Dive Brief:

• SAP announced another alliance with Microsoft during its annual conference in Orlando Tuesday.

• The collaboration will combine SAP’s HANA databases and Microsoft’s Azure cloud to allow Microsoft customers to run SAP software without installing it on their own servers.

• The partnership will also allow companies to link Office 365 with SAP’s business software.

Dive Insight:

SAP’s software previously ran primarily on Oracle databases, but SAP has been promoting its HANA database over the last few years as Oracle began competing more frequently with SAP.
HANA already runs on Amazon Web Services. Starting in the third quarter, it will now run on Azure as well.

John Torrey, chief strategy officer for the SAP Business Network Group, said the deeper integration between the two companies should especially appeal to SAP’s large customers.

SAP and Microsoft had pledged to integrate Microsoft Office and SAP applications years ago, but the collaboration never really took off. SAP is now looking for new ways to integrate its services in the cloud as its traditional licenses program support bring in two-thirds of SAP's revenue, Bloomberg reported. At the same time, Microsoft wants to add more outside programs to Azure.