Where Were You on July 19th, 2024?

 I was woken up yesterday morning to my wife shouting, "It's Y2K, It's Y2K, It's Y2K!" This is comedic on its own but is even funnier when you know that my wife was born in 2001. As the day progressed, it was fascinating finding out all the details. Around noon, I started to realized just how big a deal this outage was. 

Crowdstrike and Microsoft

There is a lot of finger pointing, especially at Microsoft.  Although many Windows computers are affected, the major outage isn't Microsoft's fault. There were actually two separate outages that are being combined, either purposely or on accident. Crowdstrike launched an faulty update while Microsoft updated Azure configurations.

Crowdstrike

Crowdstrike released on updated that affected Windows computers in an unexpected way. The update caused Windows devices all over to shut down and get stuck in a reboot loop. Images of the "blue screen of death" have been plastered all over as many users are stuck with that screen. This update was likely not tested enough or wasn't tested properly before rolling out. The team at Crowdstrike was aware of what was happening and released a solution within two hours of the faulty update. The only problem was that each computer had to be fixed manually and in-person. Which means an IT professional has to sit down with every Windows computer in their domain to fix it. 

Mircosoft

Separately from the Crowdstrike outage, Microsoft was having difficulties with Azure and 365. Other services, like Xbox Live, were also affected. This issue was mostly covered up by the larger Crowdstrike outage, it still affected many systems

Issues still linger from both outages as fields like Airline travel and healthcare have been seriously affected. As troubling as the outages are, it is fascinating to be around during such an historical time. 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/business/microsoft-outage-cause-azure-crowdstrike.html