As 2024 comes to a close in just a few days, it’s a year that many will remember for a mix of good and bad experiences. Particularly in the tech world, this year brought its own share of ups and downs. On one hand, we witnessed the launch of the world’s fastest quantum chip, while on the other hand, millions faced significant service disruptions. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and X (formerly Twitter) experienced outages that led to major inconveniences for users and financial losses.
Here’s a look at some of the significant service interruptions that occurred in 2024:
Microsoft Outage
On July 19, 2024, around 8.5 million computers worldwide suddenly shut down. This chaos was caused by a faulty security update released by a company called CrowdStrike. The update went live at 4:09 AM UTC, and it took about six hours to resolve the issue, impacting many users during that time.
Meta’s Platforms
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, also faced several outages this year. Although many issues were resolved quickly, a server problem on March 5, 2024, left users unable to access any of these platforms for about four hours. Meta released a statement acknowledging the issue shortly after.
X Global Outage
Elon Musk’s platform, X (previously known as Twitter), experienced server issues multiple times, particularly during August and September. On two specific dates, August 28 and September 7, users in the United States and Asia struggled to log into their accounts due to significant outages.
Google Service Interruptions
Google faced a series of outages throughout the year, affecting many of its services. Notable disruptions occurred on July 30, August 8, September 18, October 18 and 29, and November 15, often lasting for hours. For instance, on September 18, Google Cloud Services went down for about six hours, and on October 18, users experienced a nearly six-hour outage with their Gmail on iOS devices.
IRCTC Issues
In India, the Indian Railways’ ticket booking platform IRCTC encountered problems when its server crashed on December 9 at 9:59 AM. This caused significant challenges for travelers trying to book last-minute tickets, especially the Tatkal tickets, although the issue was resolved within a few minutes.
These outages highlight how interconnected our lives have become with technology, and the challenges that can arise when these systems fail.
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