Key points:
- Global ISP outages doubled last week, with US outages up 77%.
- Public cloud outages decreased globally but increased in the US the week before.
- Major disruptions hit Cloudflare and Lumen, impacting users worldwide.
Internet outages surged last week, especially affecting Internet Service Providers (ISPs), according to the latest report from ThousandEyes, a network monitoring company owned by Cisco. There were 314 global outages from January 26 to February 1—a 33% spike compared to the previous week. In the US alone, 156 outages were recorded, up 5%.
ISP Outages Doubled
The biggest jump came from ISP outages, which jumped from 86 to 175 worldwide—a 103% increase. In the US, outages rose by 77%, from 44 to 78. These disruptions affected businesses and individuals relying on internet services for work, communication, and access to cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure.
Cloud Outages Dropped—But Remain a Risk
In better news, public cloud network outages fell globally by 22% (from 90 to 70). US cloud outages dropped 29%. However, cloud providers are still a critical weak point. The previous week had seen a 20% rise in US cloud outages, showing how quickly performance can shift.
Two Major Outages Disrupted Services
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Cloudflare, a key content delivery network (CDN) used by many websites and apps, went down for over two hours on January 27. The outage started in Chicago but spread to nodes in Canada, Colorado, and beyond, affecting users in the US, Germany, Mexico, and the Philippines. ThousandEyes noted:
“The rise in nodes exhibiting outages coincided with more customers and partners being impacted.”
This outage could slow access to cloud-based services, including those hosted on Microsoft Azure, which relies on CDNs for fast content delivery. - Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), a major internet backbone provider, suffered a shorter but widespread outage the same day. Lasting 20 minutes, it hit nodes in Washington, DC, Detroit, and Los Angeles, disrupting users in over a dozen countries. Such outages can ripple through networks, delaying data flow for businesses using Microsoft Teams or other collaboration tools.
A Look Back: Trends Are Unpredictable
The week before (January 19-25) saw fewer outages globally (236), but US cloud outages rose sharply (up 20%). This unpredictability highlights why companies using Windows Server or cloud services need backup plans.
Why This Matters for Windows Users
Outages in ISPs or cloud providers can disrupt access to Microsoft 365, slow Azure-hosted apps, or interrupt remote work tools. Monitoring tools like ThousandEyes help IT teams spot issues early—critical for businesses depending on Microsoft’s ecosystem.
As internet infrastructure grows more complex, outages remain a stubborn challenge. ThousandEyes will continue tracking these disruptions, giving organizations insights to keep their services running smoothly.
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