Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is currently working to fix an outage that impacted major applications and services, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Minecraft. Around 12 PM ET, reports of issues with all three services surged on DownDetector, a website that tracks service disruptions. Microsoft’s own Azure status page confirmed that they first noticed technical problems at the same time.
In their most recent update on Azure status, issued at 3:57 PM ET, Microsoft announced that they “started rolling out our ‘last known good configuration’.'” This means they are trying to revert to a previous, stable version of their system. The company also noted that “customers might have started to see the first signs of recovery.” Microsoft is actively redirecting internet traffic through “healthy nodes,” parts of its network that are still working correctly. They believe that Azure should be completely back to normal by 23:20 UTC, which translates to 6:20 PM ET.
At the peak of the disruption, many users took to Reddit to report problems. Gamers experienced difficulties loading Game Pass on their Xbox consoles. Additionally, people faced limited access to important productivity and business applications. The outage also affected some Microsoft support websites and even a few airline websites, showing how widely the cloud service is used.
However, this Azure outage appears less severe compared to a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that occurred just last week. Amazon’s incident caused popular apps and services to go offline for several hours, creating a more widespread and prolonged disruption for its users. Microsoft is hopeful for a full and prompt recovery.
