Microsoft Azure is down, affecting 365, Xbox, Minecraft, and others

Core Points - Microsoft Azure is experiencing a significant outage that began around 12 p.m. ET, with the company acknowledging the issue on its service status page [1] - The outage is suspected to be triggered by an inadvertent configuration change, with no indication from Microsoft on when services will be restored [1] - Multiple Microsoft services, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Minecraft, are affected, along with websites from other businesses like Costco and Starbucks [2] - This outage occurs just hours before Microsoft is set to announce its earnings results, and follows a recent outage experienced by Amazon AWS that impacted various websites and services [2]