Siemens has signed a deal with Alibaba to utilize Alibaba cloud, the online giant’s cloud computing arm to deploy its digital operating system called MindSphere. The deal is one among a plethora of commercial Sino-German accords reportedly worth 20 billion euros. The occasion had both countries’ leaders commit to a multilateral global trade order in spite of a trade war with the United States brewing in the distance.

It has been reported that the deal will prove beneficial to China’s industry. Siemens, which until recently was only dependent on online platforms such as Amazon’s Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure to offer its digital products will now utilize Alibaba Cloud for the same.

China is Siemens’s third largest market and the company hopes that this deal will help it get a more secure footing to make further inroads in the country.

Siemens had been competing with other firms in the rapidly-developing digital industries business to balance itself by addressing flaws in other aspects of its business such as large gas turbines.

Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser has reportedly said that this is a landmark deal that will bring Industry 4.0 solutions to the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, China.

For the uninitiated, MindSphere is a cloud-based, open IoT operating system that is designed to connect products, systems, machines and factories, by collecting information from a range of sensors installed in production lines. It also aims to increase efficiency and lower machinery down-time.

The division improved sales by 13% and profit by 40% in its most recent quarter, supported by significant growth in China.

Siemens also touched on its plans to work on heavy-duty gas turbines with State Power Investment Corporation, one of China's top five power generators.

Both companies signed an agreement to deploy Siemens’ Internet of Things (IoT) products to connect various manufacturing devices in China. Under the agreement both companies seemingly look forward to deploying MindSphere on the Alibaba Cloud by 2019.