Microsoft in a deal with InMobi to push the cloud business in India

Microsoft had entered into a partnership with the ad tech company InMobi to acquire a customer base for its Azure cloud business in the country. This deal will see InMobi using Microsoft Azure as its cloud provider. InMobi will benefit from the technology collaborations with regard to artificial intelligence in which Microsoft is a leader. InMobi will expand the platform for marketers through this partnership and its flagship product, InMobi advertising cloud will move to Azure. The product will give a deep insight to the marketers with regard to their customers with data coming from different channels.

Microsoft has struck similar partnerships with Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace and Ola, the country’s largest ride hailing firm. It also made an investment in Flipkart last year which it will continue to hold even after Walmart invests a huge $16 billion in the company for a 77% stake. This combination will deliver new intelligent experiences to the consumers and business insights to companies across the globe.

With regard to cloud infrastructure, Microsoft currently lags behind. The global leader, Amazon Web Services is the online retail giant’s fastest growing business. It has an edge over Google, Microsoft and Alibaba even in India and is considered to be the easiest platform to build cloud services on by startups. With Microsoft’s reach within enterprises where it sells Office 365, Windows and Azure products, InMobi could get a massive advantage over its rivals. Having access to tools build by Microsoft is invaluable.

Naveen Tewari, founder of InMobi stated that Microsoft’s global reach and the advanced privacy and security in addition to the decade long experience of InMobi will disrupt the marketing ecosystem. The duo will be able to exploit additional opportunities under the deal by combining marketing and advertising capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics 365, which is a resource planning application for enterprises. InMobi is based in India but its customers are from overseas markets which include US, China and Europe. Microsoft already has a strong presence across the globe with various data centers that will enable InMobi to work closer with customers and offer them local advantages.