Elly Yates-Roberts |
Microsoft and NEC have expanded their four-decades-long partnership to use Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, NEC’s 5G expertise and both firm’s artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things solutions to help enterprise and public sector customers accelerate their cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives.
NEC will adopt Azure as its preferred cloud platform, which Microsoft says will enable it to “deliver enhanced capabilities to drive sustained digitalisation, help customers transform their business models, and build Digital Workplaces for the post-pandemic ‘new normal’”.
“NEC is pleased to enter into this strategic collaboration with Microsoft,” said Takayuki Morita, president and CEO of NEC Corporation. “With Microsoft’s trusted cloud and services, the experience that NEC has cultivated in its own systems, and both companies’ AI and IoT technologies, we will enable companies globally to use digital services that are safer and more secure than ever before as they progress with digital initiatives.”
As part of the partnership, and to accelerate NEC’s Digital Workplace innovation, the two organisations will migrate NEC’s on-premises IT environment to Azure and deploy Azure Virtual Desktop among the NEC Group’s 110,000 employees.
The firms will also work together to improve digital services for public sector and enterprise customers by delivering greater speed and lower-latency data connections that enable high-performance network experiences.
Microsoft says that by leveraging Microsoft’s Intelligent Edge solutions and NEC’s private 5G networking technologies, the partnership will help customers across industries transform. For example, in retail they will analyse customer transaction data using AI to better understand buying patterns, improve operational efficiency and identify new market opportunities.
“As we’ve seen over the past year, digital adoption curves are accelerating across every industry and business function,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “Our strategic partnership with NEC brings together the power of Azure and Microsoft 365 with NEC’s services and infrastructure expertise to help public and private sector customers build resilience and transform during this era of rapid change.”