The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

66 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om Moving beyond the vehicle itself, there will be significant data-handling challenges in the linkage of the automotive supply chain, logistics systems and tracking services. These systems are all involved in connecting passenger and freight vehicles in real-time, an essential capability for autonomous driving. “When it comes to linkage with the automo- tive supply chain, there are two things that are important,” said Sinha. “One of these is provid- ing an environment for data collaboration which is secure. For example, as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) working withmany different tier one partners, you need to make sure that each of their data is kept separate for intellectual prop- erty reasons. On the other side, a tier one partner needs to do the same for data frommultiple OEMs. “The second part of the problem is traceabil- ity. Automotive is a highly regulated industry, subject to standards which have clearly defined traceability requirements. You need to be able to trace back to make sure that there is enough cov- erage, and that responsibility also applies across the supply chain.” Microsoft can bring its own experience of dramatic DevOps transformation to help automotive companies manage the transition to a more connected, autonomous form of mobility. Daimler, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cars and trucks, has invested significantly in software development for its vehicles. By developing in Azure, the company has been able to onboard developers in hours rather than weeks, get new ideas underway faster, and attract top talent with a state-of-the- art development environment. “To be world-class in the software arena, we have to move fast,” said Peter Rothlaender, man- ager of cloud solutions for Daimler. “By early 2016, we knew that we needed a higher-velocity software development model. That’s when Microsoft introduced us to Azure DevTest Labs, then under development. DevTest Labs provides standardised templates for creating dev/test environments and easy access to all needed tools. Since using Azure DevTest Labs, we’ve seen our developer onboarding process drop from weeks to hours. We can demonstrate that we have modern tools and development environments and have a seat at the table with Microsoft when it comes to pushing Azure to the next level.” F E ATUR E