• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 26, 2016

Two unlikely rivals in cloud storage — Adobe and Microsoft — have formed a strategic partnership to help large corporations and advertisers making deep investments integrate their cloud infrastructure with data.

Adobe will make Microsoft Azure the preferred platform for integration with its cloud services Marketing Cloud, Document Cloud, and Creative Cloud, whereas Microsoft will make Adobe its preferred marketing services for Dynamics 365 Enterprise.

"Together, Adobe and Microsoft are bringing the most advanced marketing capabilities on the most powerful and intelligent cloud to help companies digitally transform and engage customers in new ways," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a prepared statement.

Both companies said they are committed to collaborate on data integrations to ensure that customers can easily work across Adobe Marketing Cloud and Dynamics 365 business applications. This will enable companies to leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and advance analytics.

Microsoft continues to invest in integrating its Power BI and Cortana Intelligence Suite capabilities to give those using its Dynamics products greater use of data and analysis. Its Dynamics 365 platform combines Dynamics CRM and Dynamics ERP into one cloud service. Better integration into Adobe's Marketing Cloud will allow marketers to better understand the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Email Marketing Daily that the partnership provides tighter integration between Adobe Marketing Cloud and Dynamics 365, which gives advertisers better visibility and access to data across the enterprise. This will make targeting, measurement and optimization more effective.

It also provides access to data science and machine learning to improve on all marketing process, whether audience creation, targeting, creative and offer optimization to channel and real-time decisions.

The move by Adobe and Microsoft follows a partnership between network equipment maker Cisco and software company Salesforce that was announced last week. The two said they would work to integrate their cloud platforms focused on customer service and the Internet of Things.

The integration will allow, among other benefits, the ability for individuals to communicate over chat or video without having to toggle between apps.