Microsoft's cloud hit by lightning

Some severe weather brought down much of Microsoft’s Azure cloud in Microsoft’s South Central Azure region in USA.

The issue was caused by a lightning strike to Microsoft’s cooling system in San Antonio which  “resulted in a power voltage increase that impacted cooling systems. Automated datacenter procedures to ensure data and hardware integrity went into effect and critical hardware entered a structured power down process.”

Affected systems included Office 365, Azure Active Directory and Visual Studio Team Services, but the issue now appears largely resolved, with the last status message saying:

Engineers have restored power to the datacenter and recovered a majority of network devices. Some services are starting to see signs of recovery, mitigation efforts continue. Updates: Portal – https://t.co/66mR6nPbwY Status Page – https://t.co/Dw19fIGsXf and/or Twitter. pic.twitter.com/dkmT24IVfr

— Azure Support (@AzureSupport) September 4, 2018

Keep an eye on the status of the service at Microsoft here.