Microsoft announced early Friday that it resolved a cloud services outage that had led to the grounding and cancellation of several flights, media, and banks across several countries.
The outage began around 11 pm Thursday, affecting multiple Azure services, which is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform used for building, deploying, and managing applications and services.
Microsoft explained, “A subset of our customers experienced issues with multiple Azure services in the Central U.S. region.”
This outage also impacted various Microsoft 365 apps and services, causing widespread disruptions. Many airports and airlines, including Berlin airport, experienced delays due to “technical faults.” In Spain, an “incident” was reported at all the country’s airports.
Flights were grounded at Sydney airport, and United Airlines halted operations. The London Stock Exchange’s platform also experienced outages.
In the UK, railway companies reported “widespread IT issues,” and Sky News couldn’t broadcast live due to the outage.
Reports on social media indicated the network issue impacted media organizations, banks, airlines, and other industries worldwide. Frontier Airlines was among the carriers experiencing problems, although it wasn’t clear if it was related to the same issue.
Medics suggested patient records at major hospitals in New York and California might also be affected. Downdetector reported a surge in outages involving companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and DNA site Ancestry.com.
Early Friday, Microsoft confirmed that the cloud services issue in the Central U.S. region was resolved.
