A global failure in Microsoft systems has put the world on the brink of a techno-apocalypse. But why is everything okay in Russia?
The stability of the global Internet has never been in question. But today, almost the entire planet is facing an unprecedented technological crisis caused by a large-scale failure of Microsoft systemsThe incident caused major disruptions to critical infrastructure around the world, affecting airlines, airports, banks, television networks and telecom operators, as well as household appliances. Windows computers.
Microsoft systems crash
The outage affected a wide range of Microsoft products, including the Windows operating system, Microsoft Azure cloud platform and other services of the company. Users all over the world report the appearance of the infamous “blue screen of death” (BSOD) on Windows 10 devices. The DownDetector service has recorded mass complaints about the operation of the systems of Visa, Amazon, Microsoft and other large companies.
The most serious consequences are observed in the USA, Great Britain and Australia, where dependence on Microsoft products is especially high. But also affected countries of the European Union, Israel, Turkey and parts of the Middle East. This affected the ability of the aviation industry of many countries to continue its work. The largest airlines were paralyzed:
United Airlines and Delta Airlines have grounded flights entirely due to communication problems.
Frontier Airlines canceled about 130 flights and delayed another 220, representing nearly 30% of its total flights.
Allegiant and Sun Country were forced to delay 45% and 23% of their flights, respectively.
There is also real chaos at the airports: passengers cannot check in for flights, and those arriving have no way to get their luggage. Booking and payment systems are also experiencing glitchesmaking matters worse. Airports are unable to simply print out boarding passes, so some simply write them out by hand.
Impact on other industries:
Television broadcasting: Broadcasting of a number of TV channels, including the British Sky News and the Australian ABC News, was interrupted.
Railway transport: In the UK, Southern Railway, the operator of many train services in the south of England, reported “widespread IT issues across the network”.
Healthcare and emergency services: Hospitals and emergency services in Israel are experiencing technical problems.
Financial sector: There have been disruptions in the operation of banking systems and payment services, including Visa.
Microsoft's response to global outage
Microsoft acknowledged the issue for some users and assured that it is actively working on a solution. The company said: “The issue may affect any user trying to use various Microsoft 365 apps and services.”
According to the corporation, the failure began due to a “configuration change in part of our internal Azure workloads“, which “caused disruptions between storage and compute resources, resulting in connectivity failures affecting Microsoft 365 servicesdepending on these connections.”
Although Microsoft promises to fix the outage as soon as possible, no one yet knows how long it will last or how much of an impact it will have on the world's infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the situation in Russia looks like a real feast during the plague.
How Import Substitution in IT Helps Russia
Microsoft's Global Systems Outage clearly demonstrated the benefits of switching to domestic technological solutions. Independence from global technological monopolies significantly reduces the risks of large-scale failures, such as the one the world is facing. Domestic systems, such as the operating system Astra Linux, RED OS, DEW, Basalt etc. are developed taking into account the specific needs of the Russian infrastructure, which ensures their greater reliability and adaptability to local operating conditions.
This incident became a serious test for the global technological infrastructure and confirmed the correctness of Russia's course on technological sovereignty and import substitution. The successful functioning of domestic systems in the conditions of a global failure shows that the creation of a reliable and independent technological base is at least not without meaning.
There is no doubt that for many countries, the Microsoft failure may become an impetus to reconsider their digitalization and information security strategies. It is quite possible that in the foreseeable future we will see an increasing trend towards the creation of independent national digital infrastructures and the development of their own technological solutions.
What do you think? After all, it is much easier to make such a conclusion today than yesterday, you must admit…
