Azure Services Disrupted After Red Sea Submarine Cables Severed

According to Microsoft, logs on the Azure status page show that its cloud services were disrupted after several international cables in the Red Sea were severed. Although Azure has since rerouted traffic with the assistance of its partners, latency between Asia and Europe may still increase. The Red Sea hosts a dense network of submarine cables serving as vital conduits linking Europe, Asia and Africa, and these undersea cables have suffered multiple cuts in the past.

Microsoft did not disclose which cables were damaged or the cause of the disruption, but noted that repair of severed fibre‑optic lines can take considerable time. Repair work is described as notoriously complex, with full restoration of service potentially taking several months due to security risks in the Red Sea.