Microsoft enacts 'temporary restrictions' on its Azure cloud as it deals with a 775% spike in usage in some areas

• Microsoft is scrambling to add capacity to keep up with all of the people using its services as they stay home amid the coronavirus crisis.
• The surge in customers include a 775% increase in usage of its Azure cloud platforms in areas that have enforced social distancing, as well as a "very significant spike" in usage of its Teams chat app.
• In response, Microsoft said it will place a "few temporary restrictions" for Azure customers, such as limits on free offers and "certain resources" for new subscriptions.
• The coronavirus crisis has become a test for Microsoft's cloud business, placing the burden
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The surge of people staying home amid the coronavirus crisis has led to a big boost in usage of Microsoft's cloud and products such as its Teams chat app - and a note to customers posted on its website suggests the company is scrambling to keep up in terms of the capacity to keep everything running smoothly.

Microsoft said it has seen a 775 percent increase in usage of its cloud service in areas that have enforced social distancing, as well as a "very significant spike" in Teams usage. The company also said its Windows Virtual Desktop usage has more than tripled and government use of its Power BI data analysis tool to share COVID-19 dashboards has increased 42 percent.

In response, Microsoft said it will place a "few temporary restrictions" for Azure customers, such as limits on free offers and "certain resources" for new subscriptions. Microsoft recommended customers switch to other data centers regions with less demand. Microsoft also said it will work to expand capacity in regions where demand is surging.

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Microsoft said it hasn't experienced any significant service disruptions, but it has seen some shortfalls in service.

"As a result of the surge in use over the last week, we have experienced significant demand in some regions...and are observing deployments for some compute resource types in these regions drop below our typical 99.99 percent success rates," Microsoft wrote.

Microsoft has also started pushing out Xbox video game updates at off-peak hours to reduce strain on its cloud.

Microsoft last week said, if any capacity shortfalls occur, the company would prioritize "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."

A test for Microsoft's cloud

The coronavirus crisis is a big test for Microsoft's cloud. Futurum Research analyst Daniel Newman recently told Business Insider he expects Microsoft will see a surge of customers.

Microsoft offers tools people need to work from home immediately such as its Teams chat app and Microsoft 365 suite of collaboration tools, and the products and services companies will need to go digital in the long-term such as help with software development and artificial intelligence.

The test will be whether it can keep up, Newman said. Microsoft Teams recently had issues with an outage in Europe and Newman said the company needs to invest now to make sure it has the capacity for all those customers.

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