Microsoft’s latest service disruptions underscore the challenges of managing global digital infrastructure. The company continues to address the issues and reassures users that efforts are underway to prevent future outages, reports BBC.
Details of the Outage
Technology giant Microsoft has issued an apology following widespread disruptions to its services, including Outlook and Minecraft. Thousands of users worldwide reported issues on Tuesday afternoon, with Downdetector tracking a surge in complaints. By the evening, the company indicated that the problems were mostly resolved.
This incident comes less than two weeks after a major global IT outage, attributed to a flawed software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, rendered over eight million Microsoft systems inaccessible, impacting sectors such as healthcare and travel.
Professor Alan Woodward, a computer security expert, commented, “It seems slightly surreal that we’re experiencing another serious outage of online services from Microsoft. The culprit appears to be network infrastructure, but you would have hoped that with such important cloud-based systems there would not be a single point of failure. You’d expect Microsoft’s network infrastructure to be bomb-proof.”
Impact and Response
The outage affected Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud computing platform, as well as Microsoft 365, which includes services like Microsoft Office and Outlook. Microsoft’s status page also noted disruptions to Intune and Entra, its cloud systems.
Microsoft has since implemented a fix and reported improvements. The company is monitoring the situation to ensure a full recovery and has apologized for the inconvenience. “Our experts are currently investigating the situation to resolve it as soon as possible,” Microsoft said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
Affected Services and Responses
The outage had a ripple effect on other services reliant on Microsoft’s platforms. Cambridge Water reported problems with its website services, including MyAccount and PayNow. The HM Courts and Tribunals Service noted issues with multiple online services, while NatWest customers experienced difficulties accessing webpages linked to Microsoft Azure’s problems.
Dutch football club FC Twente also faced issues, with its ticketing website and club app being unavailable to fans.
The outage came just hours before Microsoft was set to release its latest financial update. Microsoft Azure has been a key driver of profit for the company. However, recent months have seen a slowdown in demand, which negatively impacted investor sentiment. Microsoft’s shares dropped over 5% in after-hours trading following the report of weaker-than-expected growth for the April-June period. Despite a 21% year-on-year increase in revenue for the “intelligent cloud” unit, overall revenue rose 15% to over $64 billion, and profit increased 11% to $22 billion.
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Source: BBC
