Microsoft CIO Jim DuBois leaves as the company restructures

DuBois rose up through the ranks at Microsoft over more than two decades

Jim DuBois, Microsoft's chief information officer, is to leave the company after more than two decades - just as Microsoft gears up to lay-off up to 4,000 staff.

DuBois had been at Microsoft since 1993, and was named CIO in 2013.

The resignation comes as the company goes through another reorganisation, this time focused on its sales and marketing efforts as CEO Satya Nadella continues his drive to re-focus the company from packaged software sales to cloud computing.

News of the restructuring leaked out last week, but it is not known if these changes were tied to DuBois' departure.

"Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners," a Microsoft spokesperson told Computing.

They continued: "Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others."

DuBois' role within Microsoft will be given to Kurt DelBene, currently the company's head of corporate strategy. He will oversee the company's IT department, but will not take the title of CIO. DelBene will instead take on a new title of chief digital officer.

Microsoft's cloud and server businesses have been fuelling revenue lately, with server products and cloud services revenue up 15 per cent. Revenue generated by Azure, the company's cloud platform, has increased by 93 per cent.

The reshuffle comes as Microsoft refocuses on selling cloud services in a bid to catch up with market leader Amazon.

Microsoft has (or had) 71,000 employees in the US and 121,000 employees around the globe.