Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studio are among the products recently added to the responsibilities of President Jeff Raikes in a recent reorganization. The move of the Server & Tools organization, which is responsible for those and many other server products, will enable Platform Products & Services President Kevin Johnson to concentrate on the company's online strategy, but it could also complicate Windows development.

Server and Tools Intact, But Moved

Bob Muglia, senior vice president, Server & Tools, now reports to Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's Business Division, rather than to Kevin Johnson as before. Muglia's organization continues to develop and market all the company's server products other than the Office-branded servers (such as Communications Server, Project Server, and SharePoint Server) and Exchange Server, which were already in Raikes's organization.

Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president, Developer & Platform Evangelism, now reports to Muglia rather than Johnson. As before, Parthasarathy's group will market Microsoft's .NET Framework development platform and associated products and tools (most of which fall under Muglia) to developers and IT professionals.

By handing off platform products and marketing to Raikes, Johnson gets some breathing room to work on Microsoft's online services strategy. Johnson's division recently picked up 2,600 employees with the US$6 billion acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising agency and software firm, and the Online Services unit that reports to him has struggled to gain ground on Google in search. The move does add significantly to Raikes's responsibilities—he is now responsible for over half of the company's revenues and operating profits.

Windows Split

Moving Server & Tools to the Business Division puts crucial development organizations for Windows under separate presidents: Windows client (Vista and its successors) and core OS development (such as the kernel for both client and server) continue to report to Johnson, while Windows Server (Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008) development, which is the most active development focus at the moment, falls to Raikes. This could make it harder to settle disputes about technical strategy, changes to the architecture and code, staffing, and budget.

Resolving high-level issues for all Windows OS versions was formerly the responsibility of a single individual—Johnson's predecessor, Jim Allchin. The company's retiring chief software architect, Bill Gates, also played an important role. However, Allchin has left the company, and Gates's successor Ray Ozzie, like Johnson, focuses primarily on the company's online strategy. Hopefully, the senior executives for Windows—Bob Muglia for server, Stephen Sinofsky for client, and Jon DeVaan for core—will be able to resolve any differences over Windows themselves.

New Vertical Strategist, Macintosh Leaders

Other notable changes to the organization since Mar. 2007 include the following:

Brian Scott has been named vice president, Worldwide Commercial Sector, where he will be responsible for vertical industry strategy in manufacturing, retail/hospitality, and financial services. Scott formerly led the company's worldwide retail and hospitality unit. He replaces Peter Boit, who vacated the position in late 2006 to lead strategy for enterprise partners. Scott will report to Simon Witts, who is corporate vice president, Enterprise and Partner Group.

Craig Eisler has rejoined Microsoft as general manager, Macintosh Business Unit, responsible for all Macintosh product development and marketing. He replaces Roz Ho, whose new position has not been announced. Eisler was one of the original architects of the DirectX graphics API, which has since become the primary graphics API for Windows and Xbox. He went on to serve as the CEO of Action Engine, a vendor of mobile device portal and search software, from 2000 to 2004, and led AOL's wireless unit before rejoining Microsoft this year.

For an updated view of the Microsoft corporate organization, see the online version of the Directions on Microsoft OrgChart.