Microsoft faced a widespread outage on Wednesday that disrupted its Azure cloud platform and 365 services, leaving users unable to access key tools just hours ahead of the company's earnings report. CNBC reports that the trouble started around 11:40am Eastern, according to user reports collected by Downdetector, and quickly spread, with Microsoft's own website also going dark for a time. Frustrated customers took to social media as they found themselves locked out of business sites, productivity apps, and online portals tied to Microsoft's cloud ecosystem. The Verge reports that airlines including Alaska Air and Hawaiian Airlines reported disruptions.
Microsoft acknowledged the problem on social media, confirming issues with Azure Front Door services and warning of "intermittent request failures or latency." The company said it was investigating and promised updates. The Microsoft 365 support team also admitted to widespread access problems, directing customers to the Service Health Dashboard for ongoing updates. Newser is an Azure customer and has lost access to our CDN, or Content Delivery Network, as a result of the outage; as a result, photos did not appear on the site for a 90-plus minute period.
This latest disruption comes on the heels of a major Amazon Web Services outage just over a week ago, underscoring the fragility of the cloud infrastructure that much of the internet relies on. Earlier in the year, Microsoft endured a separate weekend outage that locked tens of thousands out of Outlook and related programs. The AP notes that Amazon is the world's largest provider of cloud computing services but Microsoft is second in most markets, ahead of Google.
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