Two major cloud service providers experienced simultaneous outages, leading to significant disruptions for users last night. Both Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure faced disruptions on Wednesday evening, affecting users of various key websites and apps like Microsoft 365, Outlook, Starbucks, and Asda.
Gamers were also affected, with outages reported on Xbox and Minecraft. DownDetector, a platform monitoring online outages, registered issues throughout the day with services such as Office 365, Minecraft, Xbox Live, Copilot, Costco, and Starbucks.
Alaska Airline mentioned on its social media account that the outage was at the core of the problems affecting their systems, including check-in services. Air New Zealand, the national carrier, issued warnings of travel delays due to the inability to process payments or digital boarding passes.
Various websites, including those of New Zealand’s police and parliament, were taken offline by the outage. Fortunately, the outage has been resolved.
The prolonged Azure outage seems to have ended now. Microsoft’s cloud service health dashboard showed no active incidents as of Wednesday evening, indicating progress in resolving the issue.
Microsoft assured that they are on track to fully mitigate the Azure issue by a specified time. The tech giant reported signs of improvement in affected regions and stated their commitment to resolving the situation promptly.
While the Azure issue is being addressed, some websites are gradually becoming accessible again. Notable websites impacted by the outages included Microsoft’s own tools like Powerpoint, Word, and Excel.
Microsoft provided updates on the progress of fixing the Azure issue, mentioning deploying the ‘last known good’ configuration and observing signs of recovery. The company is actively working on resolving the issue that led to the widespread internet outage.
The outage not only affected Microsoft but also impacted other major companies relying on Azure and AWS servers, causing significant disruptions. The tech firm identified the cause of the Azure disruption as an inadvertent configuration change and outlined steps taken to rectify the situation.
The Scottish Parliament had to halt operations due to internet issues linked to the Microsoft outage. Microsoft’s ongoing efforts to rectify the disruptions were highlighted in their updates, indicating their commitment to resolving the situation promptly.
Reports of AWS outages began around 3.30 pm, while Microsoft issued updates on the Azure issue at 4.35 pm, detailing the DNS issues and actions taken to address them.
Azure, as a critical cloud platform from Microsoft, plays a pivotal role in supporting various services and websites. The outage impacted millions globally and highlighted the dependence on major cloud service providers.