MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Studios (Disney) has entered a five-year deal with Microsoft to move key parts of its movie-making and distribution processes to the cloud. Under the new partnership, the initial focus will be on moving some of the studio’s editing to the cloud.

According to a report from Variety, Disney’s StudioLab, an internal innovation incubation lab, will lead the deal. The ultimate goal is to use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform all the way “from scene to screen”.

“There are tons of benefits of being in the cloud,”  Walt Disney Studios chief technology officer Jamie Voris said as quoted by Variety. He also added that cloud-based editing will allow Walt Disney Studios to more easily collaborate across multiple locations. He explained that working collaboratively on the same project in the cloud will also cut down the need to store and administer many different copies of a file.

“It really feels like we are at the tipping point for cloud in media and entertainment,” said Microsoft US president Kate Johnson. "We like to think of us as the platform cloud for media and entertainment,” she added further. Disney opted for Microsoft because other cloud competitors weren't as focused on the media space.