Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) has signed a seven-year partnership with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) establishing it as Chevron’s primary cloud provider, accelerating the application of advanced technologies including analytics and the Internet of Things to drive performance and improve efficiencies.

The Microsoft partnership is part of Chevron’s overall digitization initiative, a multiyear effort to streamline information technology (IT) operations around a digital core connecting the company’s engineers and operations through nimble analytics and increased automation.

Adoption of Microsoft’s Azure platform will allow Chevron’s IT workforce to evolve from supporting infrastructure to one that enables more advanced technologies, as well as optimize exploration, reservoir management, production operations, midstream logistics and marketing operations.

The partnership also extends to broader technical collaboration that will allow the two companies to focus on joint innovation from a technology and business process perspective. This will include identifying areas to influence Microsoft’s roadmap of future products and where Microsoft solutions can help solve Chevron’s business challenges.

“Our global cloud infrastructure–which has more regions around the world than any other cloud provider–will enable Chevron to leverage our capabilities across areas like high-performance computing and Internet of Things to become a truly digital business,” Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Microsoft Azure, said.