Websites and systems around the world were disrupted for several hours. (File photo) Photo: CHRISTOPH HARDT/GEISLER-FOTOPRES
Websites and systems around the world are recovering after a global Microsoft internet outage on Thursday morning.
The outage highlighted the problem with depending on so few companies to deliver the world's cloud services, a tech journalist has claimed.
Websites and systems were disrupted for several hours due to a problem with Microsoft Azure, the tech company's cloud system.
In New Zealand it delayed flights, and organisations like Fire and Emergency, Health NZ and Immigration NZ also reported issues.
Air New Zealand said its app and some other services were down, causing delays at check in and on arrival with staff forced to revert some manual processes.
Technology and business journalist Bill Bennett told Midday Report a huge number of systems are dependent on the cloud.
He said the cloud was made up of tens of thousands of remote computers which were dependent on each other.
"Think of it being like... Jenga blocks," he said.
"What happened today is someone pulled a block out at the bottom of the Jenga pile and blocks fell over all over the world."
It showed how risky it was to rely on so few companies for cloud services, Bennett said.
"Three companies, Google, AWS [Amazon Web Services] and Microsoft Azure, they make up two thirds of all the cloud services around the world.
"So there's very... limited number of baskets to put your eggs in, and there's a lot of dependency on those people."
Microsoft said an "inadvertent configuration change" caused the global outage.
AFP reported configuration changes were routine in technology operations, and they were made "constantly" to improve services, add features, or fix problems.
But even a small error could cascade through highly interconnected systems and spread almost instantly to cloud customers worldwide, it said.
How New Zealand was impacted
Numerous organisation in New Zealand reported issues on Thursday morning due to the outage including Air NZ, Health NZ, Interislander and Fire and Emergency NZ.
Fire and Emergency had said while some of its systems were affected they were still able to take 111 calls and respond to emergencies.
Air NZ said there were "minor delays" to some flights due to the outage and the app had been down for a time.
Chief customer and digital Officer, Jeremy O'Brien said customers could experience delays at check and arrivals as teams worked to manage some manual processes.
By 2pm, Air NZ said the app was back up and running and teams were working to bring the remaining systems back up after Microsoft identified a fix to the issue.
"We experienced some minor delays to international and domestic flights this morning but expect to return to normal operations this afternoon.
"A huge thank you to those travelling today for their patience and kindness as our teams worked to get you to your destination."
O'Brien said usual operations were expected to be back on Thursday afternoon.
"It may take a few hours for all systems to fully recover. It's possible there will be some further delays as a result of this morning's outage."
Health NZ said some systems in communities had been impacted including pharmacy vaccination services. It said there was no impact to hospital operations or patient services.
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