Microsoft fault has limited impact here

Friday 19 July 2024

All States run services have been checked following today's global Microsoft outage and it's been confirmed the only areas affected were one section of Education IT and Beau Sejour's payment system.

A spokesperson said that "the vast majority of States services are not impacted" but that the situation is being continually monitored.

"Further to widespread media reporting of the global Microsoft outage, we have run checks across all our services that rely on Microsoft products and can confirm that the impact on States of Guernsey services was limited to SIMS within Education (Schools Information Management System), which has now had much of its core functionality restored, and the Beau Sejour payment system which are both third party cloud-based services," the States spokesperson said. 

"However, the vast majority of States services are not impacted. We will continue to monitor services throughout the day and will update should the situation change.

"We have been in contact with the island’s large retailers, the majority of which have reported no issues. One retailer was having difficulties taking card payments this morning but has since reported being back to business as usual. Our ports have also reported no issues."

Pictured: Beau Séjour was affected by the Microsoft fault earlier today.

Numerous local businesses had to resort to cash sales only earlier today after the Microsoft fault took hold on systems across the world. 

Both Waitrose stores, Earlswood Garden Centre, Le Friquet Garden Centre, King's Leisure Centre, Herm businesses, and others all reported issues that were beyond their control.

Some of those businesses have since confirmed that they can now take card payments again.

The technical fault that caused these issues locally is a global malfunction affecting Windows computers.

Elsewhere the error has had a huge effect on numerous computer systems, including on hospitals and airports in the UK, with reported problems across Europe, Asia, and America too.

Pictured: Some national news report are claiming this IT outage is worse than anything predicted at the turn of the century when the 'Millennium Bug' was predicted to affect computer systems. That did not materialise at the time.

The Daily Mail Online is reporting that the Windows fault "(prompted) departure boards to suddenly turn off at airports including Heathrow , Gatwick and Edinburgh on the busiest day for British airports since Covid". 

The online newspaper has also said that "NHS England told patients not to attend GP appointments unless told otherwise due to problems with the appointment and patient record system, while train passengers have been told to expect delays due to 'widespread IT issues across the entire network'."

There are national news reports of problems at airports including in Los Angeles, Delhi and across Spain.

The BBC earlier reported that cash machines in Hong Kong weren't working either.