Microsoft Azure beckons as NetSuite ditches AWS cloud

Cloud-based financials provider NetSuite has entered into a strategic cloud alliance with Microsoft to create new solutions that connect NetSuite’s cloud ERP to Microsoft Office 365, Windows and Microsoft Azure.

“We’re at the ‘end of the beginning’ of the cloud, in that the cloud business model that NetSuite pioneered in 1998 is becoming the de facto standard for how fast-growth businesses are run,” says Zach Nelson, CEO, NetSuite.

“We’re thrilled to work with Microsoft to deliver a fluid cloud environment across the key NetSuite and Microsoft applications that companies and their employees rely on to continually improve their day-to-day operations and run their business better and more efficiently.”

By the end of 2015, Nelson says NetSuite will migrate from AWS and on-premise deployments to leverage Azure as its preferred cloud infrastructure platform, to build new software applications and integrations for customers.

Today, approximately 24,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud.

The collaboration also pairs NetSuite’s cloud ERP suite with Microsoft cloud technology in both the near and short term.

Available immediately, integration between NetSuite and Azure Active Directory enables single sign-on (SSO) for customers using NetSuite together with Azure Active Directory, while also providing administrators centralised control of user authentication and password management.

In the coming months NetSuite and Microsoft will start cloud-to-cloud integration between NetSuite and Office 365, providing access to both technologies from within a single interface.

“I’m excited about NetSuite’s support for Azure Active Directory for single sign-on, cloud-to-cloud integration and increasing our collaboration across mobile and cloud solutions,” says Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President of Developer Platform & Evangelism and Chief Evangelist, Microsoft.

“Our joint vision is all about giving people the freedom to get more done through the broadening set of devices they interact with that in turn helps businesses innovate and grow.”