In a surprising turn of events, a significant cloud service outage at Microsoft has caused major technical disruptions at airports, banks, TV channels, and various other sectors. Additionally, several Microsoft 365 applications and services, such as Teams and PowerBI, are currently down.
Microsoft 365 Users Impacted Worldwide
Microsoft has confirmed that a service outage is preventing users from accessing multiple Microsoft 365 apps and services globally. According to the company’s Service Health Status page, a “configuration change” in a part of their Azure backend workloads is causing an “interruption between storage and compute resources,” rendering several Microsoft 365 apps unusable.
Global Service Disruptions
The outage has also affected a wide range of services worldwide, including supermarkets, payment platforms, banking operations, the stock market, and flight operations.
Timeline of the Outage
The Service Health Status page indicates that the cloud service outage began at 3:26 AM today, leading to ‘service degradation.’ While Microsoft has managed to restore some services like Microsoft Defender, Intune, OneNote, and SharePoint Online, others, including PowerBI, Fabric, Teams, Purview, and Viva Engage, remain down. Teams users, for example, cannot access group chats, presence, and user registration, and PowerBI is available only in read-only mode.
Microsoft’s Response and Ongoing Efforts
Microsoft was quick to acknowledge the issue and has stated, “We remain committed to treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state.” The company is also “rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate systems to alleviate impact.” While some services are still down, Microsoft reports a positive trend in service availability.
Flight Operations Affected Globally
The cloud service outage has notably impacted flight operations in the Central U.S. region, leading to the cancellation of 147 flights and delays for 212 flights on Frontier Airlines. Sun Country and Allegiant also reported significant delays, with 45% and 27% of their flights affected, respectively.
Impact on Indian Airlines
In India, airlines such as Spicejet, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara, and Akasa Air are experiencing technical difficulties affecting booking, check-in, and flight updates. As a temporary measure, these airlines are issuing hand-written boarding passes.
Global Airport Disruptions
The outage has also affected operations at major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai airports, Berlin airport, all Spanish airports, Japan’s Narita airport, and Singapore’s Changi airport. Melbourne Airport also reported a “global technology issue” affecting check-in procedures for some airlines. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, led by Ashwini Vaishnaw, has stated that the government has contacted Microsoft, which is actively working to resolve the issue.
Media Outlets and TV Channels Hit by Outage
The outage extended to media outlets and TV channels, disrupting services globally. UK’s Sky News went offline for about an hour before restoring services at 9 AM local time. According to Deadline, the channel operated with a “stripped-back studio, lack of chyrons, and presenters apparently reading from printed papers rather than an autocue.”
Associated Press and BBC Impacted
The Associated Press reported “intermittent service disruption” affecting content availability. BBC’s CBBC kids’ channel also suffered an outage, displaying the message “Sorry! Something’s gone wrong.” Sky News Australia showed dead screens in the background, and ABC News Channel experienced a lack of graphics and footage, with anchors reading scripts from their computers due to the teleprompter failure.
Conclusion
This significant service outage at Microsoft underscores the heavy reliance on cloud services across various industries. While Microsoft is working diligently to restore full functionality, the incident highlights the need for robust contingency plans to mitigate the impact of such disruptions.
FAQs
1. What caused the Microsoft service outage?
The outage was caused by a “configuration change” in a part of Microsoft’s Azure backend workloads, leading to an interruption between storage and compute resources.
2. Which Microsoft 365 services are affected by the outage?
Services affected include Teams, PowerBI, Fabric, Purview, and Viva Engage, among others.
3. How has the outage impacted flight operations?
The outage has caused significant disruptions in flight operations globally, leading to flight cancellations and delays, particularly affecting airlines in the Central U.S. and India.
4. What steps is Microsoft taking to resolve the issue?
Microsoft is rerouting impacted traffic to alternate systems and has restored some services. The company is working with high priority and urgency to address the remaining issues.
5. Are media outlets and TV channels also affected by the outage?
Yes, several media outlets and TV channels, including Sky News, Associated Press, and BBC’s CBBC, have reported disruptions due to the outage.
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