Utility Apps Boom Post-IT Outage: The Unexpected Trend You Need to Know!

Microsoft/ Crowdstrike's recent IT outage caused widespread disruption, affecting how people interacted with digital services across multiple sectors. This blog analyzes the impact on travel, healthcare, and enterprise apps, using data to quantify the shifts in user behavior.

Navigating a Surge Amid Airline Disruptions

During the outage, major airports like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru experienced check-in system failures, causing significant delays for airlines such as IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet. As a result, session counts on travel apps surged by 5% as passengers turned to these apps for real-time updates and alternative booking options. The average session duration on these apps also increased by 15%, reflecting the extended time users spent trying to manage their disrupted travel plans. Additionally, searches for terms like "air travel" and "lodging" spiked by 2% during the outage as compared with the pre-outage stage, particularly in affected states like Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh. However, once the outage ended, session counts quickly dropped by 6%, highlighting the trending behavior on these digital platforms.

Healthcare Apps: A 5% Increase in Session Counts Reflecting Growing Concern

During the analysis of Bobble AI's report, our analyst saw a notable trend emerging in the healthcare sector: Monday's consistently show a spike in active users, with an increase of 5%  session counts. Simultaneously, session durations on these apps jumped by 6%, indicating that users were more engaged, likely due to concerns about their healthcare needs during the disruption. The surge in engagement was accompanied by a 19% increase in searches for outage-related terms like “crowdstrike”, “IT”, “incident report”, particularly in states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu. These numbers demonstrate how the outage heightened public concern, driving increased usage of digital healthcare resources.

Enterprise Apps: A 14% Recovery in Session Counts Post-Outage

Enterprise services, including Microsoft Teams, Windows 365, and OneDrive, faced significant disruptions, leading to operational challenges for many businesses. However, session counts on enterprise apps rebounded by 14% in the days following the outage as companies scrambled to catch up on lost productivity. Session durations on these apps also saw a substantial 22% increase, as users spent more time managing business tasks and recovering from the downtime. This recovery was supported by a noticeable shift from web-based services to mobile apps, as businesses sought alternative platforms to maintain communication and operations during the outage.

The Bobble AI’s data clearly shows how Microsoft's IT outage impacted key sectors. Travel apps saw a 15% surge in usage, healthcare apps experienced a 5% increase in session counts, and enterprise apps rebounded with a 14% increase post-outage. These shifts underscore the critical role of digital infrastructure in maintaining continuity during disruptions. For businesses, these insights highlight the need for robust IT systems and disaster recovery plans to minimize the impact of future outages.