Information technology consulting and technology services giant Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. said Tuesday it will acquire New Signature LLC, a company that specializes in application development and cloud migration in Microsoft Corp. Azure environments.

The deal, which is Cognizant’s fifth cloud-related acquisition of the year, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020. Terms weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition will create the foundation for a newly formed Microsoft Business Group within Cognizant centered on Microsoft cloud. New Signature is exclusively focused on Microsoft technologies, including Azure, Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365. The company employs more than 500 technology professionals in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

Cognizant, which began life as an India-based Y2K remediation and web development company, has been aggressively diversifying and expanding its focus on public cloud migration and development services. Cognizant already has premier partner relationships with Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google LLC and was named a 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year in three categories. The company employs more than 290,000 people globally, about half of them in India.

New Signature specializes in service for the media, financial, government, healthcare, manufacturing and retail vertical industries. Recent projects included a cloud migration for Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., an “internet of things” project at The Hershey Co. and a map of all 100,000 public defibrillators in the U.K. The acquired company is one of 70 certified Azure Expert Managed Service Providers worldwide, has 16 Gold Microsoft Competencies or specializations and was named the 2019 Microsoft U.K. Partner of the Year.

Photo: Cognizant/Flickr