While the United States is also confining itself, cloud services are in high demand for teleworking or video games. To avoid overloading, Microsoft will apply various temporary measures.
Microsoft reports a 775% increase in the use of cloud services
After Netflix, YouTube and Sony, it’s Microsoft’s turn to make some sacrifices. The “cloud” services offered by the Redmond company were in high demand last week. According to Microsoft Azure, its cloud management division, the use of its services has increased by 775% “in regions (of the world) that have used confinement or reinforced social distancing.” This increase concerns Windows Virtual Desktop, Power BI (marketing analysis software), Microsoft Teams and a variety of Xbox components – Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live and Mixer (Twitch for Xbox players).
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Regarding its “gaming” division, Microsoft has decided to make several adjustments to allow the vast majority of players to take advantage of its online systems. The manufacturer of the future Xbox Series X has temporarily blocked the ability to add new Xbox Live profiles and background images for gamers. In addition, like Sony, which recently decided to reduce the speed of downloading games to PlayStation, Microsoft is currently working with video game publishers to make updates only outside of peak daily activity periods.
Regarding its entrepreneurial customers, The company has found that three times as many users used Windows Virtual Desktop daily, which lets you project a specific Windows system virtually remotely. The forced generalization of telework in the education sector has especially favored Microsoft Teams and collaborative communication software like Google Hangouts and Slack. In just one week, this application would have welcomed 12 million additional users. To manage this unprecedented influx without causing an overload, Microsoft will disable certain “non-essential” features such as the accuracy of real-time user presence checks, the signaling that a user is writing or even high-resolution for video conferences.
