Packaging provider DS Smith has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider with the aim of accelerating innovation, driving efficiencies and supporting sustainable solutions.

DS Smith will focus on leveraging data to drive growth and efficiency across its business, including real-time monitoring of manufacturing capacity and supply chain management in support of key sustainability targets.

AWS is providing its global infrastructure, analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies – including AWS’s generative AI services.

DS Smith plans to construct a data factory using AWS, to bring together data from across its business including machinery, facilities, logistics, processes and products.

Companies across the packaging industry are increasingly investing in cloud and AI solutions, including Georgia-Pacific and US Steel.  

DS Smith group chief information officer Claire Dickson commented: “Digital and data solutions will revolutionise the way we grow, support our customers and tackle some of our planet’s biggest sustainability challenges. Our business has changed dramatically over the last decade. It could be unrecognisable within another.”

AWS general manager UKI Jeff Johnson added: “This move will enable DS Smith to accelerate transformation and innovation by increasingly putting data at the heart of its business.”

According to GlobalData’s profile on DS Smith, the company recently filed a patent for a blank made of corrugated cardboard that can be folded into a box.