Microsoft Scoops GE’s Predix IoT Platform Into Azure

General Electric’s Predix IoT platform has now been made available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, following a partnership between Microsoft and GE announced this week’s Worldwide Partner Conference.

GE’s Predix platform targets industrial applications of the Internet of Things, and gives Microsoft a much-needed boost in its enterprise credibility going forward.

First step

Microsoft added that this partnership for IoT is just the first step in a wider collaboration effort between the two companies.

GE released Predix last August, aiming it at organisations operating in the aviation, energy, healthcare and transportation industries. GE claims is the world’s first and only cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics.

The Microsoft partnership with prove beneficial for both parties. Microsoft will get a bigger slice of the IoT pie, which looks to be 20 billion connected devices by 2020, according to Gartner. For GE, its Predix platform can now power itself with Azure’s machine learning and intelligence services.

“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.”

Predix on Azure will go into developer preview in late 2016, with a commercial release planned for Q2 2017.

Also announced at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference were partnerships between Redmond and Ecolab and Japan Airlines.

Water technology provider Ecolab is teaming with Microsoft to help companies operate more sustainably with the Microsoft cloud by monitoring water usage with Azure.

And Japan Airlines is using Microsoft’s augmented reality headset Hololens to train flight crews and mechanics. “HoloLens can project holograms into the environment, offering a remarkable new way to display cockpit instruments or how jet engine parts fit together, with vastly improved safety,” said Microsoft.

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