Microsoft Azure hosting GE’s Predix IoT platform for industrial business customers

Once again, Microsoft is looking to bolster its cloud services offerings while building a top to bottom solution that can enclose the gap between one of its largest rivals in the industry. To help achieve those goals, Street Insider is reporting that Microsoft has partnered with GE in a deal that helps integrate Predix into Azure as a solution for industrial customers looking to utilize a public cloud offering.

The inclusion of Predix in Azure will now give Azure customers the ability to harness a flexible but secure data set collected from the various machines and intelligence systems already connected and utilized. Also, Predix customers will now have access to additional features and business tools such as natural language technologies, artificial intelligence, advanced data visualizations, and enterprise integration, among others.

Connecting industrial machines to the internet through the cloud is a huge step toward simplifying business processes and reimagining how work gets done,” said Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE. “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.”

The combination of Microsoft’s Azure with GE’s Predix will only continue to grow as the two company look to integrate further the two solutions throughout their portfolios that enable customers to use the solutions alongside Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Intelligence Suite, Office 365, and Power BI.

As with most recent Microsoft offerings, the company will be issuing a developer preview towards the end of 2016 with the hope that the integrated solutions will be ready for commercial consumption by the second quarter of 2017. Microsoft and GE plan to offer more details on the new partnership during the upcoming Predix Transform in Las Vegas July 25 through the 27.