8x8: Service outage caused by unaffiliated ISP interference

8x8's VoIP service outage on January 12 lasted about four hours and resulted in some frustration for both customers and the company itself. 8x8 was gracious enough to provide us with some more details about what exactly happend.

According to Joan Citelli, director of Corporate Communications for 8x8, the outage occured when an unaffiliated Tier-1 ISP interfered with the routing for 8x8's own IP address blocks provided by their own ISP. Some customers were able to get service quickly after the outage when the company provided correct routing info via their backup data providers, but the disruption for the outside ISP continued for a few hours and prevented some customers from getting service.

All of 8x8's core software and networks were operational, but due to the IP addresses being blocked they were inaccessible to customers. The company plans to implement further mechanisms to deal with similar routing problems in the future as well as add alternative methods of communication to let customers know about outages and repair times. Look back here for more info on these moves in the future.

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