Millions of internet users faced disruptions on Wednesday as Microsoft services experienced widespread outages. Popular platforms including Xbox, Minecraft, and Microsoft 365 were affected, leaving users unable to access sites and apps.
Retailers and other companies relying on Microsoft Azure also faced issues. Kroger tweeted that all banner sites and mobile apps were down, while Alaska Airlines reported disruptions to key systems hosted on Azure. Heathrow Airport, NatWest, and Vodafone also experienced technical problems.
Even the Scottish Parliament was impacted, as voting was suspended due to technical difficulties. Holyrood’s Presiding Officer confirmed MSPs could not vote amid the outage.
Microsoft said the disruption resulted from an “inadvertent configuration change” on Azure, its cloud platform. Service appeared to be restored by Wednesday evening after technical teams resolved the issue. The company acknowledged the problem on its Azure Support account, providing updates via its status page.
Dr Saqib Kakvi, information security expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the outage highlighted risks from cloud service concentration. He noted that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google form a “triopoly” in cloud hosting.
Kakvi explained that economic forces drive consolidation of cloud infrastructure, meaning outages at these providers can affect hundreds of applications globally. He warned that this situation is similar to last week’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) DNS outage, showing the vulnerability of relying on a few large providers.
The incident underscores the growing dependence of both businesses and public services on cloud platforms. Experts say it demonstrates the potential widespread impact when a major provider experiences technical failures, affecting daily operations for millions of users worldwide.
