Read update
- G Suite Dashboard now shows a problem
Reports have started to flood in that several Google services, including Gmail, Nest, YouTube, Drive, and even Search, are down for many. Outages appear to be mostly affecting the eastern US, though not everyone is affected.
Above: Top reports on DownDetector at the time of writing. Below: Map of reports for "Google" on DownDetector.
Anecdotally, things are fine for our staff on the east coast (primarily in Boston), but the volume of reports makes it clear there is an outage occurring, just not everyone is affected. Even within certain services, results are intermittent. For example, some with Nest problems have no issues connecting to cameras, but can't access their thermostat.
Although the G Suite Status Dashboard hasn't yet noted an issue with any of Google's services, the Nest Status Dashboard says the service is currently investigating a "login and device connectivity issue."
With many currently unable to access Gmail or Search, this outage could make a substantial dent on work-from-home productivity. We'll be sure to keep an eye on reports as things develop, and hopefully, this problem resolves soon.
UPDATE: 2020/03/26 9:52am PDT BY RYNE HAGER
G Suite Dashboard now shows a problem
The G Suite Status Dashboard now indicates that Google is aware of the current reports of problems:
As reports indicated, not all Google services are affected. The volume of reports seems to be dwindling, though, and some of our affected tipsters have seen previously affected services return. A fix is likely in progress.
UPDATE: 2020/03/26 10:07am PDT BY RYNE HAGER
Issue now resolved
Turns out, the cause of the issue was something as simple as a router failure:
Though there was some back-of-the-mind speculation that increased load might have been to blame, the source of the problem was much more mundane.
The issue should be resolved now. Back to work everyone.
UPDATE: 2020/03/26 2:17pm PDT BY RYNE HAGER
Statement from Google
A Google spokesperson provided us with the following statement regarding the outage:
“Some of our users experienced a service disruption today, as a result of a significant router failure in one of our data centers in the South Eastern US, causing network congestion. As a result, Google services running in that data center were directly impacted and were unavailable until our engineers rerouted the traffic and moved those services to alternate facilities. Users in the South Eastern US may also have seen temporary difficulties in accessing a wider range of Google services due to the network congestion. For more details, please visit our status dashboard.”
Thanks: Joseph, Scott Oldfield