Microsoft has re-organized their cloud, artificial intelligence and data platform business units to sharpen their focus on emerging technologies.
A new Cloud AI Platform organisation led by Corporate Vice President Joseph Sirosh has been created, which will oversee Azure Search, Azure Machine Learning, the Microsoft Bot Framework, R Server and the Algorithms and Data Science Solution team. The unit will report directly to Scott Guthrie, the Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group.
Microsoft is also creating a new Business Applications Group, headed up by Corporate Vice President James Phillips, which will cover “Customer Engagement Solutions” (ie Dynamics CRM), Power BI, Dynamics ERP family of products, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, the Azure Portal and SQL Server Reporting and Analysis service.
The Azure Growth + Ecosystems unit, headed by Corporate Vice President Charlotte Yarkoni, and focused on getting more developers, enterprises, ISVs and other partners to go, Azure, will now also manage Azure Marketplace and AppSource.
The changes are focussed on what has become Microsoft’s most reliable growth engine, which has driven the company’s share price to an all-time high in recent weeks. The reorganisation is not expected to result in any job losses.