Software major Microsoft has signed a 5-year Cloud deal with global retail chain Walmart to assist in digital transformation.
Walmart has selected Microsoft cloud solutions, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 to standardize across the company’s brands.
The deal indicates that Google, Alibaba, among others, missed the opportunity to connect with the retail giant with strong e-commerce presence.
Walmart and Microsoft engineers will collaborate on the development, and support phase of moving existing applications to cloud native architectures.
The global retail chain will migrate a significant portion of walmart.com and samsclub.com to Azure, including its cloud-powered check-out enabling Walmart to grow with customer demand and reach more global markets, Microsoft said.
“Walmart’s commitment to technology is centered around creating incredibly convenient ways for customers to shop and empowering associates to do their best work,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart CEO.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said: “The world’s leading companies run on our cloud, and I’m thrilled to partner with Walmart to accelerate their digital transformation with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.”
Walmart is already using Microsoft services for critical applications and workloads and is now embarking on a set of cloud innovation projects that leverage machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data platform solutions for external customer-facing services and internal business applications.
The strategy of Walmart is to build a global IoT platform on Azure — from connected HVAC and refrigeration units to reduce energy usage in U.S. stores or applying machine learning when routing thousands of trucks in the supply chain.
Walmart is investing in its people with a phased rollout of Microsoft 365 providing associates with the productivity tools for collaboration and communication.
Walmart will use Microsoft’s Workplace Analytics, Stream, and OneDrive to save time and work better.