Microsoft – The World’s Largest Software Company
Microsoft is a software company that produces the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office application suite. It is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States. It is the world’s largest software maker as measured by revenue in 2019.
Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft was originally a supplier of computer software to the hardware manufacturers. However, as technology advanced and personal computers became increasingly popular, Microsoft’s market share increased. In the 1980s, it became a significant player in the operating systems (OS) industry, with MS-DOS, released with the IBM PC, gaining a large market share.
Since its founding, Microsoft has expanded into a number of related businesses such as mouse and keyboard production, Xbox production, virtual reality, computer networking, internet services, and smart-phone development. It has also started to focus on cloud computing, which now accounts for a large portion of its business.
The company has faced several legal cases over its monopolistic practices and has been fined in many countries for these actions. For example, the European Union fined the company EUR497.2 million in 2004 for anti-competitive practices.
In the 1990s, Microsoft started to develop its own hardware products, namely the mouse and keyboard. These products were designed for use with its software, and were primarily targeted at business users.
Currently, Microsoft has a strong presence in the cloud computing space and it offers an extensive range of cloud services. Those include the Azure platform, which allows organizations to store data in the cloud and access it from anywhere with an internet connection. The company has a strong emphasis on securing their cloud environments.
A key part of this strategy is activity logging, which gives clients the ability to watch their data traffic in the cloud. This service is essential to help agencies track hackers’ activities as they worm their way into networks, and it has become an important source of revenue for Microsoft.
Hackers have used a number of flaws in the way Microsoft’s security products operate to launch a series of large-scale attacks targeting government agencies and private companies, including Russian spying and recent hacks by China that relied on four vulnerabilities in its Exchange servers. Lawmakers have been pushing the company to fix these vulnerabilities, but Microsoft has said it prioritizes fixing those that are most visible and widespread.
As a result, Microsoft has seen its stock price skyrocket over the past few years. CEO Satya Nadella has been successful in shifting the company’s focus from the traditional “Windows or nothing” philosophy to a more diverse array of products, mainly in the cloud.
The company’s revenue has grown 40% each year, and its stock is trading at a record high. The company has also been aggressively focusing on cybersecurity, with its security offerings now making up a major chunk of its revenue.
As the company’s popularity increases, it will have to continue finding ways to stay relevant. The future of the company will be dependent on its ability to adapt to new technologies and markets, while also remaining profitable.
