Boeing Co. and its AerData and Jeppesen subsidiaries will move cloud-based versions of their aviation analytics applications, used by more than 300 airlines, to Microsoft Corp.'s Azure cloud computing platform.

Airlines use the apps to predict maintenance needs and optimize fuel consumption.

Currently, airlines using the apps ran them primarily on their own servers. Boeing has tinkered with cloud versions, using platforms from Amazon.com Inc. and CenturyLink Inc., among others. But the variety of cloud systems threatened to strain Boeing's cloud-computing expertise, said Kevin Crowley, Boeing vice president of digital aviation.

"It just became apparent that we needed to centralize around one [cloud] technology," Mr. Crowley said.

Boeing will shift to Azure. Judson Althoff, Microsoft's executive vice president of world-wide commercial business, said that will allow Boeing to analyze a larger set of data provided by the customer and other sources of information.

"You can drive more effective and more accurate models," Mr. Althoff said.

The shift to cloud computing is part of the plane maker's lon- term ambition to grow its commercial and military-services business to about $50 billion in annual revenue by 2025, according to a senior company executive, a massive expansion from its estimated $15 billion today.

Cloud computing also reflects the increasing role of internet connectivity aboard commercial aircraft. Once self-contained islands of information and computing, airplanes are becoming nodes on a global network, with pilots and airline staff adapting their operations in real time as conditions change.

Over the long term, Boeing envisions a suite of applications that could improve aircraft efficiency in real time, cutting fuel consumption by around 10%.

Boeing had already begun rolling out the cloud-based software with its Amsterdam-based subsidiary AerData and will complete its transition more broadly over the next 12 to 24 months. Boeing acquired AerData, which manages airplane and lessor maintenance records, in 2014. The move to the cloud increases the ubiquity and portability of records, often a key determinant of the continued value of a commercial jetliner and the ease of remarketing an aircraft for lease to its next operator.

Microsoft plans not only to provide the technical backbone for the service but also to help Boeing sell the software. And Microsoft's sales force will be compensated for Boeing customers' use of Azure.

"This is very emblematic of the future for Microsoft," Mr. Althoff said.

The deal helps Microsoft as it works to keep pace with the leading provider of cloud infrastructure technology, Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services. Microsoft has worked its longstanding relationships with large corporations, helping them make the shift to the cloud, in an effort to catch up with AWS, which has used its success with younger companies born in the cloud era to win over those same corporate titans.

A week ago, Microsoft announced a partnership with General Electric Co. to run its Predix software platform, which analyzes data from industrial machinery, on Azure. Predix already runs on Amazon Web Services.

The airline industry is rich with data to analyze, and Microsoft rivals are also angling for pieces of the market. A month ago, International Business Machines Corp. struck a deal with in-flight wireless provider Gogo Inc. to alert airline pilots to turbulence, using information from IBM's $2 billion acquisition of The Weather Company.

Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com and Jon Ostrower at jon.ostrower@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 18, 2016 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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