BAE Systems partners with Microsoft to implement cloud technology

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Daniel Face

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BAE Systems, which has locations across the South East including Farnborough, Frimley and Guildford, has signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft to utilise its Azure Cloud platform.

The aim is to support faster and easier development, deployment and management of digital defence capabilities on the cloud, as BAE looks to build complex digital systems for militaries and governments to analyse incoming data.

Air, land and maritime platforms face constantly changing threats, so quick deployment of updates through the cloud is almost a necessity in order to maintain a competitive edge. Modern fighter jets, for example, can require up to 24 million lines of constantly changing code to function effectively.

Julian Cracknell, CTO and CIO at BAE Systems, said: “The data available to the defence sector and armed forces is often highly complex and comes from hundreds of thousands of sources, whether that’s satellite and radar feeds, intelligence gathered by ships at sea or even social media.

“Our innovative agreement with Microsoft will give us easier access to tools that help us make sense of this information for our customers – allowing armed forces to stay ahead of rapidly evolving threats, whilst maintaining the highest levels of security.”

BAE has already used an Azure Cloud approach to accelerate the design, development and testing of a system to deploy new software on an Uncrewed Air Vehicle during flight.

In fact, the recent partnership follows three successful collaborations with Microsoft, including initiatives to enhance real-time tactical naval intelligence, develop secure software for real-time updates to air platforms, and create a digital thread to support the maintenance of maritime platforms.

Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, added: “This strategic agreement will enable defence organisations to use data more effectively. This will help them promote stability and security for residents, nations and multinational alliances.

“By working together delivering agile, secure and reliable software, BAE Systems and Microsoft are already delivering tangible results to our customers. These results mean they can modernise environments, protect information domains and optimise operations.”

Both companies have also committed to use open architecture digital tools as they develop new technologies together. This could enable BAE to collaborate with small businesses and partners without compromising security, by only allowing access to very specific areas of work.

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Daniel Face

Born and raised in Berkshire, Dan fell into journalism after completing his bachelor’s degree in English at UCL. Writing for The Business Magazine and local Biz News sites has given him the opportunity to chat with all manner of small business owners and share their success stories with a wider audience. Outside of work, Dan enjoys live music, board games and quiz shows, and is making a slow but persistent effort to learn Spanish.