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Tell HN: Azure outage

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Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#721
"Microsoft Azure will serve as the backbone of Asda’s digital infrastructure"[0]

Oh, that'll be why Scan & Go was down yesterday evening. I thought it was another instance of an iOS 26 update breaking their crappy code.

[0] https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2025/22/09/asda-announce...

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#722

It still surprises me how much essential services like public transport are completely reliant on cloud providers, and don't seem to have backups in place. Here in The Netherlands, almost all trains were first delayed significantly, and then cancelled for a few hours because of this, which had real impact because today is also the day we got to vote for the next parlement (I know some who can't get home in time befor…

Could you provide a reference about the train disruption? I tried but couldn't find anything in English.

Here is an article in English:

https://nltimes.nl/2025/10/29/ns-hit-microsoft-cloud-outage-...

It should be noted that the article isn't complete: while the travel planner and ticket machines were the first to fail, trains were cancelled soon after; it took a few hours before everything restarted.

Based on what the conductors said, I would speculate that the train drivers digital schedule was not operative, so they didn't know where to go next.

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think that Starbucks execs would be held accountable for the fragile system they have put in place. But they won't be.

Why? Starbucks is not providing a critical service. Spending less money and resources and just accepting the risk that occasionally you won't be able to sell coffee for a few hours is a completely valid decision from both management and engineering pov.

It's absolutely batshit that an in-person transaction with cash becomes impossible when the computers are down.

I've seen it multiple times at various stores; only once did I see them taking cash and writing things down (probably to enter into the system later when it came back up).

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#724
post #633

It still surprises me how much essential services like public transport are completely reliant on cloud providers, and don't seem to have backups in place. Here in The Netherlands, almost all trains were first delayed significantly, and then cancelled for a few hours because of this, which had real impact because today is also the day we got to vote for the next parlement (I know some who can't get home in time befor…

can't believe it's 2025 and some still need to go to some place to vote. I can vote since I can remember(at least 20 years) by mail for anything, we also vote multiple times a year(4-6 times), we just get 1 Month before the things to vote by mail and then mail in back votes. Hope we can soon vote online to get rid of the paper overhead.

When voting remotely, how can we be sure that your vote was not bought or coerced?

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#725

It still surprises me how much essential services like public transport are completely reliant on cloud providers, and don't seem to have backups in place. Here in The Netherlands, almost all trains were first delayed significantly, and then cancelled for a few hours because of this, which had real impact because today is also the day we got to vote for the next parlement (I know some who can't get home in time befor…

You are not getting more 9’s rolling your own

You can get way more 9s if you roll your own procedures - and each step has a way of handling failure of the other steps.

Old trains had paper tickets, the locomotive was its own power source, the conductor had a flashlight, and the conductor could sell tickets for cash.

And if everything else failed, the conductor would just let you ride for free.

Now everything's so interconnected that any one part failing brings everything to a halt.

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#726

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should rename to Success Customer Account Manager.

>> They should rename to Success Customer Account Manager. No -- the one referencing crime should NEVER have be turned into an acronym. Crimes should not be described in euphemistic terms (which is exactly what the acronym is)

You could argue "pornography" is the euphemism?

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#727
post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Microsoft's defense, Azure has always been a complete joke. It's extremely developer unfriendly, buggy and overpriced.

If you call that defending microsoft, I'd hate to see what attacking them looks like :)

Save it for when they stick Copilot into Azure portal.

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#728
post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Microsoft's defense, Azure has always been a complete joke. It's extremely developer unfriendly, buggy and overpriced.

If you call that defending microsoft, I'd hate to see what attacking them looks like :)

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if I have a dark passenger in my tech life it is almost entirely caused by what Microsoft wants to inflict on humanity - and more importantly; how successful they are at doing it.

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#729

Currently standing in a half closed supermarket because the tills are down and they cant take payments

In Germany many stores still accept cash and some even only accept cash and we are ridiculed for this... Seems like one of the rare instances where this is useful :D

It's sad the number of stores I've seen where they just shut down when they can't use the checkout machines; the clerks aren't allowed to do math even if they could.

Whereas the smaller, owner-run stores have more leeway; the local tiny grocery "sold" all freezer/refrigerator food for cheap/free during a power failure. The big Walmart closed and threw everything away the next day.

Re: Tell HN: Azure outage

#730
post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

33 minutes from impact to status page for a complete outage is a joke.

In Microsoft's defense, Azure has always been a complete joke. It's extremely developer unfriendly, buggy and overpriced.

My favourite was the Azure CTO complaining that Git was unintuitive, clunky and difficult to use
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