Online infrastructure is under strain as more people work from home and practice social distancing. One industry that is benefiting from this is cloud services. Microsoft (MSFT 2.77%) is seeing a significant increase in Microsoft Teams, Windows Virtual Desktop, and Power BI, which are powered by Microsoft Azure -- the second largest cloud services provider behind Amazon.com's (AMZN 1.45%) Amazon Web Services.
"We have seen a 775 percent increase of our cloud services in regions that have enforced social distancing or shelter in place orders," as Microsoft reported in a blog update on March 28.
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Additional capacity is on the way
Microsoft Teams now has 44 million daily users who created over 900 million meeting and calling minutes in a single week. Microsoft also said Windows Virtual Desktop has grown more than three times, and government use of Power BI to share COVID-19 dashboards with citizens has increased by 42%.
Several tech companies are adjusting their download speeds as more people are relying on internet access more than ever. Sony (SNE 0.48%) has slowed the download speeds for the PlayStation 4 game console in the U.S. and Europe. Streaming providers, such as Netflix (NFLX 2.73%), Alphabet's (GOOG 3.25%) (GOOGL 3.85%) YouTube, and Amazon Prime have also throttled streaming speeds to avoid traffic overload.
Microsoft has not seen any significant disruptions to service despite the spike in usage, as reported in the blog update. The company has put some restrictions in place to prioritize capacity for existing customers. Microsoft also said it is adding new capacity in the short term to handle the increase in demand in the regions that need it most.
