Core Insights - Microsoft Corp.'s cloud services are recovering from a significant outage that affected its workplace software and operations of various companies, including Alaska Air Group Inc. [1] Group 1: Outage Details - The outage began around noon on Wednesday New York time, impacting Azure Front Door, which is essential for routing internet traffic to data centers for faster access [2] - The issue escalated to affect over a dozen Azure services, including employee authentication, cybersecurity tools, and databases [3] - Microsoft rolled back the change that caused the outage and expected to restore all services by 7:20 p.m. New York time [3] Group 2: Impact on Companies - The outage disrupted Alaska Airlines' check-in process, delayed Air New Zealand flights, and affected voting in the Scottish parliament [3][4] - Other major companies like Starbucks Corp. and Kroger Co. experienced downtime, although they did not specify the source of the issue [3] Group 3: Context of Cloud Service Outages - This incident follows a recent major outage experienced by Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud division, which lasted approximately 15 hours and disrupted numerous companies and consumer applications [5]

Core Points - Microsoft is addressing service degradation issues affecting Microsoft 365 and Azure cloud services [1][3] - Users may experience difficulties accessing Microsoft 365 services due to these issues [2][3] - The root cause is identified as a problematic configuration change in Azure infrastructure [3][4] Microsoft 365 Issues - Users are encountering access issues with Microsoft 365 services and portals [2] - Microsoft is investigating the impact on users and has confirmed that the issues are affecting service availability [3] Azure Service Disruptions - Azure Front Door services began experiencing issues on Wednesday around 16:00 UTC [4] - An inadvertent configuration change triggered the service disruptions [4] - Microsoft has deployed a "last known good" configuration and is working on traffic rebalancing to restore services [4] Recovery Efforts - Initial signs of recovery are being observed as Microsoft works on restoring affected services [4] - Microsoft expects full recovery by 23:20 UTC on the same day [4] - Support teams are treating the issue as a top priority and are actively working on fixes [5][6]