(c)iStock.com/Valerie Loiseleux

IBM has announced that financial and HR cloud app provider Workday has signed up for its cloud services in what has been described as a “multi-year strategic partnership.”

The deal, first reported in the Wall Street Journal, means IBM’s cloud will become the primary platform for Workday’s development and testing projects – with the latter intending to expand their use ‘over time’. The two companies already partner on various initiatives; IBM uses Workday’s human capital management program for its own workforce, while Big Blue acquired Meteorix, a Workday services partner, in 2015.

“IBM and Workday are both delivering transformative applications and services in the cloud,” said Aneel Bhusri, Workday CEO and co-founder in a statement. “Workday will use IBM Cloud to continue accelerating Workday’s internal development and testing efforts to support our ongoing global expansion.” “Leading enterprises like Workday continue to turn to IBM Cloud for its global reach, flexibility, and resiliency,” added Robert LeBlanc, IBM cloud senior vice president. “Though a preferred cloud partnership with IBM, Workday can accelerate its innovation efforts to better serve clients around the world.”

According to recent industry research, IBM is firmly entrenched in the top five cloud infrastructure services players. The most recent quarterly analysis from Synergy Research argues that IBM is ranked third, ahead of Google but behind Microsoft and, unsurprisingly, AWS. IBM’s 57% year over year growth puts it behind Microsoft (100%) and Google (162%), but ahead of Amazon (53%).

On a slightly different note, analysis from IHS Markit put the same four companies in the leaders’ section for off-premises cloud IT infrastructure service leadership, but put AWS in fourth place based on market momentum and presence.