Microsoft Azure Deepens Enterprise Traction By Earning Boeing And Land O’Lakes As Customers

This week, Boeing Corporation announced plans to transition its cloud-based applications for aviation analytics to Microsoft Azure. Boeing plans to host all of its aviation analytics applications on the Microsoft Azure platform instead of using Azure as one of many cloud platforms. Boeing’s aviation analytics applications are used to optimize fuel consumption, obtain data about flight trajectories and proactively manage aircraft maintenance for planes that are used by over 300 airlines. Notably, Boeing’s decision to leverage Azure represents another important enterprise customer for Azure and further reinforces Microsoft’s competitive advantage in the cloud-based internet of things space given the surfeit of aviation-related devices that are likely to stream data to Azure in the wake of the deepening of the relationship between Boeing and Microsoft. Meanwhile, in related news, Microsoft elaborated how dairy company Land O’Lakes will transition its Winfield R7 application to Microsoft Azure. Winfield R7 delivers business intelligence that enhances the ability of farmers to make more informed agricultural decisions using data delivered via a mobile device. Land O’Lakes will also use Azure’s Cortana analytics applications to understand sensor data related to agriculture. Land O’Lakes had already announced a partnership with the Google Cloud Platform but the decision to additionally collaborate with Microsoft Azure underscores Azure’s growing traction amongst enterprise customers.