Zoom Video Conferencing Is Down For The Entire Planet
Zoom is experiencing a total software outage that is affecting users worldwide.
When the Covid pandemic struck, it drastically shifted what we define as “normal” work environments. Companies raced to find ways to maintain productivity in the face of social distancing, lockdowns, restrictions, and shifts to remote work. But amidst all the chaos, a few video conferencing platforms rose to the occasion and became staples of the workplace. This reliance makes news of today’s Zoom outage highly problematic for those still relying on its platform.
According to reporting by Data Center Dynamics, Zoom is currently down. And it appears to be affecting users globally. At first, the video conferencing company thought the problem only impacted those attempting to join new meetings.
Reports from users suggested those currently in meetings could continue with little to no interruption. So, Zoom initially acknowledged an issue around joining new meetings. But company leadership did not find the problem serious enough to add it to its status page.
That changed rapidly. Shortly after Data Center Dynamics first reported on the story, Zoom changed its status page to indicate a “major outage.” This outage does impact users worldwide. There is no update about the scope or cause of the problem at this time.
It is not the first time Zoom has needed to deal with a major outage. With the rapid increase in work-for-home situations, the number of Zoom users rose drastically throughout the pandemic. A surge in new users caused the video conference platform to experience numerous outages.
They are also not the only platform dealing with major technical problems. Microsoft Teams, another video conferencing solution, also faced outages in the wake of heightened use. In most of these early cases, the outages could get (at least partially) attributed to the surge in demand.
However, there may not be such a clear answer as to the cause of the current outage. Zoom issued an early statement: “We have identified the issue starting and joining meetings. We will continue to investigate and provide updates as we have them.” But, at the time of publication, they have not provided an update.
Part of why it may become difficult to trace the origin of this outage is that Zoom utilizes multiple cloud services. Early in the pandemic, a bit of a tech giant battle hit the news. Both Oracle and Amazon, who owns AWS, publicly claimed to be the cloud provider.
While Zoom does use both, its CEO did confirm that AWS is its primary provider. And at the moment, Amazon has not reported any system issues. So it is unlikely that the root of the problem lies there.
What is very interesting, it appears Zoom is not the only one having major issues today. Microsoft Azure also experienced what they are calling “an event.” There is a problem that impacted AzureDevOps, which the company is currently investigating.
Google is also having problems of its own. Their engineers are looking into technical trouble with the Google Compute Engine impacting some Google Cloud users. So, if your computer does not want to cooperate today, you are not alone. Keep your eye on each individual website for the most up-to-date information and news.
