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Microsoft unveiled the winner of its Defence and Intelligence 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award this week, with Thales announced as the recipient of this year’s award in recognition of its partnership with Microsoft on the Nexium Defence Cloud Edge Solution.
The awards were established to recognise partner companies that created innovative and impactful Microsoft solutions. Throughout the awards process, there were 4,400 nominations representing 100 countries across the world.
According to a release from Thales, their Nexium Defence Cloud Edge (NDC Edge) allows users to deliver and analyse information “in real time”. The program, which uses Microsoft’s Azure Stack technology, was created for use by the Australian Defence Force but can be expanded for use by Five Eyes nations and civilian groups.
The transference of data by the NDC Edge extends from the battle headquarters all the way through to the soldier.
Rodney Clark, corporate vice president, global partner solutions, channel sales and channel chief at Microsoft, noted that the award recipients had demonstrated drive to build leading digital solutions.
“I am honoured to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” he said.
“These remarkable partners have displayed a deep commitment to building world-class solutions for customers — from cloud-to-edge — and represent some of the best and brightest our ecosystem has to offer.”
Chris Jenkins, chief executive of Thales Australia, outlined how the award shows the benefits of the NDC Edge on the battlespace.
“We are delighted to be recognised by Microsoft with the 2021 Defence and Industry Partner of the Year award. This achievement validates the collaborative efforts of both the local and global Thales and Microsoft teams. This collaboration has produced a sovereign, customer focused solution that draws from the very best of the world-leading capabilities from across both organisations. NDC Edge is able to deliver a clear capability advantage across all domains from the headquarters to the tactical level to deliver a decisive impact on the battlefield,” Jenkins said.
The announcement comes the same week that Thales successfully completed the test flight of its UAS 100 system.
Thales executive vice-president of avionics Yannick Assouad outlined that the company's UAS 100 hopes to achieve the military requirements of future UAS systems.
"With this new long-range UAS, Thales is providing the trusted solution needed for civil, government and military inspection and security applications," Assouad noted.
