PTC announced it has partnered with Microsoft to make available the ThingWorx® Industrial Innovation Platform on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, capitalizing on the two companies’ complementary technologies and together targeting opportunities in industrial sectors, including manufacturing. PTC and Microsoft will align the technology and expertise of both companies to deliver a robust solution for Industrial IoT and digital product lifecycle management. At the core of the solution are Microsoft Azure IoT and the ThingWorx Industrial Innovation Platform, which together enable customers to innovate their products and operations with IoT connectivity, rich contextualization, business systems orchestration, and breakthrough user engagement via mixed reality. Extending these services is PTC’s full portfolio of solutions including Creo® and Windchill® for design, manufacturing, and service, and Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality headwear. Central to the collaboration is PTC’s selection of Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform for manufacturing customers. PTC also will be offering a managed service of ThingWorx delivered on Azure, leveraging Azure services, including Azure IoT Hub. Customers will be able to capitalize on the many benefits of Azure including speed, security, scale, and global reach. ThingWorx, combined with Microsoft Azure IoT, will provide customers with faster time to a production-ready solution, faster time to iterate and refine, access to a rich trove of engineering data, and flexibility. PTC and Microsoft will continue to pursue joint customer opportunities in operational settings such as discrete, process, and hybrid manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities.