March 1st, 2012 — 4:22pm
The latest Azure (Microsoft’s Cloud Computing platform) outage was the result of a calculation error caused by the extra day In February, according to Microsoft.
On the Azure blog, Bill Laing, VP for Service and Cloud goes on to say they are still trying to determine the exact cause, but that the extra day to be the most likely culprit.
“Windows Azure operations became aware of an issue impacting the compute service in a number of regions. The issue was quickly triaged and it was determined to be caused by a software bug,” he said.
“While final root cause analysis is in progress, this issue appears to be due to a time calculation that was incorrect for the leap year.”
He continues that although they believe they have resolved the issue, some problems may still arise.
“Some sub-regions and customers are still experiencing issues and as a result of these issues they may be experiencing a loss of application functionality. We are actively working to address these remaining issues,” he added.
Comment » | Cloud Computing, Microsoft
August 16th, 2011 — 8:29am
Microsoft is making adjustments to its (comparatively low-end) cloud platform, Azure, in an effort to woo smaller developers. As of October 1, “extra-small computer” pricing will be cut by 20 percent. MS is also allowing users greater flexibility in how they use their cloud computing hours.
Here’s Microsoft’s chart detailing the changes:
It should be noted that Microsoft’s chief cloud rival, Amazon, has also been making changes. Amazon extended availability of its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) service, while adding support for Windows Server 2008 R2. Amazon also announced AWS Direct Connect, which allows businesses to create direct physical connections to geographical egions via 10 GB network circuites “in order to enhance privacy and reduce network latency,” according to Amazon (Microsoft has a similarly named product — Windows Azure Connect,codenamed Project Sydney).
Microsoft, for now, is focusing on supporting developers in both private and public cloud spaces, while Amazon is primarily appealing to the public cloud consumer.
Comment » | Amazon, Cloud Computing, Microsoft, Uncategorized
August 11th, 2011 — 1:37pm
Microsoft UK has promised to give its BPOS customers vouchers against future credits after a seven hour service outage last weekend.
This is the latest in a string of service interruptions for the tech giant this summer. This time however, it is being labeled as an “Act of God” incident, as human error was not to blame, but thunder storms.
A bolt of lightning struck a transformer close to the Dublin-based data centre powering BPOS, causing an explosion and fire, resulting in a total power failure.
According to a Microsoft Spokesman – “(We will) proactively provide impacted customers with a 25 per cent credit on a future monthly invoice”.
Fortunately for Microsoft, the outage occurred over the weekend. The outcry could have been much, much worse.
Of note, The SLA does not apply when the service is hit by availability issues arising from “factors outside of our control”.An interesting boast from Microsoft, and one that appears of equally dubious value, is its claim that blackouts should never be a concern for prospective cloud customers.
“When you switch to cloud power Microsoft, you never have to worry about a power outage. You can rest easy. Our financially backed 99.9 per cent uptime guarantee means a steady stream of power is pumped directly into your business at all times and include 24/7 support if anything ever does go wrong,” said the vendor on its website.
Comment » | Cloud Computing, Microsoft, Systems Crash
