s next-generation connected car technologies and driving experiences. These new services aims at improving customer experience via advanced navigation, predictive maintenance, vehicle centric services, remote monitoring of car features, external mobile experiences and over-the-air updates.
Ogi Redzic, Renault-Nissan Alliance, Senior Vice president, Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services, commented:
“A car is becoming increasingly connected, intelligent and personal. Partnering with Microsoft allows us to accelerate the development of the associated key technologies needed to enable scenarios our customers want and build all-new ones they haven’t even imagined. We aim to become the provider of connected mobility for everyone with one single global platform.”
If reports were to be believed, Renault-Nissan selected Azure in part because of its enterprise-grade security to launch more than 10 vehicles with autonomous driving technology by 2020.