Microsoft and NEC have established a new multi-year strategic alliance, that synthesizes Azure, Microsoft 365, NEC’s IT and network portfolio resources, including 5G assets, and both companies AI and IoT capabilities to power customer digital transformation missions across the public and private realms. Futurum’s Ron Westfall assesses why the expanded partnership enhances Microsoft Azure’s competitive prospects across the operator and enterprise realms, coming on the heels of winning AT&T’s 5G mobile business, and how both companies are better positioned to drive organization-wide digital transformation on a vertical-specific basis.