3 min Devops

Microsoft moves GitHub to Azure servers

Microsoft moves GitHub to Azure servers

Microsoft is fully integrating GitHub into its own company and moving the development platform’s servers to Azure.

According to Neowin, this is evident from internal communications that have recently been made public. The move marks a clear shift in direction since the departure of CEO Thomas Dohmke, who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down at the end of 2025 to launch a new startup. Instead of appointing a new CEO, Microsoft has decided to place GitHub under the internal CoreAI organization, which is responsible for the group’s artificial intelligence activities.

Dohmke had been at the helm of GitHub since the end of 2021, following the departure of Nat Friedman. Under his leadership, the platform experienced significant growth, with more than 150 million developers and over a billion repositories. He focused strongly on integrating artificial intelligence into development processes, particularly through GitHub Copilot, which has grown into a comprehensive AI assistant that can generate, analyze, and improve code.

GitHub Advanced Security and GitHub Actions were also further expanded, enabling developers to resolve vulnerabilities more quickly and automate workflows more efficiently. In his announcement, Dohmke stated that GitHub plays a key role in making AI accessible to developers worldwide. After his departure, the platform will become a full part of Microsoft’s CoreAI division, ending the period of relative independence that GitHub has enjoyed since its acquisition in 2018.

Capacity problems in data centers

According to internal information, GitHub has been struggling with capacity issues in its data centers for some time, particularly in the Northern Virginia region. Chief Technology Officer Vladimir Fedorov said in a memo that the platform cannot further expand its current infrastructure and that a switch to Azure is necessary to continue growing. He reportedly indicated that the migration is essential to meet the increasing demand for AI applications and support Copilot’s growth.

According to GitHub, the move to the Microsoft cloud is a huge operation that requires considerable effort from the technical teams. New features will be given lower priority temporarily, allowing developers to focus entirely on the migration process. The majority of the transition is expected to be completed within a year, with GitHub running entirely on Azure within two years. Fedorov indicated that the CoreAI and Azure departments are working closely together to provide all the necessary capacity and resources for the project.

Migration to Azure inevitable

Chief Operating Officer Kyle Daigle confirmed that the switch was a conscious decision to make the platform future-proof. He emphasized that GitHub needs to be able to scale up more quickly to keep pace with the growth in developer activity and AI-driven work processes. The current infrastructure was reaching its limits, making migration to Azure inevitable.

The integration of GitHub into CoreAI goes beyond a mere technical move. Employees are also being told that they will switch from Slack to Microsoft Teams for internal communication, in order to simplify collaboration with other departments within Microsoft. With this move, Microsoft appears to be gradually dismantling the independence that GitHub has largely retained since the acquisition.

Although GitHub is expected to maintain its own identity, the current course indicates that the platform is being increasingly incorporated into Microsoft’s broader strategy around artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure. The coming years will reveal whether this closer integration will enable GitHub to innovate faster, or whether it will mark a period in which the independent culture of the developer platform becomes increasingly overshadowed.