The recent Microsoft outage, caused by CrowdStrike has led to flight delays, TV failures and difficulties for businesses and healthcare worldwide. Occurring just a week before the Paris Olympics, many worried that the issues would affect the 2024 Games; the Paris authorities have spoken out.
Opening ceremony
Opening on July 26, the organising committee of the Paris Olympics, said they were fortunate to have experienced “minimal” impacts from the global IT outage. However, they stated that the accreditation system issuing badges for the opening ceremony has been affected. Awarded by 45,000 volunteers, not everyone was able to receive their badge before the opening ceremony on the River Seine.
The authorities stated; “Paris 2024 is aware of global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024´s IT operations.” However, they emphasised that the Olympics´ plans have not changed; the ticket systems, venue preparations and the Olympic torch have not been impacted.
Flying to Paris
Although the Microsoft outage didn´t affect the Paris airport operator, ADP, the Paris 2024 organising committee said the arrival of athletes was impacted due to flight cancellations and delays, after the athletes’ Olympic village welcomed its first guests on July 18.
In the US, more than 2,200 flights were cancelled and 7,000 delayed on Friday 19 alone, affecting airlines including Southwest Airlines, Peer American Airlines and Frontier Airlines. The spokesperson for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee reported that Team USA continues to work through potential issues related to the outage.
End of chaos
Microsoft has now issued a statement, reporting; “Although this was not a Microsoft incident, given it impacts our ecosystem, we want to provide an update on the steps we´ve taken with CrowdStrike and others to remediate and support our customers.”
Hundreds of Microsoft IT experts are currently working directly with customers to “restore services”, collaborating with other cloud providers and stakeholders, including “Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services.” Microsoft´s collaboration also continues with CrowdStrike, set to bring back the required IT services.
