In an effort to enhance its services and foster technological advancement, Microsoft has chosen to transfer the ownership and ongoing development of Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS) to the Africa Development Centre (ADC) in Nairobi. Azure AD DS, a Microsoft Security product generating $40 million in annual revenue and boasting 300,000 enterprise global customers, will now be nurtured under the ADC’s watchful eye.

This significant move signifies Microsoft’s continued commitment to empowering and cultivating technological skills and talent within Africa. The decision to entrust Azure AD DS to the ADC demonstrates the company’s unwavering faith in the existing talent pool at the center.

According to Catherine Muraga, Managing Director of Microsoft ADC, the increased investment in the center serves a dual purpose. Not only does it seek to expand product ownership within ADC, but it also aims to foster the growth of subject matter experts in the field. This presents a remarkable opportunity to showcase the center’s remarkable progress and its substantial impact. Ms. Muraga, in her role as Engineering Director, will spearhead the teams dedicated to the development of this product.

Azure Active Directory Domain Services comprises a range of features that empower Microsoft customers to establish and manage their organizational identities on Azure cloud services. These identities enable customers to seamlessly migrate or operate software applications from their physical servers to Azure cloud services.

By leveraging an Azure AD DS-managed domain, organizations gain the ability to run applications that cannot employ modern authentication methods in the cloud. Such legacy applications can be effortlessly shifted from on-premises environments to a managed domain, eliminating the need for deploying, managing, or patching domain controllers.

This announcement follows a recent visit by Igor Sakhnov, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Engineering, who conducted a thorough review of ADC’s operations and its partnerships aimed at bolstering the capacity for tech talent. The center, in collaboration with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, has recently concluded a joint curriculum review process and is actively providing skills training to university lecturers. These efforts are designed to enhance the tech talent pipeline and reinforce the center’s impact in the industry.