Microsoft Online Services as a Supply Chain? Really?

Yes, really!  My name is Carri and I am the Director of Sourcing Operations within the Data Center Services team here at Microsoft.  I have been in the Seattle area for 15 years, working organizations with hard-core manufacturing and supply chain focus.  When you think of supply chain, companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, Boeing, PACCAR, etc. all come to mind, but not usually Microsoft. 

 

Wow! I was surprised when I received a call from an operations person from within the Global Foundations Services (GFS) team at Microsoft. GFS is responsible for building and maintaining online capacity at scale for all online Microsoft services and applications globally.   All the things he was saying to me (huge opportunity for supply chain professionals, build-it, and massive supply chain scale) have come true over the last 3 years I have been with Microsoft. 

 

When you think about the Microsoft direction-Devices and Services-it rings true.  Devices: think XBOX, Kinect, etc. obviously must be manufacturing/supply chain/distribution driven.  Boxed software products?  Sure, manufacturing and distribution as well.  But what about online Services and cloud-based applications, the wave of the future?  All of these things have to run in data centers somewhere – and data centers run on hardware!  Hardware is supply chain. Data Centers can be seen as large factories delivering online capacity as finished goods.  Sure, there are huge complexities when it comes to managing and maintaining data center capacity and up-time. Is supply chain different within a Data Center world?  Absolutely, but more and more we are running based on time-tested manufacturing operation philosophy and our Supply Chain team at GFS has grown exponentially in the last 5 years, and we continue to grow. 

 

More and more we are attracting solid supply chain people to our team, rounding out our offering to GFS and making huge changes, building our world.  So Microsoft and Supply Chain?  Yes.  Really!

If you are passionate about making a difference within the Supply Chain industry or want to get a bit more information about our world, simply click on the link – GFS Jobs