Microsoft Azure outage causes server disruptions to Xbox Live and Microsoft 365

Microsoft Azure is experiencing a service outage, affecting various cloud services, such as Microsoft 365 and the Xbox network, which was previously known as Xbox Live. The exact cause of the outage remains unknown, but the news was shared via social media on Oct 28 at 9:26 am PST via social media. The outage was confirmed on Microsoft Azure’s server status page, which stated that starting 16:00 UTC, Azure Front Door issues resulted in a loss of availability of some services. 

The company is still investigating reports of issues, according to the social media post. Reports of issues with Azure coincided with reports of an outage across Microsoft 365 and Xbox, affecting users globally, according to Reddit user reports. One user reported that Azure US is down and not accessible, speculating that Europe may be affected as well. User reports from the UK stated that the Azure portal is down as well. 

This story is still developing. As of writing, Microsoft stated that it will provide an update regarding the status “within 30 minutes or when we have an update.” No estimated time arrival for a server rollback was announced.

Microsoft Azure is the company’s cloud services, with various functionality, including computing, storage, networking, and more. It allows businesses to run digital infrastructure and software applications over the internet. The Xbox network, previously known as Xbox Live, is built upon Azure’s global cloud infrastructure.

The outage comes during a time when Microsoft announced various future roadmaps, which includes putting Xbox games on all available platforms, the end of the console wars, and a drastic push for Xbox to hit higher profit margins.