e&, Microsoft Expand Cloud Partnership With Sustainability as a Service

e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) has expanded its existing Microsoft partnership to increasingly address sustainability goals and priorities for end-customers.

Among the key moves, e& has:

• Selected Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability Solutions as the foundation for e&'s sustainability as a service offering.
• Embraced Microsoft Sustainability Manager as a key tool that unifies data to show customers the impact of their emissions across their supply chains.

e& Business History

e& launched in 1976 as the Emirates telephone company. The firm now positions itself as a technology services provider and investment group. e& operates in 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The company's brands include:

• e& International for telecom services;
• e& Life for smartphone applications;
• e& Enterprise for corporate IT services; and
• e& Capital for acquiring, growing and supporting technology businesses.

e& and Microsoft have a longstanding business relationship -- particularly in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Microsoft launched its UAE data centers in collaboration with e& in 2019. And in 2021, e& Enterprise was named Microsoft Country Partner of the Year for the UAE.

Microsoft Sustainability Partner Ecosystem Grows

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been building sustainability partnerships with ISVs (independent software vendors), global systems integrators and advisory partners, as we reported on March 1, 2023.

Nevertheless, Microsoft faces competition on the sustainability cloud front. Traditional rivals such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud are ramping up their sustainability partnerships. And upstarts such as QiO develop software to help data center providers cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Looking ahead, it’s safe to expect more sustainability partner news at the Microsoft Inspire 2023 conference (July 18-19, online).