Microsoft is planning to prioritize access to its cloud-based Azure services to first responders, emergency services, and critical infrastructure if there are capacity constraints.
The company experienced some issues with Microsoft Teams last week after a surge of nearly 40 percent occurred as businesses turned to remote working during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Microsoft is now trying to avoid impacting existing customers while managing new demand.
Microsoft is “actively monitoring performance and usage trends 24/7” to ensure services are optimized and working as expected. If that’s not the case, Microsoft has priority plans. “As demand continues to grow, if we are faced with any capacity constraints in any region during this time, we have established clear criteria for the priority of new cloud capacity,” explains a Microsoft Azure blog post.
“Top priority will be going to first responders, health and emergency management services, critical government infrastructure organizational use, and ensuring remote workers stay up and running with the core functionality of Teams.”
Microsoft says it’s also partnering with governments worldwide to ensure local data centers are staffed and able to provide cloud services. The software maker is also prepared to adjust free offers for cloud services “to ensure support of existing customers.”
