The issue is more significant than what Microsoft publicly lets on, with the data centres operating in the yellow zone
Microsoft Azure data centres worldwide are operating with limited server capacity available to customers amid a global supply shortage. According to a report, more than two dozen data centres are operating with limited server capacity available to customers.
The issue is more significant than what Microsoft publicly lets on, with the data centres operating in the yellow zone. The report is based on two current Microsoft managers and an engineer who works for a major customer.
One manager adds that server capacity at more than half a dozen Azure data centres is expected to remain limited until early next year. Among them are a facility in central Washington state and others in Europe and Asia. Microsoft’s struggle to fill its data centres with hardware comes after a surge in cloud demand at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The demand surge was met with several small outages of Azure services, although it is hard to ascertain whether it is directly linked to the usage spike. Since then, the data centre industry has been hit by widespread supply shortages across the spectrum, in particular semiconductors.
Chip shortages are expected to continue for years, and have slowed server rollouts in data centres worldwide. Among them was video game publisher Square Enix, which could not launch data centres due to server shortages, rendering the popular game Final Fantasy XIV inaccessible for many.
