Microsoft Azerbaijan, the representative office of the global IT giant in Azerbaijan, is closing. According to haqqin.az, this statement was made by President of Azerbaijani Internet Forum Osman Gunduz. He says that the head of Microsoft representative office in Azerbaijan and most of its employees have already stopped their work.

"To be more precise, they have been dismissed. Our friends whom we knew in this sector for many years are no longer working for Microsoft Azerbaijan. Apparently, Microsoft did not offer these employees to work in the offices of other countries," the expert said.

According to Gunduz, this situation is like a thunderstorm from a clear sky for the Azerbaijani government, including the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport: "Although the HP office in our country was closed several years ago, no one foresaw the departure of Microsoft.

This company is a global infrastructure that influences and manages the IT environment around the world, promotes innovation and affects the world order as a whole. Its departure from Azerbaijan is simply unthinkable.

According to the expert, Microsoft also ceased its work in Russia and Belarus, and more than 500 employees of the Russian Microsoft office were dismissed at once. So who will implement Microsoft's projects and commitments related to Azerbaijan? What will happen with the use of Windows and updates for this software, as well as what will now be the fate of applications such as Office, Office365, Azure and other licensed programs? What will happen to contracts with government agencies? And what will Microsoft's millions of customers have to prepare for? How will it all be supported and managed?

"It turns out that all areas of Microsoft's activities in Azerbaijan will now be coordinated from this company's offices located in other countries. For example, as strange and unbelievable as it may sound, but Microsoft solutions in the educational sphere of Azerbaijan (for example, MS Teams, etc.) will be managed by someone in the Georgian office. Someone else, for example in the Irish office of this company will be responsible for issues related to Microsoft solutions in state institutions of Azerbaijan," Gunduz said.

The expert believes that Microsoft's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani market should worry the country's top leadership and cause a response. The company has not yet released official information on the closure of its Azerbaijani office. There are also no details about the reasons for the company's withdrawal from the country's market.