Cloud Hosting

Boeing engineers huddle over a computer to work on an aircraft design. (Boeing Photo / Bob Ferguson)

The billion-dollar competition to provide Boeing with cloud computing services is finished, and the winner is a three-way split. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft are all getting a share of the business, Boeing announced today.

In a LinkedIn post, Susan Doniz, Boeings chief information officer and senior VP for information technology and data analytics, called it a multi-cloud partnership.

This represents a significant investment in the digital tools that will empower Boeings next 100 years, she wrote. These partnerships strengthen our ability to test a system or an aircraft hundreds of times using digital twin technology before it is deployed.

Doniz said that becoming more cloud-centric will provide Boeing with global scalability and elasticity without having to predict, procure, maintain and pay for on-premises servers.

Financial details relating to the multi-cloud partnership were not disclosed.

Historically, most of Boeings applications have been hosted and maintained through on-site servers that are managed by Boeing or external partners. You could argue Boeings extensive intranet blazed a trail for todays cloud computing services.

Marketing and performing computer services involves a whole new way of doing business, Boeing President T.A. Wilson declared in 1970 when Boeing Computer Services was formed.

In recent years, Boeing has been transitioning from its own aging computer infrastructure to cloud providers. For example, in 2016 the company chose Microsoft Azure to handle a significant proportion of its data analytics applications for commercial aviation.

At the time, that was considered a notable win for Microsoft, but Boeing also has maintained relationships with AWS, Google and other cloud providers.

Some had expected Boeing to pick a primary provider as a result of the just-concluded bidding process. Last year, The Information quoted its sources as saying that the deal could be worth at least $1 billion over the course of several years and that Andy Jassy, who is now Amazons CEO, saw it as a must-win for AWS.

But if Boeing is favoring one member of the cloud troika above the others, its being careful not to tip its hand publicly to such an extent that todays announcement consistently lists the three companies in alphabetical order. (If you happen to know who the big winner is, send us a tip.)

Update for 4 p.m. PT April 6: In an interview with Insider, Amazon Web Services senior vice president of sales and marketing, Matt Garman, discussed Boeings decision on parceling out the contracts for cloud computing services and said just about what youd expect an executive in his position to say.

Theyre announcing that theyre going to have a couple of different partnerships, Garman said. I think the vast majority of that will land with AWS.

Cloud services arent the only connection between Amazon and Boeing: In its news release about the Boeing cloud deal, Amazon notes that it has more than 110 Boeing aircraft in its Amazon Air delivery fleet.

The other two cloud titans are also talking: Microsoft noted that its been working with Boeing for more than two decades, and that todays deal will deepen the relationship. Meanwhile, Google emphasized its efforts to match 100% of the energy powering its cloud workloads with renewable energy, making it the cleanest cloud in the industry.

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Amazon, Google or Microsoft? Boeing chooses all of the above for cloud computing services - GeekWire