Microsoft lays off staffers from its Azure division

While the Insider report cites a source claiming that at least 1,500 staffers were impacted, another person in the know of things suggested that the number might be highly inflated, at least for the AFO team.

The AFO team conducts research and development in multiple areas of networking, security, and systems. “We build working systems, engage with academia, publish scientific papers, publish software for the research community, and deploy cutting-edge technologies to Azure and our customers,” according to the Microsoft portal.

On the other hand, Microsoft’s Mission Engineering team, which is a part of the company’s Strategic Missions and Technologies (SMT) team, focused on areas such as space.