Microsoft and MSCI to Drive Investments in Cloud, AI and User Experience

MSCI and Microsoft will explore collaboration opportunities to drive climate risk and ESG solutions, leveraging Microsoft’s Azure and Power.

According to a recent Deloitte report on the rise of Cloud and AI deployments in the IT industry, Paul Sallomi had explained the intricate relationship between these two technologies. The most popular path to accelerate multi-cloud and hybrid Cloud deployments go through the acquisition of AI capabilities. Bringing AI to the center of all Cloud and MSP operations help in optimizing internal businesses in addition to further enhancing various products, solutions and services associated with Product Development, Marketing and Sales, Customer interactions, and Partner vendor management channels. Gartner suggests the need to urgently deploy AI capabilities has its own set of pitfalls– mostly, customers make a hasty choice while choosing the best Cloud AI developers and put billions of dollars at risk. Security and Virtualization are other challenges in this regard. Gartner has named Microsoft as one of the most reliable Cloud AI Developers in its Magic Quadrant. The list also includes IBM, AWS, Google, H20.ai, SAP and Salesforce.

Today, Microsoft has decided to take the next leap to innovate with AI and Cloud integrations with a new alliance in the global investment industry. Microsoft has partnered with MSCI to bring together the power of Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies with MSCI’s global reach through its portfolio of investment decision support tools.

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MSCI and Microsoft have signed the agreement to unlock new innovations in the AI, Cloud and Edge for the industry and enhance MSCI’s client experience among the world’s most sophisticated investors, including asset managers, asset owners, hedge funds and banks.

Jigar Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering at MSCI said —

“Our strategic collaboration with Microsoft is the latest step in our long and established heritage of innovation and we are excited about the long-term potential of this relationship. MSCI is a future-focused business and Azure enables us not just to enhance our capabilities and client solutions of today, but also provide the platform to accelerate our journey in building world-class technology and tools to solve the investment industry’s challenges of tomorrow.”

MSCI powers better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios.

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Building the Roadmap for Cloud +AI

Initially, the companies will focus on migrating MSCI’s existing products, data and services onto Azure as its preferred cloud platform in stages, starting with its Index and Analytics solutions followed by its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) products and ratings; Real Estate data and solutions; and MSCI’s risk analytics platform Beon.

By modernizing MSCI’s data and analytics services and infrastructure, the companies will be able to deliver new capabilities which will help investors more swiftly and efficiently manage data and understand the drivers of risk and performance.

In addition, MSCI and Microsoft will explore collaboration opportunities to drive climate risk and ESG solutions, leveraging Microsoft’s Azure and Power Platform and MSCI’s ESG and climate solutions capabilities. This future collaboration, in line with both organizations’ commitment to sustainability, is intended to help investors better understand and interpret the business risks and opportunities that climate change brings.

“Investors’ needs to rapidly innovate and adapt as strategies and business models evolve, build and manage big data, and improve operational efficiencies are growing at a critical speed around the world,” said Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI. “Our strategic alliance with Microsoft underscores MSCI’s commitment to driving relentless innovation in the technology of our products and services to help investors achieve their desired investment outcomes.”

“Investors rely on cutting-edge technologies to deliver intelligent insights, manage risk and detect anomalies so they can help customers achieve their investment goals,” said Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Cloud +AI, Microsoft.

Scott added, “By harnessing the power of Azure and its AI capabilities, together with MSCI’s expertise and position within the investment ecosystem, we will be able to accelerate new innovations that help investors better optimize their clients’ performance capabilities.”

“This alliance opens exciting frontiers for the global investment community,” said Merrie Williamson, Microsoft VP of Azure Apps and Infrastructure. “The combination of MSCI’s relentless pursuit of innovation with Microsoft’s deep data expertise, expansive partner ecosystem, and go-to-market capabilities forms an alliance with the potential to accelerate the investment industry.”

Currently, MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. They have more than 45 years of expertise in research, data and technology.

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