SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the BMW Group on Tuesday announced a comprehensive strategic collaboration to further accelerate the automaker's pace of innovation by placing data and analytics at the center of its decision-making.

The companies will combine their strengths to jointly develop cloud-enabled solutions that increase efficiency, performance, and sustainability across every aspect of the automotive life cycle, from vehicle design to after-sales services, the announcement said.

As part of the wide-ranging collaboration, the BMW Group will migrate data from across its business units and operations in over a hundred countries and regions to AWS.

Also, the companies will invest in enabling and training up to 5,000 BMW Group-affiliated software engineers in the AWS technologies and empower the company's global workforce to make better use of data.

"We are making data central to the way we work and we look forward to collaborating with AWS to merge our talents, continuing to raise the bar for innovation among automakers and delivering exciting new experiences for our customers around the world," said Alexander Buresch, CIO and Senior Vice President of BMW Group. He took on the CIO post on Jan. 1 this year after leading the company's strategy and joint ventures in China.

"By combining the domain expertise of the BMW Group with AWS's demonstrated leadership in the cloud, we're expanding our impact across the automotive industry so that stakeholders, from parts manufacturers to mechanics, can benefit from greater visibility and insights," said Matt Garman, AWS's Vice President of Sales and Marketing.