Microsoft engineering groups are the operating divisions ofMicrosoft. Starting in April 2002, Microsoft organised itself into seven groups, each an independent financial entity.[1] In September 2005, Microsoft announced a reorganization of its then seven groups into three.[2] In July 2013, Microsoft announced another reorganization into five engineering groups and six corporate affairs groups.[3] A year later, in June 2015, Microsoft reformed into three engineering groups.[4] In September 2016, a new group was created to focus onartificial intelligence and research.[5] On March 29, 2018, a new structure merged all of these into three.[6][7]
This group produces consumer and enterprise experiences, spanning from Windows products and devices to Microsoft 365 productivity subscription solution. Experiences and Devices is led by Rajesh Jha; Windows and Devices is led by Panos Panay; Office Product Group is led by Joe Belfiore; Web Experiences and Advertising is led by Mikhail Parakhin.
Windows IoT – designed specifically for use inIoT scenarios such as on devices where the OS may not directly be visible to the end user; in particular, home appliances,home automation, auto-motives, industry devices etc.[11]
Bing (known previously as Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search) is aweb search engine (advertised as a "decision engine"[27]) fromMicrosoft. As of October 2018[update], Bing is the third largest search engine globally, with a query volume of 4.58%, behindGoogle (77%) andBaidu (14.45%).[28] A complete list of search offerings from Bing can be foundhere. Under Bing, below non-search offerings are also listed:
Bing Ads – an advertising service that providespay per click advertising on various search engines.[29]
MSN is aweb portal and related collection ofInternet services andapps forWindows andmobile devices, provided byMicrosoft. It was launched in August 1995. The current website and suite of apps offered by MSN was first introduced by Microsoft in 2014 as part of a complete redesign and relaunch.[34] The redesign of MSN proved positive and helped increase traffic with an additional ten million daily visitors after two months.[35] MSN is based in theUnited States and offers international versions of its portal for dozens of countries around the world.[36]
This group focuses on building the core foundations. It was originally the Cloud and Enterprise group until March 2018, when it was expanded with the Windows core platform team merged into it. Led byScott Guthrie.
Microsoft Azure[37] is the company's cloud computing platform that hostsvirtual machines,websites and more. It provides both platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) services and supports many different programming languages, tools and frameworks, including both Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems. It was launched in 2010. Within the Azure team
Microsoft Visual Studio[38] the set ofprogramming tools andcompilers. The software product is GUI-oriented and links easily with theWindows APIs but must be specially configured if used with non-Microsoft libraries. Visual Studio supports development for both nativeWindows platform and.NET Framework. It was launched in 1995.
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications. Microsoft Dynamics was previously a separate engineering unit until it got reorganised into the Cloud & Enterprise Group in June 2015.[39]
Microsoft Servers[40] (previously called Windows Server System) is a brand that encompassesMicrosoft'sserver products. This includes theWindows Server editions of theMicrosoft Windowsoperating system itself, as well as products targeted at the wider business market.[41] Microsoft's server products are further categorized into four groups namely, Operating systems, Productivity, Security and Microsoft System Center. A complete listing of product offerings can be foundhere.
In July 2016, Microsoft moved the Windows Server team and its related products to the Windows and Devices Group, further justifying one Windows core across all platforms.[42]
In 2016, Microsoft made plans to operate an experimentalunderwater server farm off the coast ofOrkney.[41] Thenitrogen-atmosphere enclosed server farm was actually moved into position under the sea in May 2018, and included 855 servers. Powered exclusively by electricity from theSun andwind, the server farm operated for two years, until May 2020, when the experiment ended, the enclosed tube was recovered, and brought to the surface for analysis. Preliminary results showed only 8 of the 855 servers failed during the two-year test, a failure rate of just 1/8 that of Microsoft's above ground server farms.[43][needs update]
This group was created in September 2016 to emphasize the company's presence on artificial intelligence. It was formed when parts of the former Apps and Services group came together with the research team to form a fourth engineering group.[5][44] Led byHarry Shum.
Microsoft Research was created with the intent to advance state of the art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers.
