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Partnership will combine GE’s connected industrial machinery platform with Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure.
GE and Microsoft this week established a partnership that takes aim at the industrial IoT sector.
The deal brings together GE’s Predix platform, which enables customers to collect data from their industrial assets, and Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure, adding new capabilities including integration with enterprise applications, and advanced data visualisation and analytics.
"Connecting industrial machines to the Internet through the cloud is a huge step toward simplifying business processes and reimagining how work gets done," said GE chief executive Jeff Immelt, in a statement on Monday.
"GE is helping its customers extract value from the vast quantities of data coming out of those machines and is building an ecosystem of industry-leading partners like Microsoft that will allow the industrial Internet to thrive on a global scale," he said.
A developer preview of Predix on Azure is planned for release toward the end of 2016, with a view to commercial rollout in the second quarter of 2017.
"Every industry and every company around the world is being transformed by digital technology," said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. "Working with companies like GE, we can reach a new set of customers to help them accelerate their transformation across every line of business — from the factory floor to smart buildings."
