Microsoft has experienced a gigantic increase in demand for its various cloud services in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, and all of its social distancing and work-from-home and stay-at-home policies by worldwide governments.
Microsoft took to an Azure blog post, where they explained: "We have seen a 775 percent increase of our cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders". The services that are going through the surging demand include Microsoft Teams, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live, and Mixer -- while Windows Virtual Desktop usage has exploded by over 300%.
In order to handle the additional 775% load, Microsoft has tweaked its cloud services. The company explains in an Xbox support note: "To streamline moderation and ensure the best experience for our community, we're making small adjustments. We've temporarily turned off the ability to upload custom gamerpics, club pics, and club backgrounds".
Xbox gamers wouldn't be happy if their gaming services would be affected, so Microsoft is working hand-in-hand (maybe that's the wrong term to use with all this social distancing going on, but you know what I mean) with game publishers in order to "deliver higher-bandwidth activities like game updates during off-peak hours".
