beale & co – GLOBAL VANTAGE: THE CROWDSTRIKE OUTAGE – DATA HELD IN THE CLOUD CAUSES TROUBLE IN THE SKIES. THE CHALLENGES FACED BY DATA CENTRES

Data centres are the backbone of Big Tech, pivotal for business continuity, and offer enhanced performance and security for hosted data. The internet does not float in a cloud but sits securely in servers at data centres. On 19 July 2024, worldwide IT outages occurred. Crowdstrike – a cybersecurity company which produces antivirus software – was identified as the cause of the outages. Crowdstrike issued a software update that had unintended consequences and subsequently led to “bricking” Windows devices., i.e. a device that won’t function properly and is as useful as a brick. Those hosting a Windows instance (a database environment) at a data centre and who also use Crowdstrike software were all affected.