Microsoft Azure providers disrupted by Crimson Sea cable cuts

Microsoft’s Azure cloud providers have been disrupted by undersea cable cuts within the Crimson Sea, the US tech large says.

Customers of Azure – one of many world’s main cloud computing platforms – would expertise delays due to issues with web site visitors transferring by means of the Center East, the corporate stated.

Microsoft didn’t clarify what might need triggered the harm to the undersea cables, however added that it had been in a position to reroute site visitors by means of different paths.

Over the weekend, there have been stories suggesting that undersea cable cuts had affected the United Arab Emirates and a few nations in Asia.

Cables laid on the ocean flooring transmit knowledge between continents and are sometimes described because the spine of the web.

An replace posted on the Microsoft web site on Saturday stated that Azure site visitors going by means of the Center East “might expertise elevated latency as a consequence of undersea fibre cuts within the Crimson Sea”.

It careworn that site visitors “that doesn’t traverse by means of the Center East just isn’t impacted”.

On Saturday, NetBlocks, an organisation that displays web entry, stated a sequence of undersea cable cuts within the Crimson Sea had affected web providers in a number of nations, together with India and Pakistan.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Firm stated in a submit on X that the cuts occurred in waters close to the Saudi metropolis of Jeddah and warned that web providers might be affected throughout peak hours.

Undersea cables could be broken by anchors dropped by ships, however have additionally, previously, been intentionally focused.

In February 2024, a number of communications cables within the Crimson Sea had been minimize, affecting web site visitors between Asia and Europe.

The incident occurred a few month after Yemen’s internationally recognised authorities warned that the Iran-backed Houthi motion may sabotage the cables and assault ships on the Crimson Sea. The Houthis denied that that they had focused cables.

Within the Baltic Sea, a sequence of undersea cables and gasoline pipelines have been broken in suspected assaults since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Earlier this yr, Swedish authorities seized a ship suspected of damaging a cable operating below the Baltic Sea to Latvia. Prosecutors stated an preliminary investigation pointed to sabotage.