Microsoft and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike are pushing back against Delta Air Lines' assertion that a recent technology outage, which led to thousands of canceled flights, was their fault. The dispute centers around a global IT failure in July that Delta claims cost the airline $500 million. The tension between the tech giants and the airline has escalated, with both sides trading barbs over the handling and responsibility of the incident.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian had pointed the finger at a botched software update from CrowdStrike on systems running Microsoft Windows as the root cause of the disruption. "The global technology outage that started with a faulty upgrade from CrowdStrike to machines running on Microsoft Windows cost the airline $500 million," Bastian said, hinting at potential legal action. This led to over 5,000 flight cancellations in the days following the July 19 incident, severely affecting Delta's operations.
In response, Microsoft's lawyer Mark Cheffo issued a scathing letter to Delta's attorney, David Boies, calling the airline's public comments "incomplete, false, misleading, and damaging to Microsoft and its reputation." Cheffo emphasized that Delta's key IT systems might be serviced by other technology providers rather than Microsoft Windows. "Our preliminary review suggests that Delta, unlike its competitors, apparently has not modernized its IT infrastructure," he wrote.
CrowdStrike also rejected Delta's claims, stating that both it and Microsoft had offered to assist the airline during the outage, but were turned down. According to Cheffo, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella personally emailed Bastian offering help, but received no reply. Similarly, CrowdStrike's CEO George Kurtz reached out to Delta but did not receive a response. Microsoft employees reportedly contacted Delta daily from July 19 to July 23, offering assistance, but were rebuffed each time.
Delta, however, maintains that it has invested billions in IT infrastructure since 2016 to ensure reliable service. The airline acknowledged the severity of the incident, stating, "Since 2016, Delta has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures, in addition to the billions spent annually in IT operating costs." Delta's executives indicated that the outage overwhelmed its crew-scheduling platform, which matches crews to flights.
Interestingly, Delta's reliance on other technology providers like IBM and Amazon was highlighted by Cheffo. In 2021, IBM announced a multiyear deal with Delta to help implement a hybrid-cloud architecture running on Red Hat's OpenShift software. In 2022, Amazon's AWS was chosen as Delta's preferred cloud provider. Cheffo pointed out that the IT system Delta struggled to restore during the outage was likely being serviced by these other providers, not Microsoft Windows or Azure.
The tech outage and subsequent fallout have raised questions about Delta's IT resilience and preparedness. Cheffo's letter suggested that Delta's issues stemmed from its own systems and management rather than a failure on Microsoft's part. "It is rapidly becoming apparent that Delta likely refused Microsoft's help because the IT system it was most having trouble restoring was being serviced by other technology providers," Cheffo wrote.
Delta's CEO Bastian has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with Microsoft and CrowdStrike's handling of the situation. He expressed frustration over the lack of financial compensation from CrowdStrike, which only offered consulting advice. Bastian also criticized the tech companies for not testing their systems thoroughly before deploying them into Delta's mission-critical environment. "You can't come into a mission-critical 24/7 operation and tell us we have a bug. It doesn't work," he told CNBC.
Microsoft has demanded that Delta retain records of how technologies from IBM, Amazon, and others contributed to the airline's issues from July 19 to July 24. This demand underscores the tech giant's stance that Delta's IT woes were not solely due to the Microsoft Windows systems. The ongoing blame game between Delta and the tech companies has highlighted the complexities and interdependencies of modern IT systems in critical operations.
