Why it matters: Like other utilities, cloud services are frequently marketed to customers as having “limitless resources” that can be grown to match demand. Similar to other cloud providers, Azure has recently seen a sharp increase in resource demands to fulfill the expectations of businesses and remote workers.

Background

Unfortunately for Microsoft, some customers are now beginning to experience the impacts of that uptick and discovering that capacity could have been a problem all along.

More than 20 Azure data centers, including important ones in Washington, Europe, and Asia, are presently running at a reduced capacity, according to a recent story by The Information. Customers may not be able to utilize any Azure-based infrastructure or services that are essential to their day-to-day operations as a result of this loss in capacity, which is caused by a number of contributing causes.

Experience

Microsoft experienced the strain that resulted from continued global component shortages as well as the enormous increase in telework requirements in 2020, like other cloud service providers.

The organization (like with many others) found itself in a situation where the demand for capacity was surpassing their current infrastructure since they were unable to purchase the necessary CPUs and other components. The business continued to promote its cloud services and draw customers into its outdated infrastructure in spite of its lack of resources.

Microsoft Past

Since then, Microsoft has made an effort to solve these problems by opening more data centres globally to enhance capacity. Although the concept seems like a move in the right direction, it may not necessarily provide a solution for those consumers who are already having problems in their existing locations.

The corporation also occasionally issues remarks intended to address, but not fully admit, the ongoing capacity issues in addition to these expansions. Microsoft Azure warned customers only last month that “exceptional growth in some locations” may cause breakdowns. Help for troubleshooting virtual machine allocation errors was provided along with the notice.

Future

According to company executives, major locations like US West 2 will certainly see shortages through 2023. The Washington state-based data center has been one of the most heavily utilized and hence most limited data centers in the overall infrastructure since it began operating in 2007.

Wes Miller of Directions on Microsoft claims that Microsoft gives clients no advice when deciding which area and data center is appropriate for them. Customers are then forced to go to the nearest data center, which could already be full. Miller compares the situation to “boarding a bus that is already loaded with passengers.”

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