How Kyndryl and Microsoft plan to unleash new levels of business and IT innovation

Three years after establishing a strong global alliance, Kyndryl and Microsoft continue to jointly create innovative solutions to address the complex challenges business leaders face. This alliance taps into Kyndryl’s extensive expertise in managing large IT estates and Microsoft’s cutting-edge technologies to deliver support in security and artificial intelligence (AI).

By integrating responsible AI principles to support data security and compliance, Kyndryl and Microsoft are helping customers navigate and overcome their most difficult business challenges. The broadening partnership focuses on developing industry-specific models and solutions to enhance enterprise automation and productivity. For instance, the deployment of Microsoft 365 Copilot has been particularly transformative, with nearly 20,000 licenses rolled out and over 600 use cases approved. This initiative has boosted employee efficiency and productivity, demonstrating the tangible benefits of the partnership. 

“As a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), Kyndryl is uniquely positioned to assist customers with Identity, Threat Protection, Data Protection and Security Operations,” said Gonzalo Escajadillo Revilla, Senior Vice President of Alliances at Kyndryl. “These efforts are built on a robust zero-trust framework and are supported by Kyndryl’s Security Operations as a platform (SOaap). This alignment supports our customers in effectively managing their security needs in an increasingly complex digital landscape.”

Here, Escajadillo Revilla shares how businesses can harness the full power of AI, use Microsoft 365 Copilot services to improve results and be risk-ready.

How does the partnership aim to address customer skills gaps, integrate mainframes with cloud resources, or migrate to Microsoft Azure while boosting ROI?

Kyndryl’s commitment to skills development is a key part of our partnership with Microsoft, with over 30,000 certifications in Microsoft technologies and counting. Our extensive experience managing mainframes for critical systems worldwide, combined with our expertise in modern IT systems on Microsoft Cloud, allows us to offer a comprehensive range of capabilities for mainframe modernization. By working closely with Microsoft, we can help customers transition their mainframe applications to Azure with minimal disruption, enhance these applications through data estate modernization with Microsoft Fabric and custom Copilots, and establish secure, resilient architectures on Azure that rival the reliability of private data center mainframes.

What is significant about Microsoft selecting Kyndryl to participate in and support its RISE with SAP migration program? 

Kyndryl is one of a handful of SAP RISE Managed Service Model partners. This recognition of our outstanding skills in this space further aligns Kyndryl with SAP and opens the opportunity to partner with Microsoft on SAP RISE with Azure. This allows Kyndryl and Microsoft to collaborate and focus on helping our clients transform their business by leveraging more Azure Cloud capabilities, including data modernization and extending SAP with generative AI.

How has the Microsoft relationship evolved since forming Kyndryl’s first global strategic alliance in 2021?

When we embarked on this important relationship, we set ambitious goals and initially focused on building relationships and learning to work together as Kyndryl became an independent company. We are dedicated to helping our customers tackle their most critical issues. We met and exceeded those goals in our third year. The partnership continues to grow and will remain vital for Kyndryl and our customers’ future.