Bridgestone & AWS to Launch New Digital Solutions

Bridgestone Corporation (Bridgestone) announced the company is using Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as its strategic cloud provider in support of the company’s sustainable mobility solutions.

According to a release, using AWS Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and analytics/business intelligence services, Bridgestone will accelerate the creation of digital platforms to launch new solutions for its customers, improve data analysis, and streamline IT operations. The company noted that this relationship further marks a milestone in the Bridgestone 3.0 journey toward enhanced corporate value that merges business strategies with sustainability initiatives.

As part of the relationship, Bridgestone will work with AWS’s ProServe and AWS Marketplace teams to enhance its existing fleet solutions and bring concepts like a Bridgestone marketplace to life. The Bridgestone fleet solutions and service-centric marketplace concept will provide a comprehensive selection of services and solutions to fleet managers to proactively assess fleet needs and reduce vehicle downtime. With these digitally enabled solutions, Bridgestone noted that fleet managers will have greater insights into the health of their fleets, proactive maintenance needs, access to a broad network of service providers, and scheduling and digital payment options that ultimately unlock customer and social value.

“AWS has helped strengthen and modernize our Americas business for several years and we’re excited to grow our relationship across global operations,” said Paolo Ferrari, joint global chief operating officer, Bridgestone Corporation, and president & CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “Using AWS platforms, we will transform the way we provide services and solutions to our customers to enhance the digital customer experience Bridgestone offers while also modernizing our business operations and improving data analytics capabilities.”

Bridgestone will provide its entire IT organization in the Americas region with access to AWS’s comprehensive cloud training curriculum and resources to continue building cloud fluency across its organization. Over the next five years, Bridgestone is committed to providing training resources and ongoing education to several hundred technology professionals across geographies to improve their understanding of AWS technologies that enable increased speed of cloud adoption and the development of new customer-facing and internal capabilities. This initiative is part of Bridgestone’s commitment to retain and offer continuous development opportunities to its teammates.

In addition, Bridgestone will migrate its North American data centers to AWS and will continue building new system application and products (SAP) environments on AWS. Through decreased energy usage and reduction in hardware asset waste, this migration to the cloud supports  Bridgestone’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and will help Bridgestone deliver its “Efficiency,” “Extension” and “Economy” values as part of the Bridgestone E8 Commitment. Bridgestone and AWS will focus future efforts on sustainability innovations designed to help contribute to Bridgestone's 2050 sustainability goals of carbon neutrality and making tires from 100% renewable resources.

“AWS provides the most comprehensive suite of cloud offerings to enable automotive leaders to build applications that touch every point in the customer journey. With Bridgestone’s extensive domain expertise and AWS’s cloud leadership, we’re expanding our impact across the automotive landscape and unlocking new industry solutions to make the mobility of the future a reality today,” said Uwem Ukpong, VP of Global Services, Amazon Web Services, Inc.

This announcement is the latest development in a long-standing relationship between Bridgestone and AWS. Bridgestone has worked with AWS for several years, most recently in its Akron Mobility Lab, located in Akron, Ohio, to develop a system that delivers insights derived from the interaction between a tire and a vehicle using advanced machine learning capabilities delivered through Amazon SageMaker -- all without installing any additional hardware on the car.