GE and Microsoft will together make GE’s Predix platform for the Industrial Internet available on the Microsoft Azure cloud for cloud-connected industrial businesses and run services for the Industrial Internet of Things (IioT). The move marks the first step in a broad strategic collaboration between the two companies.
Bringing Predix to Azure means customers will have access to capabilities such as natural language technology, artificial intelligence, advanced data visualization and enterprise application integration. They will be able to able to build and run IoT apps that can take data from sensors and industrial equipment connected to the cloud via the Predix system, and use the artificial intelligence (AI), speech recognition and data visualization capabilities within the Azure platform.
Azure will support the growth of the entire industrial IoT ecosystem by offering Predix customers access to Microsoft’s cloud footprint, along with data sovereignty, hybrid capabilities, and advanced developer and data services. In addition, GE and Microsoft plan to integrate Predix with Azure IoT Suite and Cortana Intelligence Suite along with Microsoft business applications, such as Office 365, Dynamics 365 and Power BI, in order to connect industrial data with business processes and analytics.
A developer preview will be released toward the end of this year, and Predix on Azure will be commercially available by the second quarter of 2017. More information will be shared at Predix Transform on 25-27 July in Las Vegas, and Minds+Machines on 15-16 November in San Francisco.
