Toyota is working with Microsoft to bring applications and data services running on Microsoft's Azure platform to electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.   

The apps themselves sound somewhat underwhelming at this point, but the arrangement signals a major change underway in IT's place in the corporation, writes Chris Murphy at InformationWeek.

"The deal is one more piece of evidence for IT leaders that they must look at their companies' products, whatever those products are, and ask: 'How does IT fit into them in a new way? What can we do now--with mobile data, cloud computing, social networks--that we couldn't before?'" Murphy writes.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, who joined Steve Ballmer in Richmond, Wash., to herald their partnership, said that the initiative will make autos more valuable as "information terminals."

The partnership will put Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to the test, Murphy writes.  The applications will be developed in Azure, so Toyota won't need to use its data centers to deliver them, and its capacity will be scalable without the need to invest in lots of extra servers.  Also, it will pay for computing on a usage basis.

As Murphy points out, by using Azure, Toyota may be able to smoothly integrate data from a variety of sources.  For example, a vehicle owner potentially could determine the best times to charge the battery by merging the vehicle's data with data about electricity prices. 

"[I]n theory the Azure platform also could become something like an app store for a Toyota vehicle, letting third-party developers innovate software for the vehicles, if Toyota allows them," he writes.

For more:
- see Chris Murphy's post at InformationWeek

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