An outage in Microsoft apps and services is causing chaos in hospitals, airports, and even the emergency services in a US state.
The disruptions, which have lasted hours already and may be worsening, are affecting airlines, Amazon, payment services and news outlets, but Microsoft have kept quiet about the cause even as rumors develop.
Planes Grounded
A number of US airlines have announced that, due to the outage, their planes will not be taking off until further notice.
United, American, Allegiant and Delta will, however, allow currently airborne flights to complete their full flight plan.
Airport Chaos
Reports and testimonies continue to flood in about chaos in airports around the world, that have had to resort to less-sophisticated check-in procedures due to IT issues.
Pictures have come in showing crowds of people stuck at airports including Edinburgh, UK, Sydney, Australia, and Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Disruptions Getting Worse
Despite statements that they are working on a fix, issues caused by the Microsoft outages may be continuing to deteriorate.
For their part, Microsoft have said that they are working on a gradual fix which involves switching to other services in the meantime.
Check-Out Issues
Many shoppers are reporting that they are unable to pay at online and kiosk-based payment systems.
Visa is one of the companies that has been heavily impacted by the current IT problems.
Emergency Services Emergency
Alaska is facing a more serious problem as they report an outage with phone lines.
The state police announced that their 911 service, and also their non-emergency phone lines, are currently “not working correctly across the state”.
Health Warning
Health systems across Europe, also reliant on IT services, are facing disruptions to non-emergency services.
Two German hospitals have cancelled elective surgeries, and UK pharmacies are struggling to provide patients with their prescriptions.
Bank Issues
The London Stock Exchange is still running, but some banks globally are currently down.
Australia and New Zealand banks including NA, Bendigo and Kiwibank have all released statements announcing that their services are down.
Microsoft Freeze
Microsoft have attempted to allay concerns by posting on X, via the Microsoft 365 account, that they are “observing a positive trend in service availability.”
However, no explanation was given for the outage, and they have not responded to media requests for comment.
Over-Reliance on IT
The issue may demonstrate an over-reliance on a handful of vital IT services and infrastructure.
The disruptions, which have become so widespread, are likely to have been exacerbated by a lack of viable alternatives to near-monopolistic IT infrastructure.
