CLOUDSTRIKE IMPACT ON GLOBAL OUTAGE AND THE CHALLENGE OF SAAS IN THE FUTURE

Authors

  • Sandeep Reddy Gudimetla HCL Tech, USA. Author

Keywords:

CloudStrike, Global IT Outage, SaaS Challenges, Cybersecurity, Cloud Infrastructure

Abstract

The global business world recently experienced an IT outage, which caused massive disruptions and glitches in business operations. The outage occurred due to a malfunction in CloudStrike’s Falcon software. CloudStrike is a leading cybersecurity provider, offering services to over 500 companies in the Fortune 1000 companies. The issue affected key sectors like healthcare, aviation, financial, government agencies, and retail, causing flight cancellations, grounding of flights, and delayed service delivery. This outage exposed the vulnerability of SaaS platforms and applications. Challenges, such as security concerns, vendor lock-in, performance and reliability, and dependency on cloud architecture, have been identified in this paper. Despite the shortcomings, SaaS is affordable, scalable, and flexible. Thus, providers can ensure effectiveness and reliability by adopting various measures, such as establishing multi-region servers, and robust security measures

References

N. Robins-Early, “What is CrowdStrike, and how did it cause a global Windows outage?” The Guardian, Jul. 19, 2024. Accessed: Jul. 28, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/19/what-is-crowdstrike-microsoft-windows-outage#:~:text=An%20update%20to%20one%20of

G. Petras, J. Loehrke, and R. Padilla, “CrowdStrike impact: How a global IT outage unraveled the world’s tech,” USA TODAY, Jul. 19, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/07/19/crowdstrike-outage-global-effect/74467247007/

E. Rothenberg, “Timeline: How the CrowdStrike outage unfolded,” CNN, Jul. 20, 2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/20/tech/timeline-crowdstrike-system-outage/index.html

M. Cerullo, “CrowdStrike says more than 97% of Windows sensors are back online,” www.cbsnews.com, Jul. 26, 2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/crowdstrike-outage-microsoft-windows-restored/#:~:text=Microsoft%20estimates%20the%20error%20took (accessed Jul. 28, 2024).

C. Contreras, “Why is Delta still canceling flights when other airlines quickly restored service?” Northeastern Global News, Jul. 23, 2024. https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/07/23/crowdstrike-outage-delta-airlines/ (accessed Jul. 28, 2024).

G. Dave, G. Choudhary, V. Sihag, I. You, and K.-K. R. Choo, “Cyber Security Challenges in Aviation Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance,” Computers & Security, vol. 112, p. 102516, Oct. 2021, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2021.102516.

M. Salerno, “What’s going on with Delta Air Lines? Why CrowdStrike’s still canceling flights in Phoenix,” The Arizona Republic, Jul. 23, 2024. https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/airlines/2024/07/23/delta-air-lines-flights-canceled-crowdstrike/74504091007/#:~:text=The%20outage%20caused%20problems%20with (accessed Jul. 28, 2024).

R. Davies, “UK doctors and travel firms warn of backlog after global IT outage,” The Guardian, Jul. 21, 2024. Accessed: Jul. 28, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/21/nhs-warns-of-considerable-backlog-in-gp-services-after-global-it-outage

M. Javaid, A. Haleem, R. P. Singh, and R. Suman, “Towards insighting Cybersecurity for Healthcare domains: A comprehensive review of recent practices and trends,” Cyber Security and Applications, vol. 1, no. 100016, p. 100016, 2023, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csa.2023.100016.

L. Noonan, D. Wee, L. Kehnscherper, and A. Narayanan, “Trading Disrupted, Bankers Go Home After Outages Sweep Globe,” Bloomberg.com, Jul. 19, 2024. Accessed: Jul. 28, 2024. [Online]. Available: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-19/some-jpmorgan-employees-unable-to-log-on-amid-global-outages

Aljazeera, “Global IT outage causes chaos, disrupting airlines, banks, media, telecoms,” Al Jazeera, Jul. 19, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/7/19/australia-struck-by-major-it-outage-hitting-banks-media-telecoms#:~:text=Multiple%20other%20sectors%20were%20also (accessed Jul. 28, 2024).

M. Gupta, D. Gupta, and P. Rai, “Exploring the Impact of Software as a Service (SaaS) on Human Life,” vol. 10, Jan. 2024, Doi: https://doi.org/10.4108/eetiot.4821.

M. Dawood, S. Tu, C. Xiao, H. Alasmary, M. Waqas, and S. U. Rehman, “Cyberattacks and Security of Cloud Computing: A Complete Guideline,” Symmetry, vol. 15, no. 11, p. 1981, Nov. 2023, Doi:

https://doi.org/10.3390/sym15111981.

M. Chauhan and S. Shiaeles, “An Analysis of Cloud Security Frameworks, Problems and Proposed Solutions,” Network, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 422–450, Sep. 2023, Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/network3030018.

T. Weldemicheal and S. Johansson, “Vendor lock-in and its impact on cloud computing migration Main Subject area: Informatics,” 2023. Available: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1787688/FULLTEXT01.pdf

R. Wang, X. Tian, and S. Ying, “Performance issue monitoring, identification and diagnosis of SaaS software: a survey,” Frontiers of Computer Science, vol. 19, no. 1, 2024, Available: https://journal.hep.com.cn/fcs/EN/10.1007/s11704-023-2701-0

M. Humayun, M. Niazi, M. F. Almufareh, N. Z. Jhanjhi, S. Mahmood, and M. Alshayeb, “Software-as-a-Service Security Challenges and Best Practices: A Multivocal Literature Review,” Applied Sciences, vol. 12, no. 8, p. 3953, Apr. 2022, Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/app12083953.

T. Smith, “The Challenges and Considerations of SaaS: A Closer Look,” www.linkedin.com, May 16, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenges-considerations-saas-closer-look-tim-smith (accessed Jul. 29, 2024).

Downloads

Published

2024-08-12