Microsoft Corp. is reportedly preparing to lay off hundreds of employees from its Azure cloud business amid ongoing layoffs across the tech industry as various tech companies seek to rein in costs.

Business Insider, citing people familiar with the matter, claims that the layoffs will affect at least a couple of teams, including Azure for Operations and Mission Engineering. One of the sources also claims that the Azure for Operations layoffs could involve as many as 1,500 job cuts.

The Azure for Operations team focuses on monitoring, repairing and remediating issues related to traditional information technology operations and assets. Mission Engineering, a component of the Azure for Operations team, designs and implements no-ops/low-ops practices to provide a base level of operation protection, including basic Azure server-management configuration.

Microsoft has neither denied nor confirmed the details in the report but has sort of said that layoffs may be coming. “Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters. “We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”

That Microsoft may be planning to make new layoffs does not come as a large surprise as the company often makes layoffs in the first half of the year, prior to the end of its fiscal year at the end of June.

In January 2023, Microsoft announced that it would lay off about 10,000 employees, or 5% of its then workforce, as part of an effort to reduce costs. Those cuts followed smaller rounds of layoffs in July and October of the previous year.

Should they occur, the layoffs will not be Microsoft’s first this year. In January, the company laid off 1,900 Activision and Xbox employees. Those layoffs, accounting for 9% of Microsoft’s gaming division, were directly related to its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. in October for $68.7 billion.

Microsoft is also not alone among big tech companies laying off staff this year. Google LLC laid off at least 200 employees on May 1, Cisco Systems Inc. announced plans to lay off thousands in February, and Dell Technologies Inc. announced that it had laid off 13,000 employees in March.

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