Dive Brief:
- Microsoft pushed back on Delta Air Lines’ public statements blaming operational issues on the vendor, instead attributing the IT woes to Delta’s modernization delays in a letter sent to Delta’s counsel Tuesday and viewed by CIO Dive. CNBC and The Verge first reported the news.
- “Our preliminary review suggests that Delta, unlike its competitors, apparently has not modernized its IT infrastructure, either for the benefit of its customers or for its pilots and flight attendants,” Mark Cheffo, an attorney from New York-based law firm Dechert representing Microsoft, said.
- Microsoft claims Delta repeatedly declined offers of technical support to help restore systems. The provider also alleged Delta’s biggest problem was its crew-tracking and scheduling system, which was run by IBM and other technology providers, Cheffo said in the letter.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft joined CrowdStrike in publicly denouncing Delta’s legal posturing in the wake of a widely disruptive IT outage.
In a fiery letter sent Sunday to Delta, CrowdStrike forcefully denied Delta’s allegations of negligence, and highlighted limitations of liability in Delta’s contract that limit damages at a single-digit, million-dollar figure.
“Delta’s public threat of litigation distracts from this work and has contributed to a misleading narrative that CrowdStrike is responsible for Delta’s IT decisions and response to the outage,” attorney Michael Carlinsky said, on behalf of CrowdStrike.
The public battle arose after Delta CEO Ed Bastian appeared on CNBC last week blasting Microsoft and CrowdStrike for their involvement in the operational disruption after a flawed CrowdStrike software update bricked millions of Windows devices across industries.
Bastian said the company would pursue legal action to recover the more than $500 million in estimated costs.
“Delta has a long track record of investing in safe, reliable and elevated service for our customers and employees,” a spokesperson for the airline said Tuesday. “Since 2016, Delta has invested billions of dollars in IT capital expenditures, in addition to the billions spent annually in IT operating costs.”
The airline declined to provide additional comments.
Delta was by far the most beleaguered airline in the aftermath of the July 19 CrowdStrike outage, The airline canceled more than 5,000 flights across five days, far more than other major carriers.
Microsoft’s letter Tuesday also directed Delta to preserve documents that show the extent to which non-Microsoft systems, including IBM, Oracle, AWS and Kyndryl, “contributed to the interruption of Delta’s business operations.”
IBM did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
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