Internet outages appear to be coming thick and fast, and the situation is getting worse, according to “Downdetector”, the platform that monitors downtime based on user reports. So what’s going on? Why is the internet becoming more unreliable?
Internet outages appear to be coming thick and fast, and the situation is getting worse, according to “Downdetector”, the platform that monitors downtime based on user reports.
In March and April 2024, users experienced problems with WhatsApp, Microsoft 365 Outlook was inaccessible for thousands of users on Friday and millions of bank customers (in the UK) were locked out of their digital banking platforms also on Friday.
So what’s going on? Why is the internet becoming more unreliable?
The outages relate to complexity, rushed innovation, the heavy reliance on cloud providers, sudden spikes in demand and, in my view lack of integration testing.
💥 Complexity
It doesn’t matter what application/business app you are using, they are frequently subjected to ‘upgrades’. Usually, presented as security patches or vital new functionality, users are subjected to frequent involuntary upgrades. These all bring risks. For example, an upgrade to your iphone or laptop operating system impacts on all applications. It’s a complex web of application and systems layers and unsurprisingly very susceptible to breakages.
Or perhaps it’s the implementation of new features, AI chatbots, AI authoring tools or gamification features that you didn’t ask for but give rise to complexity and faults.
💥 Cloud services
Issues with Cloud service providers can quickly ripple across all of the applications they support
and according to a recent BBC report, glitches for some of the biggest names in the industry – namely Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud – have previously led to downtime for thousands of customers.
Typos in code, faulty hardware, power failures and cyberattacks are just a few examples of why a service might go down.
💥 Sudden spikes in demand
It’s very noticeable that outages seem to coincide with high-traffic events like Black Friday or during low-staffed periods like bank holidays or weekends.
Theories that Fridays see more outages than other days of the week may just be speculation, but DownDetector says, many firms have policies not to ship updates or changes on that day.
IT glitches affecting Nationwide, McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s all took place on or began on Fridays in March, though they have been attributed to different causes.
Of course, once the service is restored, there is a sudden rush for access, which itself can bring further failures in its wake.
Regardless of cause, it seems that as the pace of innovation accelerates, we have forgotten the importance of testing….and that applies to all layers, (user-testing, application testing, systems testing and integration testing).
Software robustness feels very shaky at a time when our reliance on it has never been more profound. It’s time for organisations to take full responsibility for their software rather than keeping their customers hostage to fortune.
What would you like to see done about it?
By Gary Simon, BSc, FCA, FBCS, CITP
Chief Executive of FSN & Leader of the Modern Finance Forum on LinkedIn