Microsoft Azure Outage: Impact on Xbox, 365, Minecraft & More

Microsoft Azure Faces Widespread Outage

A substantial disruption is currently impacting Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing platform offered by Microsoft. The service began experiencing difficulties approximately at noon Eastern Time on Wednesday.

Microsoft has officially recognized the problem and posted details regarding it on the official Azure status page.

Cause of the Disruption

Initial investigations suggest that an unintentional alteration to the system’s configuration is the likely cause of this widespread outage. The company has yet to provide a specific timeframe for full service restoration.

Services Affected

The impact of this incident extends to a number of key Microsoft services. Microsoft 365, the Xbox gaming platform, and Minecraft are all currently offline.

Furthermore, the outage is causing accessibility issues for websites belonging to third-party businesses. Examples include Costco and Starbucks.

Timing of the Outage

This service interruption occurs shortly before Microsoft is set to release its quarterly earnings report later today.

Recent Industry Disruptions

This event follows a similar outage experienced by Amazon AWS just last week. That incident resulted in disruptions for numerous websites, financial institutions, and even some governmental agencies.

The AWS outage affected a broad range of online services and highlighted the interconnectedness of cloud infrastructure.