A heat spike, resulting from a failed software update, shut down part of the data center responsible for supporting the Hotmail servers and left users unable to access their email for up to 16 hours, Microsoft has reported. Access to the Skydrive cloud storage service and Outlook.com was also affected.
The March 12 service outage that denied access to the company’s web-based email service was caused by a firmware update that “had been done successfully previously, but failed in this specific instance in an unexpected way.” According to Microsoft, the temperature rose so rapidly that the system’s safeguards prevented implementation of the automated failover processes designed to shift workloads and enable continued access.
Microsoft issued a statement on the service outage the following day, promising to investigate the problem and ensure it does not happen again.
For more information, visit Outlook Blog.
