Microsoft sees astonishing 775 percent surge in cloud services usage due to social distancing

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: With any luck, communications networks will hold up under the added stress as this pandemic continues to play out. For many, the Internet is serving as a last vestige of sanity in these uncertain times and a way to keep paychecks coming in. If the Internet starts to fail under load, this whole thing could go from very bad to outright scary in no time.

Microsoft on Sunday said it has observed a staggering 775 percent increase in the usage of its cloud services over the past week in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders.

Usage of Microsoft’s collaboration software, Teams, has spiked as well as the service now has more than 44 million daily users. Redmond said Teams users generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes daily in a single week.

Usage of Windows Virtual Desktop, meanwhile, has grown more than 3x, we’re told.

Microsoft said it is expediting the addition of “significant new capacity” that’ll be available in the coming weeks and is taking some proactive measures to reduce capacity strain. For example, with Teams, they’ve adjusted video resolution and how often they show when the other party is typing.

On the Xbox front, Microsoft said it is working with publishing partners to deliver higher-bandwidth activities like game updates during off-peak hours. They’ve also temporarily disabled the ability to upload custom gamerpics, club pics and club backgrounds to help streamline moderation and ensure the best experience for the community.

Despite usage increases, Microsoft said they have not experienced any significant service disruptions.

Masthead credit: Emilija Miljkovic, GaudilLab

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84598-microsoft-sees-astonishing-775-percent-surge-cloud-services.html

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Could result in some interesting conspiracy theories.

 

[bviktor]

That 720p cap on cloud recording in Teams meetings really hurts.

 

[umbala]

"If the Internet starts to fail under load, this whole thing could go from very bad to outright scary in no time." Forget the virus. Apparently the worst thing that could happen to humanity is the internet going out. I wonder how people during the Black Plague dealt with the internet failing.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

I wonder how people during the Black Plague dealt with the internet failing.

We could ask Ajit Pai.

 

[candle_86]

"If the Internet starts to fail under load, this whole thing could go from very bad to outright scary in no time." Forget the virus. Apparently the worst thing that could happen to humanity is the internet going out. I wonder how people during the Black Plague dealt with the internet failing.

Umm it would be a complete collapse of the economy as global trade and the markets rely 100% on the internet. Bussiness would also be hit hard as almost none use a pbx and they use VoIP instead so all communication stops. Alot of infrastructure will also cease operating properly as it now also relys on the same internet.

It's not the 1300s anymore.

But ironically something like the black death would ease congestion, highly infectious, 70% fatality rate for those infected. We'd see world population collapse from 7 billion to around 2 billion.

 

[poohbear]

Micron's CEO alluded to this during their quarterly conference when he said the datacentre is exploding in growth and demanding more memory to expand their networks as a result...but supply can't keep up with the demand!

 

[Reehahs]

The number of people accidentally searching on Bing must have gone up.

 

[Uncle Al]

"With any luck, communications networks will hold up under the added stress as this pandemic continues to play out."

Since the beginning of the internet the big Telco's have promised quite a few things including an all fiber network with speeds of over 1 T-bit for every users. It was based upon these promises that the Govt. granted them access and licensing. Unfortunately, with all the lobbying efforts by these same Telco's, they have been allowed to break those promises and deliver a far inferior network. A simple look around the world will show how the network was "supposed" to look.

Now it's being put to the real test and the Telco's will be under the spotlight again. It's about time for the Govt. to lower the boom and give them a "build it or else" ultimatum. No excuses, no delays, no forgiveness. Build it or close them down. No worries, there are plenty standing in line that would love to take each company over and rebuild it. We deserve nothing less!

 

[Yynxs]

"If the Internet starts to fail under load, this whole thing could go from very bad to outright scary in no time." Forget the virus. Apparently the worst thing that could happen to humanity is the internet going out. I wonder how people during the Black Plague dealt with the internet failing.

Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!

 

[Yynxs]

The number of people accidentally searching on Bing must have gone up.

Those who know my paranoia know I track and block the IPs of every site my system tries to contact or contact.

I'm getting anomalous Microsoft attempts. I noted them a couple of weeks and didn't worry about it because the firewalls (yes plural) are working. Now that MS is getting hit so hard and no one paid that much attention to them before, I'm wondering if something got 'adjusted' in the cloud server farms or the (so called) web page security checks.

Just a fringe thought.