Bentley CONNECT Services, Provisioned on Windows Azure, Extend Information Mobility Across Users’ Projects and Assets

LONDON — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 28, 2013 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today announced that Bentley CONNECT Services, to be successively extended to all of Bentley’s software subscribers to complete the reach of project and asset information mobility, will be fully provisioned through the Windows Azure cloud from Microsoft Corp. Windows Azure will unify Bentley’s own software and support enterprise, making it accessible to add value directly in the “live” context of users’ work, through Bentley CONNECT SELECTservices for software administration and technical support and Bentley CONNECT LEARNservices. In addition, it will underlie an incremental business model – enabling Bentley to complete its reach in “software as services” – through Bentley CONNECT MANAGEservices.

Speaking here at The Year in Infrastructure 2013 Conference to the hundreds of owner-operator and contractor thought leaders gathered in London, CEO Greg Bentley reviewed the effective strategies emerging this year – especially among the hundreds of nominated and over 60 jury-selected finalist projects for the prestigious Be Inspired Awards – to take advantage of information mobility for better performance of infrastructure projects and assets. By now comprehensively “connecting through cloud services,” he said, projects could effectively, securely, and immediately augment the information mobility returns on their successful existing internal collaboration initiatives.

To help achieve this, Bentley CONNECT can span users’ project environments across participants, firewalls, supply chains, joint ventures, and disparate vendors’ software, as well as across Bentley’s information modeling application portfolio, Bentley’s ProjectWise collaboration servers, Bentley’s AssetWise servers for operations and maintenance, and Bentley’s growing mobile apps portfolio. Cloud services being previewed for users include Bentley CONNECT Project Sharing Services, Bentley CONNECT i-model Validation Services, Bentley CONNECT Content Services, and Bentley CONNECT Scenario Services.

Bentley’s decision to choose Windows Azure as the technical foundation of Bentley CONNECT allows it to extend its proven capabilities with new services uniquely enabled by an always-on “cloud.” By embracing Windows Azure Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure Services, Bentley is aligned with Microsoft’s commitment to hybrid environments, comprising cloud and on-premises computing – a crucial factor in meeting the unique requirements of organizations that design, build, and operate the world’s infrastructure. In addition, the global footprint of Windows Azure is a major advantage as Bentley users are key contributors to projects worldwide.

Bentley Senior Vice President Alan Kiraly said, “The Windows Azure team has been very collaborative and supportive. We have been impressed with the pace at which Microsoft is adding new data centers and Windows Azure core services in areas such as security, notification, data replication, data synchronization, and big data analytics. We can leverage each of these immediately in our application-level services to further facilitate and streamline our users’ workflows in collaborative and distributed environments.”

“Windows Azure is a scalable and secure cloud platform that provides the opportunity to integrate software and drive company collaboration,” said Dewey Forrester, Microsoft Senior Director. “Bentley has capitalized on the benefits of Windows Azure to extend its current capabilities and offerings to its customers around the globe via the cloud.”

About Bentley Systems, Incorporated

Bentley is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure. Bentley Systems applies information mobility to improve asset performance by leveraging information modeling through integrated projects for intelligent infrastructure. Its solutions encompass the MicroStation platform for infrastructure design and modeling, the ProjectWise platform for infrastructure project team collaboration and work sharing, and the AssetWise platform for infrastructure asset operations – all supporting a broad portfolio of interoperable applications and complemented by worldwide professional services. Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 3,000 colleagues in 50 countries, more than $500 million in annual revenues, and since 2005 has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.

Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com and in Bentley’s annual report. For Bentley news as it happens, subscribe to an RSS feed of Bentley press releases and news alerts. To view a searchable collection of innovative infrastructure projects from the annual Be Inspired Awards, access Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure publications. To access a professional networking site that enables members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from each other, visit Be Communities.

To download the Bentley Infrastructure 500 Top Owners ranking, a unique global compendium of the top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure based on the value of their cumulative infrastructure investments, visit www.bentley.com/500 .