Microsoft ‘To Cut’ Thousands Of Jobs As It Focuses On Cloud Sales

Microsoft has confirmed thousands of jobs across its global workforce as part of a major reorgnisation designed to push its cloud services – including Office 365 and Azure.

According to the BBC, most of the cuts will be outside the US and will disproportionately impact its sales teams. It is unclear how many jobs will be lost in the UK.

The cuts had been expected, with some speculating that Microsoft would trim sales staff who have been trained at selling desktop and server based software, rather than the cloud services which comprise of Microsoft’s burgeoning portfolio.

Concentrating on the cloud

In the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service battle against Amazon Web Services, it is no surprise that Microsoft with its Azure cloud platform wants to double down on its efforts to attract people to chose its cloud infrastructure over that of Amazon or Google Cloud Platform.

Furthermore, Microsoft has been investing heavily into creating cloud-hosted software portfolios, including features such as virtual assistant Cortana.

As such, it does not come as too much of a surprise that Microsoft should want to have a sales tram trained and equipped at selling such services, rather then leaving them to sell traditional software, an area that made Microsoft the technology giant it is today.

Cloud, alongside the processing and analysing of data, is a major part of the Microsoft of now and tomorrow, given how chief executive Satya Nadella has all but enshrined the heightened position of cloud in Microsoft’s strategy, but championing its ability to help businesses undergo the much discussed doctrine of digital transformation.

Take our Microsoft quiz here!