Microsoft and Rockwell Automation have announced a five-year partnership to develop digital transformation products for industrial customers.The two companies aim to develop products to cut infrastructure costs, speed time to value, and increase productivity for industrial organisations.

The new partnership is an expansion of existing relations between the two firms.

Microsoft and Rockwell are working on new edge-to-cloud-based solutions to connect information between development, operations and maintenance teams through a single trusted data environment.

According to the two companies, this will allow development teams to prototype digitally, configure and collaborate without the need for costly physical equipment. This unified information environment also enables IT and OT teams to securely access and share data models across the organisation and with their ecosystem of partners as well.

To date, the companies have co-developed over 20 use cases across Food & Beverage, Household and Personal Care and Life Sciences industries. The solutions developed from the new partnership will aim to augment their current offerings.

“Today, one thing we know for sure is that no business is 100% resilient. Those fortified with digital capabilities and assets are more resilient than others, and the cloud is how they will thrive,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of worldwide commercial business, Microsoft. “We are pleased to deepen our already strong, decade-long relationship with Rockwell Automation to help businesses simplify industrial transformation, accelerate business outcomes and innovate with agility.”

“This partnership provides Rockwell Automation and Microsoft customers with a holistic, simple solution for IIoT development and operations and removes data silos that hinder industrial digital transformation initiatives,” said Blake Moret, Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation. “By eliminating a core barrier to automation initiatives, industrial organisations establish a digital thread connecting the entire enterprise, which in turn accelerates innovation, maximises productivity and optimises operations.”

“Our team has seen the preview release of this new solution and we are excited about collaboration between our strategic partners, Rockwell Automation and Microsoft,” said Tristan Hunter, GM Automation & Operational Technology at Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, New Zealand’s largest company and responsible for 30% of the world’s dairy exports. “Moving data from our on-premise assets securely with context and providing new workflows for us to analyse and drive better outcomes is important to maintaining Fonterra’s high standards across our many plants globally.”