ACI Worldwide announced an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to collaborate on using public cloud infrastructure to store data from banks, fintechs and other financial companies. 

Per the agreement, ACI will license its Universal Payments technology to customers for implementation powered by Microsoft Azure cloud computing service. ACI said its on-premises customers will benefit from enhanced security, as well as reduction in long-term capital expenditure, adopting a scalable model for cloud-based infrastructure.

"A key theme we keep hearing from clients is that they are looking for ACI to make the journey to the cloud easy for them, and our partnership with Microsoft is a key part of this journey," Ciaran Chu, payments cloud lead at ACI Worldwide, told Mobile Payments Today via email. "We have a number of mutual clients who will gain value in their journey to the cloud through the ACI and Microsoft collaboration."

Chu said that ACI's first global Tier 1 bank went live with the Azure collaboration last week and a second client is on schedule to go live during the first half of 2020. 

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