Sitecore and Microsoft announced that the two companies plan to expand their long-standing strategic alliance to enrich Sitecore's Microsoft Azure cloud offerings over the next two years. Under the expanded partnership, customers will be able to take advantage of the speed and scale of Azure's powerful cloud platform to achieve greater digital transformation at a much faster pace.

Sitecore intends to take greater advantage of the Microsoft Azure Application Platform, including developing Platform-as-a-Service-specific optimizations native and specific to Azure, as well as adopting the Azure Resource Manager and Azure Marketplace as primary resource management and provisioning vehicles, These developments will provide a dramatically simpler cloud experience without functional restrictions.

"Microsoft is a long-term strategic collaborator with Sitecore as we jointly serve several hundred customers worldwide. This expanded partnership will help us speed the delivery of our cloud computing services to market, building on our leadership in web content management and the Sitecore® Experience Platform™," saidMichael Seifert, CEO, Sitecore.

"Microsoft is proud to expand our alliance with Sitecore in an effort to bring more compelling digital experiences to our joint customers," said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud and Enterprise Group, Microsoft Corp. "By combining the power, scale, and rich platform service offerings of Azure with Sitecore's customers, together we will drive digital transformation for our customers and help them achieve more."

"We are elated to be taking our Microsoft alliance to the next level," said Jean-Paul Gomes, Corporate Vice President and head of the Microsoft Alliance, Sitecore. "This relationship will accelerate Sitecore's innovation leadership and growth as a technology company, as well as provide an even more compelling experience to our joint customers and growth opportunities for our joint partners. While Sitecore has been in market with Azure-powered solutions since 2010, this expanded alliance helps enable Sitecore to innovate its Azure-based solutions at cloud speed and scale, thereby extending that competitive advantage to our joint customers and partners."