How Microsoft Organizes IT

Reporting to Microsoft’s CIO are groups that support Microsoft’s business applications, provide basic IT services for Microsoft employees, and manage the infrastructure those applications and services run on. Examining the structure and makeup of Microsoft’s IT organization could prove instructive to IT managers in other companies with Windows-based infrastructures.

Organization is Service Oriented

Microsoft’s IT organization has more than 3,500 workers, half of whom are full-time Microsoft employees (“blue badges” in Microsoft lingo) and half of whom are contract or vendor employees. The organization is largely centralized in Redmond, where most blue-badge IT employees reside.

Reporting to Microsoft’s CIO are groups that are collectively responsible for:

• Supporting Microsoft’s business applications, such as Siebel, SAP, and Office
• The core IT services, such as file and print services, e-mail, and remotes access, used by Microsoft employees and the infrastructure those applications