Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Machine, Cloud Services down for Many

On August 18, starting just before 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, users across the globe began reporting problems with Microsoft’s Azure virtual machines, web sites and other cloud services.

“Starting at 18 Aug 2014 17:49 UTC we are experiencing an interruption to Cloud Services and Virtual Machines in multiple regions,” noted Microsoft officials on the Azure status page. As shown in the status-page screen capture below, Virtual Machines is the service most affected by the outage, with web sites down in several US regions and cloud services down in other parts of the US. “Virtual Machines, Cloud Services, Websites — Multiple Regions — Full Service Interruption,” read the Microsoft-provided description of the issue.

Roughly an hour and a half later more services were reported down, including Backup, Service Bus and Site Recovery. An updated notice on the Azure page reads, “Starting at 18 Aug 2014 17:49 UTC we are experiencing an interruption to Azure Services, may include Cloud Services, Virtual Machines Websites, Automation, Service Bus, Backup, Site Recovery and possible other Azure Services in multiple regions. We are currently evaluating options to restore service.”

Only 10 minutes later Azure Mobile services and HD Insight also experienced full service interruptions in multiple geographies.

“Per our message to customers on the Azure Status page, we are aware of an interruption with Azure services, including Virtual Machines, Cloud Services and Web sites, and are working with our engineering teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

The Azure outages come just a few days after a major worldwide outage for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Online service and even though MS VS Online runs on Azure, Microsoft assured it was due to bugs rather the hosting problems. That follows the full service interruption Azure had in the Japan East region last week. The same day Microsoft also had trouble with their CRM Online.

It’s safe to say, the cloud is about as stable as a rainy cloud on fall day.

Update (August 18 10 pm ET/7 pm PT): Looks like almost all is well now. Not sure exactly when the Azure  issues mentioned above were resolved but it seems back to normal for now. But rest assures, the next outage is just around the corner.

Thank you ZDNet for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of ZDNet.