Two leading cloud service providers experienced simultaneous outages, causing significant disruptions for users. Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure both faced issues on Wednesday evening, affecting various key websites and applications such as Microsoft 365, Outlook, Starbucks, and Asda.
Gaming services like Xbox and Minecraft also reported outages, impacting gamers. Users on DownDetector, a platform monitoring online outages, flagged problems throughout the day with services like Office 365, Minecraft, Xbox Live, Copilot, Costco, and Starbucks.
Alaska Airlines mentioned that the outage was at the core of system problems affecting their operations, including check-in services. Similarly, Air New Zealand warned of travel delays due to the inability to process payments or digital boarding passes, affecting websites like New Zealand’s police and parliament.
While the outage has been resolved, the lengthy Azure disruption seems to have concluded. Microsoft’s cloud service health dashboard indicated no active incidents as of Wednesday evening, with engineers deploying fixes to address the service interruption that affected travel sites, consumer apps, and gaming platforms.
Microsoft anticipated full mitigation for the Azure issue by a specified time. The tech giant expressed confidence in resolving the problem and assured customers of ongoing improvements, aiming for complete resolution within a set timeframe.
As websites gradually come back online, Microsoft continues to work on rectifying the issue that led to the extensive internet outage. The outage, attributed to an inadvertent configuration change, impacted various major companies reliant on Azure and AWS servers.
The outage’s significant impact underscores the reliance on a few major cloud service providers, with Microsoft actively addressing the aftermath of the disruption to restore normalcy for affected users.
