Microsoft Azure Runs Out of IP Addresses, Forwards Requests to Foreign Locations

Microsoft has since updated its communication on this issue. See Update: Microsoft Runs out of IPv4 Addresses – Or…Not

Stop me if you've heard this one.

Comedian: "The Internet is sooo crowded."

Audience: "How crowded is it?"

Comedian: "The Internet is so crowded that Microsoft Azure has run out of IP addresses and is automatically rerouting people to foreign addresses."

Classic bit, right? Always good for a laugh?

Maybe not, but that's the case this week. The IPv4 address shortage is affecting some customers of Microsoft Azure's services in a specific region. Because the entire IPv4 address space has been fully assigned, there's very little Microsoft can do to ensure uninterrupted services other than reroute requests to non-US regions.

This comes on the heels of Microsoft's heavy push to solicit the US government for surveillance reforms to ensure data stored in the Cloud remains untouched by prying eyes. Microsoft has made statements to help ease public fears, stating that…

…when you deploy to a U.S. region, your service is still hosted in U.S. and your customer data will remain in the U.S.

If you're like me, that was the first thing I thought about, but Microsoft has been quick to allay worries and meet the situation head on. The company also states that the situation is being worked on, enlisting a few major IP geo-location database companies to update the location of errant IPs.

Microsoft explains the full situation here:  Microsoft Azure’s use of non-US IPv4 address space in US regions