The US technology company, founded by Bill Gates, said users of Azure – one of the world’s leading cloud computing platforms – were experiencing delays because of interruptions to traffic moving through the Middle East.
The 49-year-old multinational added engineers had been able to reroute data through alternative paths, reducing the overall impact.
In a statement posted on its website, Microsoft said: “Azure traffic going through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fibre cuts in the Red Sea. Traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted.”
The company did not specify what had caused the damage.
Reports have circulated that cable breaks had affected connections in the United Arab Emirates as well as parts of Asia.
NetBlocks, an independent organisation tracking Internet connectivity worldwide, confirmed the disruption.
It said that undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea had led to outages or slower connections in several countries, including India and Pakistan.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Company, the state-owned internet provider, posted on X cables had been cut in waters near the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah.
It warned customers service interruptions were likely during peak hours.
Submarine cables, laid on the seabed between continents, transmit the vast majority of the world’s international data traffic.
They are vulnerable to damage from ships’ anchors or natural disasters, and in some cases have been deliberately targeted.
In February 2024, several communications cables in the Red Sea were cut, disrupting traffic between Asia and Europe.
The incident came a month after Yemen’s internationally recognised government said that the Iran-backed Houthi movement might attempt to sabotage cables and attack vessels in the region.
The Houthis denied targeting the infrastructure.
Elsewhere in Europe, suspected sabotage has also been reported in the Baltic Sea since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this year, Swedish prosecutors said they had seized a vessel suspected of damaging a cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia.
Officials said preliminary investigations suggested intentional interference.
