Microsoft’s Azure public cloud service suffered a serious outage last night, knocking out MSN.com in the process.
Microsoft Azure hosts thousands of websites, and is also used as a cloud storage platform.
Microsoft said: "Starting at 19 Nov 2014 00:52 UTC we are experiencing a connectivity issue to Azure Services including Storage, Websites and Visual Studio Online. The next update will be provided in 60 minutes."
On Twitter, the Microsoft Azure account posted a series of Tweets letting followers know of the outage.
@Azure said: "We are aware of a service interruption impacting Azure Services we are working to resolve the issue."
Two hours later, the account tweeted: "We are aware of a service interruption impacting Azure Services and we are working to resolve the issue. Updates here."
Azure’s main competitor is Amazon Web Services, and the nearly-global outage (reports suggest the Australian region was not affected) could no doubt make some Azure users rethink their cloud allegiences.
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The outage also affected the Windows Store and Xbox Live, as well as Microsoft’s press centre.
UPDATE:
Around 7am GMT today, Azure posted a Tweet claiming the issue is now fixed. It said: "The service interruption impacting Azure Services is now resolved."
However, going through to the Azure status page, some storage services is North and West Europe were encountering problems up until 9am GMT.
