Amazon Web Services Inc. today said it has landed a significant win in the shipping industry, signing up Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. as a customer on its public cloud platform.

Samsung Heavy Industries is a major shipbuilder that also builds computer systems and other technology for seafaring vessels. The company is currently developing an autonomous shipping platform for container ships, oil tankers and floating production systems that will enable autonomous self-piloting. It’s also building systems to optimize navigation and loading machinery.

The company will use AWS’ cloud platform for tasks including augmented reality, data analytics and machine learning, as well as for basic compute and storage. This entails a variety of AWS services, including its Elastic Compute Cloud, Relational Database Service, Simple Storage Solution, Key Management Service and CloudTrail.

Samsung Heavy Industries has already employed Amazon’s Redshift database to create a ship navigation system. In addition, it uses Amazon’s Polly and Lex machine learning services to provide real-time alerts on the condition of customers’ ships, allowing them to undertake maintenance of these vessels when necessary. And it’s planning to use Amazon’s Sumerian virtual reality service to create a virtual cockpit for training simulations.

“By leveraging AWS, we’ve successfully released several smart shipping systems so that our customers can manage their ships and fleets more efficiently, and we continue to test new capabilities for ocean-bound vessel navigation and automation,” Dongyeon Lee, director of ship & offshore performance research center at Samsung Heavy Industries, said in a statement.

Samsung Heavy Industries will also use AWS’ security services to build a secure and highly scalable environment for smart ship technology.

For AWS, Samsung Heavy Industries is a big win that helps to boost its presence in Asia and serves as a nice customer reference for its new machine learning services. The announcement is the latest in a string of big customer wins for AWS this year, following the likes of Oath Inc., the subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc. that went all-in on Amazon in May, as well as Comcast Cable and GoDaddy Inc., which signed up earlier in the year.

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