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Outage Alert: Top 5 Outages of Q2 2022

We are halfway through 2022 and one thing is certain – downtime is here to stay. In fact, trends are showing the frequency of downtime is increasing, along with the severity and wide-spread impact. 

Consumers and businesses are more interconnected and reliant on technology and software than ever, from remote business communication to simply listening to your favorite podcast on your way to work. Outages can impact any industry, and with the expectation of transparency and SLAs it’s important to cover your bases. 

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest downtime events of Q2 2022, from minor inconveniences to global, industry-crippling outages. 

Google Cloud

Downtime Date: June 7th, 2022

Downtime Duration: 3 hours and 12 minutes

Downtime Impact: This outage reduced capacity for telecom and technology companies in the Middle East and increased latency between their Europe and Asia regions.

Check Uptime Status: Google Cloud Status 

Google Cloud’s outage was caused by two simultaneous submarine fiber cuts within the affected networks. This inhibited users in those regions from accessing the cloud and related projects. Once alerted, the company began redirecting traffic to avoid the problematic cables. 

This fluke accident shows us that not all downtime is avoidable, predictable or even related to software issues. Random chance can never be eliminated.

Spotify

Downtime Date: May 30th, 2022

Downtime Duration: 8 hours

Downtime Impact: Podcast listeners couldn’t access the platform. 

Check Uptime Status: Spotify Status Twitter

The cause of this outage was a simple, but easily avoidable one. Spotify owns and uses a third-party platform called Megaphone to host their podcasts, and an expired security certificate meant users couldn’t access podcasts Monday night and early Tuesday morning. 

A monitoring provider should have checks that will notify you before SSL certificates expire and before users are affected.

Did you know? Spotify uses a status twitter account to update users on downtime and other problems. While this is helpful in reaching those who use social media and follow the account, a standalone status page offers a subscribable and reliable place to check the status of the application.

Cloudflare

Downtime Date: June 21, 2022

Downtime Duration: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Downtime Impact: Major internet players like ​​twitter, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Discord, Shopify, Canva and more shuddered to a halt due to this outage.

Check Uptime Status: Cloudflare Status

Cloudflare is a content delivery network that is used by a staggering 7.59 million active websites. This outage impacted traffic in 19 data centers that handle a significant proportion of global traffic. According to a blog post released by Cloudflare, they experienced issues in an effort to convert busy locations to more flexible and resilient architecture. This outage’s consequences were especially damaging – downtime only lasted about an hour, but this tool is used industry-wide.

This event highlights that even in routine, scheduled maintenance, unpredictable problems can arise. 

Microsoft Azure and M365

Downtime Date: June 21, 2022

Downtime Duration: Roughly 12 hours

Downtime Impact: Customers had trouble accessing resources hosted in the US East region, including Microsoft teams and Exchange Online services.

Check Uptime Status: Microsoft Azure Status & Microsoft 365 Status

Microsoft Azure and 365 offer a multitude of services to customers, a key player being Microsoft Teams. Downtime of Microsoft Teams virtually halts business operations for companies who rely on the platform for internal business communication. This outage was caused by an unplanned power oscillation in one of their data centers and created delays, log-in failures and issues accessing accounts.

This outage highlights the importance of having emergency plans in place for unpredictable outages. Businesses who rely on Microsoft Teams were likely left in the dark when their communication platform went down.

Atlassian

Downtime Date: April 4th, 2022 

Downtime Duration: 9 days (216 hours) 

Downtime Impact: Users had no access to Jira, OpsGenie, Confluence, and other Atlassian Cloud services. 

Check Uptime Status: Atlassian Status

This was the longest outage in Atlassian’s history. For 9 days, users were left high and dry with no access to these services, and not much communication from the company. In their post mortem incident report, Atlassian described two issues that caused the extended outage – an internal communication gap, and insufficient system warnings. 

Redundant monitoring and alerting act as a safety net to ensure warning signs don’t fall through the cracks. Thankfully, Atlassian did manage communication via its status page (giving users some level of transparency). 

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, downtime can be scary, but there are measures you can take to ensure you and your team are prepared when it strikes. Uptime monitoring is a great start that allows you to be proactive. A monitoring provider can put you in the best position possible to monitor, alert and report on website performance issues before they become a major crisis.

Start monitoring uptime in just minutes with our 100% 14-day free trial. No credit card required and no strings attached. Just the peace of mind your website deserves for the best ability, performance and user experience possible.

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