Microsoft first opened its doors in Ireland in 1985 with a small manufacturing facility employing just over one hundred people. Since that time, Microsoft Ireland has grown to encompass four distinct operations at its campus in Sandyford in Dublin, employing over 1,200 full time employees and 700 full-time contract staff.

Microsoft's operations in Ireland include software development and testing, localisation, operations, finance, IT, HR and sales & marketing, both here in Ireland and across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Microsoft is open to open source. Microsoft is actively participating in open source and shares the common industry view that software users will continue to see a mixed IT environment of open source and proprietary products for years to come. Microsoft’s open source strategy recognizes the value of openness in working with others — including open source communities (Microsoft is a sponsor of the Python Ireland Conference) — to help customers and partners succeed in today’s heterogeneous IT environments. This includes increasing opportunities for business partners regardless of their underlying development model and increasing opportunities for developers to learn and create by combining community-oriented open source with traditional commercial approaches to software development.