Hotmail, Outlook.com, SkyDrive Experience Service Disruptions

Several of Microsoft’s cloud computing services experienced service disruptions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Many users of the Hotmail and Outlook.com Web-based email services said they failed to receive messages that had been sent to them, and SkyDrive users reported trouble accessing and editing files. However, the company now says that the services are all functioning normally again.

BBC News reported, “Users of Outlook and Hotmail webmail services have been hit by a lengthy fault, Microsoft has confirmed. A status message informed users on Wednesday morning about the issues, with the company adding it was ‘working to restore service right now.’ Users reported not seeing emails that should have reached their accounts.”

The Washington Post’s Hayley Tsukayama noted, “Microsoft is working to replace Hotmail users’ accounts with Outlook accounts, though it will allow users of the older service to hang on to their current e-mail addresses.”

Newsday’s Ken Schachter added, “Service also was disrupted on Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service, but by 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, about three hours after the issue was noted on the company’s service status Web page, the issue was reported to be fixed. SkyDrive users were having problems adding, editing or removing files and publishing content with Windows Photo Gallery in an online album, according to the company posting.”

According to CNET’s Lance Whitney, “Outlook and Hotmail are up and running once again…. Microsoft’s status page shows that the problem was fixed a little after 7:30 PT this morning, meaning the outage persisted for around 17 hours.”