Fastly Reports Software Bug that Triggered Internet Outage

Fastly Inc., the company which was behind a major global internet outage this week, in a recent announcement, had stated that the incident was caused by a bug that was present in its software, which triggered when one of its customers changed the network settings. The outage that occurred on Tuesday raised several questions about the reliance of the internet on a few infrastructure companies. Fastly's issue knocked out high-traffic websites, which also included major government websites.

Fastly primarily operates a group of servers strategically that have been placed around the world to help customers store content close to their end-users quickly and safely. The company post gave a timeline of events and promised its customers to examine and explain why it has failed to detect the software bug during its testing process.

Fastly said the bug was in a software update shipped to customers on May 12 but was not triggered until one unidentified customer carried out settings changes that triggered the problem, which caused 85 percent of the network to return errors. The outage was broad and severe, and it had a massive impact on Fastly's customers and everyone who relied on them. The company immediately apologized to all its users on its blog post.

 

Orange teams up with insurance firm AXA Assurance to buy a majority stake in DabaDoc

In a recent announcement, Orange has stated that it has joined hands with insurance firm AXA Assurance Maroc to buy the majority of stakes in DabaDoc, which is a Moroccan digital healthcare platform. Besides the financial investment of an unspecified amount, the deal is also primarily focused on Orange providing access to its main digital payments infrastructure to help DabaDoc grow its business.

DabaDoc, an online medical appointment management platform, is a free service in that it costs customers nothing to make an appointment with a medical and healthcare professional. However, the service does not cover treatment costs. The company has not yet specified how many medical professionals might have to pay to use this beneficiary service.

Orange's tri-party partnership with DabaDoc will benefit from the broad experience of AXA, which is the global leader in health insurance, and Orange's technological expertise and payment solutions will enable digital solutions will be developed rapidly to scale up and benefit patients and the entire African healthcare ecosystem. AXA's involvement with Orange will help its policyholders interact with healthcare organizations and professionals through its appointment booking system and remote consultation infrastructure.

 

 

Internet Outage Brings Down Several Major Retail and News Websites

Earlier this morning at 6.44 AM (Eastern Time), many governments and news websites in the U.S. and Europe were inaccessible, with at least one internet outage tracker reporting widespread disruptions. Sites like the U.K. government's main public-services portal, major U.S. and European news outlets, such as the New York Times, CNN, and Le Monde, were shut down.

Down Detector, an internet services tracker, reported the spike in outages. Many social media users described widespread outages in various regions. Fastly, an operator of the network service said issues with its services, though it was unclear whether the broader website outages were related. The company stated that it is currently investigating potential impact to performance with its CDN services.

Fastly's status page indicated the company had identified a problem with its service, stating that a fix was being implemented. Fastly also observed traffic volume to drop by about 75 percent, according to network monitoring company Kentik Inc. Most of the websites went down and displayed a simple error message in plain text, which said "Error 503 Service Unavailable," along with other codes.

 

 

Jeff Bezos to travel to Space on Blue Origin's first passenger flight

Jeff Bezos, America's business tycoon, media proprietor, investor, founder, and CEO of the multinational technology company Amazon in a recent announcement, has stated that he will travel to space next month on his company Blue Origin's first-ever passenger flight. His brother Mark and an auction winner will be joined on the flight scheduled for July 20th.

It is reported that they will fill three of the six seats on the first crewed suborbital flight, which will travel to an altitude of more than 340,000 feet. Jeff Bezos wrote in an Instagram post that he had been dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, he, along with his brother, will be traveling to space. He said it would be the most incredible adventure with his best friend.

Recently, Blue Origin kicked off a three-phase online auction that offered one seat on the first flight of its New Shepard spacecraft, named after the first American in space, Alan Shepard.  The sealed portion of the online auction began on May 5th, which allowed the bidders to submit any amount for getting a golden opportunity to ride into space. The second online bidding runs through June 10th. The bidding will conclude on June 12th.

 

 

Microsoft all set to launch its Next-Generation Windows on June 24

US-based tech giant Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella, in a recent press meet, has stated that the company will be launching its next-generation Windows on June 24 through a virtual event. Microsoft's new Windows update will unlock economic opportunities for developers and creators. Microsoft will be unveiling more details and features about the latest Windows update at this event later this month. Reports state that the Windows is codenamed internally as 'Project Sun Valley' and will bring a UI overhaul with a brand new Windows app store.

Microsoft has listed a new event on its website that is scheduled for June 24. The company has also posted a tweet on its Twitter handle about the event that's coming 'next for Windows' and an image attached to the event hinting that there might be a slight change to the Windows logo. Users can enter the event page and schedule a reminder for the Microsoft unveil.

CEO Nadella has stated that the next-generation Windows update will be the most significant. The company will be sharing substantial updates about the new Windows that will unlock greater economic opportunities for both the developers and creators. "I've been self-hosting it over the past several months, and I'm incredibly excited about the next generation of Windows," said Nadella.