Infiltrating Microsoft Headquarters: What is Gates' Company Really Like? (Photo Series)

For the vast majority of people working in the IT industry, the name "Microsoft" is both familiar and strange. It's familiar because Microsoft’s products have penetrated every corner of the world, and everyone in the IT field, whether you like Microsoft or not, has dealt with its products to some extent. It's strange because, although we use Microsoft’s products every day and constantly hear stories about Microsoft, very few people have truly experienced Microsoft’s culture or visited its headquarters. Fortunately, I was invited to visit Microsoft’s headquarters. Before my departure, an editor from this magazine asked me to write this article. So as soon as I arrived in Seattle, I started taking pictures everywhere with my digital camera. Once at Microsoft’s headquarters, I made sure not to miss any interesting scenes, taking many photos around the campus. Due to the large size of Microsoft’s headquarters campus, which consists of dozens of buildings spaced far apart, walking between them was quite exhausting, and it took a long time to photograph just a few buildings. More unfortunately, on two occasions, due to the absence of an accompanying Microsoft employee, I was asked by Microsoft security to delete the photos I had taken. To avoid trouble, I had to delete many of the photos right in front of them. The photos you see in this article are the lucky ones that were retained. Fortunately, towards the end of my visit, with the help of a Microsoft employee, I managed to take quite a few photos inside the SQL Server product building, which readers will see in the following sections.