The Microsoft Company has sorted out the problem of theAzure cloud platform following the cut off of several subsea cables in the Red Sea that led to high latency and outages in services by customers in the Middle East and Asia, and the technology company managed to re-route traffic via alternative network routes to restore regular operations.
Microsoft affirms the Restoration of service Azure
According to The Times of India, Microsoft has ensured that it has fixed its issues with the impressive Azure cloud system after several underwater cables within the Red Sea were severed. The company had earlier warned that the cable cuts were introducing more latency and service disruptions to users in the Middle East and Asia. The second-largest cloud provider in the world, after AWS of Amazon, diverted traffic over other network routes to make sure that no network traffic is discontinued.
At present, the page of the technological giant represents the service status, indicating that everything is functioning. The technological giant also reported that its engineering units had been busy ensuring that the situation had been mitigated, and that since then, it has posted that Azure services in the Middle East are online. Microsoft has indicated in an earlier announcement to Reuters that it would anticipate that certain traffic would experience an increase in latency compared to previously traversed through the Middle East.
Red Sea cable cuts affect multiple countries
Network monitoring firm NetBlocks has reported that the cable cuts have impacted internet connectivity in several countries, such as India and Pakistan. The failures are reported to be on the SMW4 and the IMEWE cable systems in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah. A post on the social media platform Mastodon was written by NetBlocks, and it states: “A succession of underwater cable cuts in the Red Sea has ruined internet connections in several nations.
Meanwhile, other internet cuts have been reported on Etilasat and Du networks in the United Arab Emirates, and it is causing slowness and spotty service as engineers seek to remedy the problem, which has affected several countries. The Red Sea is a very important telecommunication line, bridging Europe, Africa, and Asia via Egypt.
Difficulty in repairing the conflict zone
Nonetheless, it is difficult to repair the subsea cables in the area, and this is because the Houthis in Yemen continue to attack ships at sea. Undersea fibre cuts would take time to be fixed; in that way, we will constantly monitor, rebalance, and optimise routing to minimise the impact on customers in the meantime, said Microsoft. It does not affect the network traffic that does not go through the Middle East.
Microsoft fixed the problem with the Azure cloud platform when the Red Sea undersea cable broke, leading to a breakdown of the speed and service failure in the Middle East and Asia. The traffic was diverted, which enabled the company to minimize the impact, and services are operational again.
The international infrastructure of the internet was exposed
The event has shown the fragility of worldwide internet infrastructure, not to mention in geopolitically sensitive areas such as the Red Sea. The compromised cable infrastructure of SMW4 and IMEWE is a key ingredient of global telecommunication systems, which link billions of subscribers worldwide. The affected system proves that regional conflicts have far-reaching consequences on digital services on a global scale.
The incident of cable damage at the Red Sea provides a reminder of the vulnerability of the internet infrastructure around the world and the urgent need for backup network routes. Although Microsoft was able to recover the Azure services by asking traffic to reroute, the incident underscores the continuous difficulties in sustaining a stable connectivity by using geopolitically dishonest zones where the repair protocols undergo major threats of security attacks.