Microsoft, SAP to use and sell more of each other's cloud services

LONDON (Reuters) - Business software giants Microsoft Corp and SAP SE have agreed to expand the use of each other’s cloud-based products and services delivered via the internet, they said on Tuesday, as they laid out a common product road map for joint customers.

In a joint statement, Microsoft  said it would use SAP’s S/4 HANA database to help run its core internal financial planning functions - replacing older SAP software, while SAP  said it would run more than a dozen of its critical internal financial systems on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service.

The long-time partners said the latest integration of their products was designed to encourage more of their joint customers to run SAP software on Microsoft Azure cloud services.

Mutual customers include Coca-Cola Co , Columbia Sportswear Co , Coats Ltd and Costco Wholesale Corp .

SAP encourages its customers to run its products not only on Microsoft Azure but also on rival cloud platforms from Amazon , Google , IBM  and SAP’s own in-house cloud services.

The two companies agreed 18 months ago to work together to integrate Microsoft Office 365, the cloud-based version of Microsoft’s flagship productivity software, into SAP, while SAP agreed to run its HANA database software on Microsoft Azure.