International. Under a five-year agreement, the retail giant will deploy Microsoft's range of cloud solutions for customer-facing services and internal enterprise applications, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 for enterprise use to help standardize across its family of brands.
Walmart relies on Microsoft Corp. to provide the technology foundation to meet the demands of today's changing consumer market.
A few days ago, Walmart named Microsoft as its preferred and strategic cloud computing partner. Under a five-year agreement, the retail giant will deploy Microsoft's range of cloud solutions for customer-facing services and internal enterprise applications, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 for enterprise use to help standardize across its family of brands.
The plans call for Walmart and Microsoft engineers to move hundreds of applications from the Bentonville, Arkansas, retailer to cloud-native architectures. That includes migrating "a significant portion" of Walmart.com and SamsClub.com to Azure, the companies said, noting that cloud payment will allow Walmart to grow with growing customer demand and reach more global markets.
"Walmart's commitment to technology is focused on creating incredibly convenient ways for customers to shop and empowering employees to do their best work," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. "Walmart is a people-led, technology-enabled company, and we're excited about what this technology partnership will bring to our customers and associates."
Walmart already uses Microsoft services for critical applications and workloads. Through the strategic partnership, the retailer will participate in a wide range of cloud innovation projects that leverage machine learning, artificial intelligence and data platform solutions across the enterprise.
"Whether it's combined with our agile cloud platform or leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to work smarter, we believe Microsoft will be a strong partner in driving our ability to innovate even more and faster," McMillon said.
By employing Azure's cloud platform across its global brands and businesses, Walmart will be able to leverage Microsoft's computing power, manage workloads in an elastic environment and expand access to new tools, the companies said.
For example, they explained, a cloud-native environment will allow Walmart to better manage site availability and speed, as well as release new features to customers. The retailer will also be able to operate on a large scale while building a global Internet of Things platform on Azure, from connected HVAC and cooling units to reducing energy consumption in thousands of stores in the US. Even the application of machine learning in the routing of thousands of trucks in the supply chain.
Internally, Walmart is also beginning to gradually roll out the Microsoft 365 workplace platform to provide its associates with productivity and sharing tools that foster collaboration and communication.
"Walmart is a pioneering retailer, committed to empowering its employees and the best experience for its customers wherever they are," said Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft-based Redmond, Wash. "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."
At Microsoft, Walmart has now secured a leading IT player to help it support a large global enterprise with more than 2.3 million employees and $500 billion in annual sales, as well as serve the 270 million customers who visit its 11,700 stores on 65 banners in 28 countries and e-commerce websites each week.
The partnership also better positions Walmart in its battle against rival Amazon.com, whose burgeoning Amazon Web Services subsidiary has quickly become a leading provider of cloud-based computing services and solutions for businesses around the world, not to mention an innovation pit for Amazon. central online sales and distribution business. In 2017, AWS added revenue of $17.5 billion, up 43% from the previous year and more than doubling its 2015 sales.
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