The past few days brought major unplanned disruptions to Microsoft’s Azure cloud services. These problems were due to the damage of undersea cables in the Red Sea. The company detected these issues early on Saturday, affecting internet traffic routes through the Middle East, as well as impacting destinations in Asia and Europe.
In a statement, Microsoft responded with an initial status update that those severed cables resulted in loss of connectivity. These disruptions cut off data transfer through critical areas. For Azure customers dependent on services in these regions, this meant unavoidable delays and disruptions were looming.
The company did, of course, stress its ongoing efforts to minimize the effect of the disruptions. “Undersea fiber cuts can take time to repair, as such we will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimize routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime,” Microsoft stated.
By Saturday evening, though, Microsoft had declared that it had stopped seeing any widespread issues across Azure’s services. This rapid turnaround speaks to the recovery and response mechanisms that the global conglomerate has already established and prepared to respond for such incidents.
Despite the challenges posed by the undersea cable cuts, Microsoft managed to restore normal operations within a relatively short timeframe. The event highlights the fragility of our global interconnected internet infrastructure. It highlights the importance of rapid response interventions to minimize interruptions in service.
