Microsoft Azure faults knock websites offline

Faults with Microsoft's cloud computing platform have knocked many third-party sites offline, as well as disrupting the US firm's own products.

Microsoft Azure's status page says problems began at 00:52 GMT across the globe. Its European operations are taking the longest to fix.

Access to Microsoft's Office 365 on-line suite of apps and its Xbox Live gaming facility are among services affected.

The faults could set back the company's efforts to sell Azure.

Microsoft is attempting to make gains on the market leader, Amazon Web Services, as well as IBM, Google and others offering rival products.

Their pitch is that it is more efficient for companies to rent computing power from a large tech firm than owning and managing their own computer servers or going to a smaller provider.

"Microsoft is investigating an issue affecting access to some Microsoft services," said Adrienne Hall, general manager at the company.

"We are working to restore full access to these services as quickly as possible."

At the time of writing, Microsoft's own site indicated that some customers were still experiencing problems with access to storage, the operation of their websites and access to analytics tools.

'Hugely disruptive'

Azure's biggest customers include Easyjet, Toyota, Tesco, eBay, Boeing and Apple.

Cited BBC News

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