Case Study: AccuWeather achieves real-time, scalable weather intelligence and lifesaving impact with Microsoft Azure

Weathering the storm: Big data and cloud technologies safeguard lives and businesses worldwide

AccuWeather, a 50-year-old global weather company serving 1.5 billion people, faced the challenge of delivering accurate, real-time forecasts and weather-driven business insights at massive scale. The company needed a globally distributed, scalable platform to handle surging API demand (now about 17 billion requests per day) and to provide near-real-time business intelligence so operations, sales and advertising decisions could respond to rapidly changing weather.

AccuWeather migrated its APIs and analytics to Microsoft Azure, adopted Cortana Intelligence Suite and Azure services, and deployed Dynamics 365 and Office 365 to unify CRM/ERP and analytics. The move tripled capacity since 2012 and cut BI lag from weeks to days (moving toward real time), enabled MinuteCast worldwide, and produced tangible results — stopping trains ahead of a tornado, giving retailers five days’ notice before a blizzard, and helping companies optimize supply chains, saving lives and millions of dollars.

AccuWeather

Chris Patti

Chief Technology Officer