Microsoft sometimes made Contoso and Fabrikam partners, as in this

Microsoft appears to have moved on from two of its most loyal and enthusiastic "customers".

The firms Redmond has shunned are called “Contoso” and “Fabrikam”, which for decades served as the subject of fictional case studies used in product demos and educational material.

Microsoft describes Contoso as “a multinational business with its headquarters in Paris. The company is a manufacturing, sales, and support organization with more than 100,000 products.”

Whatever Contoso’s needs, Microsoft’s products are a perfect fit. Every project the company runs with Microsoft products and partners finishes on time, within budget, and delivers amazing return on investment.

Contoso’s configuration changed over the years to make it an ideal customer for whatever Microsoft was selling at the time. Your correspondent first encountered it in the early 2000s when Microsoft was trying to position Windows Server and SQL Server as worthy competitors to UNIX and Oracle ...