UBS, Maersk join Microsoft in making a Digital Difference

The business world, ready or not, is facing rapid changes as companies move to the cloud, and today Microsoft showcased a number of those companies who are making a “Digital Difference.” Our own Arif Bacchus liveblogged event this morning in New York City, where Microsoft CVP Judson Althoff hosted a panel discussion on the transformation to the cloud and showcased a number of new partners now taking advantage of the Microsoft Cloud.

Among them, UBS, the “world’s largest wealth manager,” is using Azure to power its risk management system, and has plans to move more business applications into the Azure cloud. As usual, security is a big focus and a big advantage for Microsoft:

Key to UBS’s move to Azure was a significant focus on regulatory compliance. Microsoft’s Financial Services Compliance program — a unique program that allows firms and regulators to deeply examine Microsoft cloud systems, services and processes — provides transparency into Microsoft cloud operations. This ensures UBS and regulators that Microsoft has taken the proper steps to secure data and mitigate risk. In addition, Azure’s industry-leading compliance portfolio ensures UBS can move to the cloud while meeting current compliance requirements, as well as plan for future regulations.

Maersk, a “global leader in container shipping and ports,” and a big win for Microsoft with its 88,000 employees working in 130 countries, announced today that it too is making a Digital Difference, making Microsoft its preferred cloud partner and using Azure to power its app store and help drive business model innovations.

Microsoft is pushing hard to compete with the likes of Amazon Web Services for the almost inevitable move to the cloud by businesses of all sizes, and are rolling their efforts into a new initiative, the Digital Difference.

We’ll have more from the event today, and more news on Microsoft’s efforts as they come, so stay tuned!