New Delhi: Recent Microsoft outage that disrupted flights, IT systems and businesses worldwide left China largely unaffected. While the United States, Europe and India struggled with the fallout, Chinas key infrastructure, from airlines to banks, operated smoothly. Social media users and local media in Beijing reported minimal impact.Operations continue in ChinaAs of 6 PM local time on Friday, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported no major infrastructure breakdowns in China. International airports in Beijing and Shanghai continued normal operations, as confirmed by their respective websites.A Shanghai-based employee of a foreign company, quoted by SCMP, reported experiencing computer system crashes early Friday afternoon. Her laptop displayed a blue screen with the message, “Recovery. It looks like Windows didnt load correctly.” Employees were instructed to shut down their systems and await further instructions. Despite these isolated incidents, Chinas public transport system remained unaffected, and social media posts highlighted the minimal impact of the Microsoft outage in Beijing.How did China managed to remain unaffectedChinas resilience during the Microsoft outage can be attributed to the unique structure of Microsofts operations in the country. Microsofts cloud services in China are operated by a local partner, 21Vianet, in compliance with Chinas regulatory requirements, which mandate that foreign cloud services be managed by domestic companies.This arrangement creates a distinct and insulated setup for Microsofts services in China, separate from its global infrastructure. Consequently, Chinas configurations and operations remained unaffected by the issues that plagued other regions. This strategic separation enabled Microsofts services in China to maintain continuity while other parts of the world grappled with the outage.
