Ride the Lightning

Zoom and Microsoft Teams Totter Under Strain of Coronavirus Demand

March 18, 2020

The Register reported on March 16 that both Zoom and Microsoft Teams were stumbling under the strain of so many people working remotely. While Microsoft and Zoom have been building capacity rapidly, the flood of workers to video conferencing recently has been overwhelming.

No one is happy when there is an outage, but there have indeed been outages. Zoom candidly reported that its software has "degraded performance" and its phone service has a "partial outage." Take a look at social media which seems to confirm that the issue is widespread.

All remote working companies are scrambling to deal with the sudden flood of users. Zoom has updated its audio-conferencing system in the background in order to allow people running the meeting the ability to change dial-in options – a sign that people who usually do not use its software are having to be guided through it by manager and meeting organizers.

Zoom may have gotten a little overexcited: All its execs, CEO, CFO and CIO have been on a media blitz recently touting their low latency, network optimization, decision to remove a 40-minute limit on free accounts and even offering free video conferencing for schools.

Microsoft, which has been heavily promoting its Teams conferencing service recently, is also having issues, which a string of outages. The service was listed by Microsoft as suffering "degradation."

Cisco's Webex has been looking good and is reportedly handing the load well.

As The Register wryly noted, here are the sounds in the U.S. these days: "Can everyone hear me? Can everyone mute if they're not talking? Whoever has dogs, could they please move or turn off their mic?"

Sounds about right. <g>

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
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