Flipkart, Microsoft in strategic pact for cloud computing

Microsoft Corp on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Flipkart under which, for a start, the online retailer will adopt Microsoft Azure as its exclusive public cloud computing platform.

One person familiar with the matter said Microsoft may pick up a small stake in Flipkart as part of the partnership although no deal to that effect has been signed yet. Mint couldn’t confirm if Microsoft will be one of the investors in Flipkart’s next funding round

“As a policy, we do not comment on market speculations” Flipkart said in response to Mint’s queries on its latest efforts at fund-raising.

On the strategic alliance with Microsoft, Flipkart declined to confirm whether Microsoft was investing in it. “We have no plans to share in that regard,” a Flipkart spokesperson said.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Flipkart Group CEO Binny Bansal announced the partnership at an event in Bengaluru.

“I have always been an admirer of what Flipkart has done, in not only starting e-com merce, but now in payments and logistics,” Nadella said.

Starting with computing infra structure, Microsoft Azure wil add a layer of advanced cloud technologies and analytics to Flipkart’s data centres. Micro soft’s strong presence in India along with its global scale, allows for continued expansion, setting the stage for the long-term part nership, Microsoft said.

“This partnership allows us to leverage our combined strength and knowledge of technology e-commerce and markets to make online shopping more rele vant and enriching for custom ers,” Bansal said.

Microsoft said Flipkart plans to leverage artificial intelligence machine learning and analytics capabilities on Azure — such as the Cortana Intelligence Suite and Power BI —to optimise its data for innovative merchandis ing, advertising, marketing and customer service.