Bentley Systems, Microsoft accelerate digital twin alliance

Bentley Systems and Microsoft have confirmed an expansion of a strategic alliance focused on advancing infrastructure for smart city urban planning and smart construction.

The partnership will combine Microsoft’s Azure IoT Digital Twins and Azure Maps with Bentley Systems’ iTwins platform that enables engineers, architects, constructors and city planners to work within a comprehensive city-scale digital twin, empowering better decision-making, optimising operational efficiency, reducing costs and improving collaboration.

The two companies will work together to develop new smart city solutions and explore opportunities for digital twins in urban planning and citizen engagement for cities globally. The partnership will allow for improved decision-making and enhanced productivity through Microsoft Teams for infrastructure engineers.

“At Bentley we believe that infrastructure digital twins can empower engineers, constructors and owner-operators to design, build and operate infrastructure assets that are more cost-effective, more resilient and more sustainable,” said Greg Bentley, CEO, Bentley Systems. “With Azure as the foundation of our cloud services, our offerings are more broadly scaled and differentiated by the further integrations of Microsoft technologies. We are excited to extend our partnership to bring new digital twin advances to infrastructure engineering organizations and their constituents.”

Casey McGee, vice president Partner Development, US One Commercial Partner, Microsoft, added that through Azure IoT, Azure Digital Twins and Bentley’s iTwins platform, the world’s infrastructure stands to gain through allowing people to create comprehensive digital models of an entire environment. “Our expanded strategic alliance with Bentley Systems opens up new opportunities for innovation and will accelerate the benefits of digital twins for infrastructure engineering organisations and, more broadly, society at large.”