According to a status update from Microsoft, its Azure users may experience increased latency, particularly for traffic originating in or terminating in the Asia and Europe regions
Multiple undersea fibre optic cables in the Red Sea have been damaged, causing significant service disruptions for Microsoft’s Azure cloud service and impacting global internet traffic. This incident underscores the vulnerability of the Red Sea, a critical chokepoint for the world’s digital infrastructure.
According to a status update from Microsoft, its Azure users may experience increased latency, particularly for traffic originating in or terminating in the Asia and Europe regions. “Undersea fibre cuts can take time to repair; as such, we will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimise routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime. We’ll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change,” Microsoft said.
However, this rerouting has led to higher-than-normal latency.
The Red Sea is a vital artery for global internet connectivity, with numerous subsea cables running through its relatively shallow waters. These cables carry an estimated 17% of the world’s internet traffic, connecting Europe and Asia. The recent cuts have affected several major cables, including SEACOM/TGN-EA, AAE-1, and EIG, disrupting a significant portion of the data flow between continents.
