Microsoft's New Era: Satya Nadella Launches Cloud-First Strategy

In March 2014, Satya Nadella formally succeeded Steve Ballmer as the third CEO of tech giant Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA. Nadella's appointment signaled a major shift in corporate strategy; he quickly declared a "mobile-first, cloud-first" vision, positioning the Azure cloud computing platform at the core of the company's growth.

Under Nadella's leadership, Microsoft began embracing open-source technology and shifted its focus from traditional Windows licensing to high-growth enterprise services and cloud computing. This change in leadership and strategy led to a historic resurgence for the company, which had been previously viewed as old-fashioned, re-establishing it as one of the world's most valuable corporations.