Microsoft outage “affecting IT operations” Paris Olympics organizers

Paris:

Organizers of the Paris Olympics said on Friday they were facing problems related to a major failure in computer systems around the world, a week before the Games’ opening ceremony.

The problems emerged as a major outage wreaked havoc on computer systems around the world, grounding flights in the United States, disrupting television broadcasts in the United Kingdom and impacting telecommunications in Australia.

“Paris 2024 is aware of the global technical issues affecting Microsoft software. These issues are impacting Paris 2024’s IT operations,” organizers said.

“Paris 2024 technical teams have been fully mobilized to mitigate the impacts of these issues and we have activated contingency plans to continue operations,” they added.

A source at the Paris Olympics organizing committee said the problem is affecting the accreditation system, with some people unable to collect their badges before next Friday’s ceremony on the River Seine.

The source added that this could also affect the arrival of athletes whose flights were canceled after the Olympic athletes’ village welcomed its first guests on Thursday.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE), airports in Spain, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, as well as production at the North American car manufacturer Tesla’s factory on the outskirts of Berlin, were also halted.

Microsoft said in a statement that it is taking “mitigation actions” in response to service issues.

It was unclear whether this was related to the global outages.

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