Microsoft deploys a fix to Azure cloud service that’s hit with outage

The logo of Microsoft is seen outside its French headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris on May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

NEW YORK — Microsoft has deployed a fix to address an outage of their Azure cloud portal that left users unable to access Office 365, Minecraft and other services.

The tech company wrote on its to its Azure status page that a configuration change to its Azure infrastructure caused the outage, and that its fix is being rolled out.

Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company acknowledged issues with its Azure Front Door, a global content and application delivery network, service on its status page and social media accounts.

Because so many sites and services use Microsoft’s cloud service, an outage like this one can have widespread impact.

On Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, users reported issues throughout the day with Office 365, Minecraft, XBox Live, Copilot, Costco, Starbucks, and many other services.

Alaska Airline wrote on its X account that the outage is at the heart of problems affecting their systems, including check-in services.

Air New Zealand, the national carrier, warned of travel delays because the airline couldn’t process payments or digital boarding passes. The websites for New Zealand’s police and parliament were among those taken down by the outage

Microsoft’s Azure troubles came just hours before the company was set to release its quarterly earnings report, and just over a week after a massive outage of Amazon’s cloud computing service took down a broad range of online services, including social media, gaming, food delivery, streaming and financial platforms.

Amazon is the dominant provider of cloud computing services but Microsoft ranks second, ahead of Google, in most markets.