London, Oct 4 (IANS) In a bid to develop one of the worlds largest industrial cloud platforms, Swiss engineering giant and Microsoft on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership to help industrial customers create new value with digital solutions.

Customers will benefit from the unique combination of Microsoft's intelligent cloud and ABB's deep domain knowledge and extensive portfolio of industrial solutions, Microsoft said in a statement.

"Together with ABB, we are providing industrial customers with the digital technology and cloud platform to empower every person, team and business system within an organisation to glean new insights and drive faster decision-making to seize new growth and opportunities," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.

The two partners are committed to empowering digital transformation in customer segments such as robotics, marine and ports, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

"Building on our installed base of more than 70 million connected devices and more than 70,000 digital control systems, the next step is to develop one of the world's largest industrial cloud platforms," added ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.

By selecting Microsoft Azure as the exclusive cloud partner for its integrated connectivity platform, ABB customers will now have access to an enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure that benefits from billions of dollars of ongoing investment.

"This partnership will provide unique benefits to our customers in utilities, industry, transport and infrastructure, building on the combined strength of Microsoft and ABB," Spiesshofer added.

Together, ABB and Microsoft will accelerate digital solutions that improve customers' productivity by increasing uptime, speed and yield, the statement said.