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Summary
- Google has confirmed that several Google apps suffered a 45-minute outage on Monday.
- IT experts attributed the outage to an internal problem, ruling out cyberattacks.
- Many schools and businesses were forced to take a break or an entire day-off until the problem was rectified.
Numerous Google and YouTube services, including Gmail and Google Drive, suffered a 45-minute outage on Monday, disrupting the operations of schools and work environments across the globe.
The users were not able to successfully log into most services offered by Google. Web pages flashed errors, while YouTube portrayed an illustration of a monkey in repair mode.
So much so that, the Google search engine recorded a significant increase in the question- “Is Google down?”.
A Google spokesperson issued a statement on Monday, assuring the concerned users that the outage was not caused by any cyberattacks. Engineers working for the search engine traced the IT issue to internal servers, as Gmail and others could not recognise log-in identifications for a short period of time.
The company also ruled out the possibility that the recent changes in their cloud storage had anything to do with the outage.
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Who were the affected individuals?
The outage hit at approximately 6:47 am Eastern Time (EST), leaving several US states with no access to online apps, among others.
The matter influenced billions of workers across the globe and many corporate offices had to pause their operations. The impact was massive especially because the pandemic has forced the workers to depend significantly on Google Drive, Docs, Gmail, etc.
Image Source: © Kalkine Group 2020
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Google attributed the 45-minute inconvenience to “authentication system outage".
A Google spokeswoman assured that the firm would be thoroughly reviewing the problem, posting the final issue diagnosis, and addressing the questions so as to avoid the repeat of such glitches in future.
Google is known for serving corporate and retail environments, facilitating communication within departments, so it is no surprise that the outage affected billions across the globe.
While Google developers were busy resolving the issue, some users had a field day creating memes and satire tweets on the subject. Many joked that the outage was one of many challenges that 2020 brought to humanity.
Some schools in the US operate using G Suite (Google-linked products) and hence they had to send almost 10,000 pupils to their homes due to authorisation troubles. One of the teachers compared the situation to heavy snowfalls, as US schools often need to close down due to severe weather conditions.
Google, YouTube, and other social media platforms often experience similar hiccups. However, even short outages nowadays can significantly impact businesses and institutions, especially because most of them have resorted to working from home.
