Microsoft Acquires GitHub for $7.5 Billion – What to Expect

Microsoft today announced its acquisition of GitHub. This move has big implications for the cloud world. Github is utilized by developers across the cloud space, so having direct ties to Microsoft may put some people off. However, GitHub has also dealt with scaling issues and unsecure code entering its library. Microsoft’s extensive resources should solve these issues going forward, making GitHub a more reliable resource.

Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella has made it clear that cloud comes first for the company. This is exemplified by the acquisition. Of the acquisition, Nadella stated:

“Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation. We recognize the community responsibility we take on with this agreement and will do our best work to empower every developer to build, innovate, and solve the world’s most pressing problems.”

Nadella says it perfectly, “community responsibility.” GitHub is about more than any of the big cloud companies. This is a community resource, and if Microsoft stays true to this, GitHub will only get better.

GitHub will continue to be an open platform, so developers who aren’t on Azure shouldn’t be worried. Developers can continue to use their preferred programming languages, tools, and operating systems.

There have been predictably mixed opinions about the acquisition from developers. GitHub’s community was never tied to any larger technology company. Microsoft was a major contributor on GitHub, but that hasn’t changed opinions. The acquisition won’t be official until later this year, so there’s no direct experience with Microsoft owning GitHub to use as an example.

It’s clear that Microsoft users will likely gain more from this acquisition than users of other cloud platforms, but there’s no indication it will get worse. Microsoft states, “we will accelerate enterprise developers’ use of GitHub, with our direct sales and partner channels and access to Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure and services.” Thus, customers familiar with Microsoft through Azure will especially benefit from this deal.

As Google and Microsoft battle to catch up to AWS, moves like this will likely continue.

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