The biggest business disruptions and milestones of 2024
2024 has been nothing short of a rollercoaster for the global business world. From groundbreaking technological disruptions and leadership shake-ups to transformative legislation and the loss of an iconic figure, this year has been packed with stories that will resonate for years to come.
Let’s take a look at some of the key events that defined the year:
1. Tech Troubles: A Year of Major Outages
2024 will likely go down as the year when IT outages caused chaos for millions of people worldwide. Tech giants faced several high-profile disruptions, shaking our trust in services that so many depend on.
• AT&T’s Network Nightmare: February 22 saw AT&T’s network collapse, leaving customers stranded without phone calls, texts, or internet access for over 11 hours. The problem stemmed from a mistake during a network upgrade, but the fallout lingered, with a second outage in May.
• Microsoft’s Azure Collapse: On January 21, Microsoft Azure, a key service for businesses worldwide, went down for seven hours, disrupting everything from cloud operations to virtual machines.
• Cloudflare & Salesforce Failures: April 12 and May 16 brought more disruptions, first to websites using Cloudflare, and then to Salesforce users who faced downtime in AI and cloud apps due to a third-party DNS failure.
• The Microsoft Meltdown: The most severe outage hit on July 19, when a defective update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike took down critical Microsoft systems globally, affecting emergency services, airlines, and even healthcare. Recovery took days, and the scale of the disruption made it the largest IT failure in history.
2. AWS Leadership Shake-Up
On May 14, Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), surprised the tech world by announcing his resignation. His departure, effective June 3, raised questions about AWS’s future as it faces increasing competition in the cloud industry. Under Selipsky, AWS had expanded rapidly, but with his exit, many wondered what direction the company would take next.
3. Australia’s Groundbreaking Right to Disconnect Law
In a major step forward for worker rights, Australia made history on February 12 by passing the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023. This new law gives employees the right to disconnect from work outside of regular hours, without fear of retaliation. It’s a progressive response to the challenges of work-life balance in the digital age and has set a global precedent for labor protections in an era of constant connectivity.
4. Meta’s Controversies
Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, found itself at the center of controversy in 2024 for multiple reasons:
• AI Data Scraping: Australian regulators took aim at Meta for using public posts to train its AI models without user consent. Meta’s privacy director admitted that data from users over the age of 18 had been scraped, sparking outrage over privacy violations.
• Cutting News Publisher Deals: In a move that angered the media industry, Meta announced it wouldn’t renew its funding agreements with Australian news publishers, focusing instead on user engagement. This decision raised concerns about the future of journalism and fair compensation for content creators.
5. Widespread Layoffs
2024 wasn’t an easy year for many workers, as companies across industries continued to announce major layoffs. In tech, over 130,000 employees were let go across 457 companies, with giants like Amazon, Google, and Tesla among the hardest hit. The economy, inflation, and AI-driven automation were all factors contributing to this unsettling trend.
• Retail & Finance Cuts: Big names like Auchan and CitiGroup followed suit in November, each shedding thousands of jobs as they recalibrated to face a changing economic landscape.
• Other Sectors: Companies like Siemens and AMD also made workforce reductions, showing that no sector was immune to the turbulence of the year.
6. Ratan Tata’s Passing
October 9 marked the end of an era for India Inc. with the passing of Ratan Tata, the chairman emeritus of Tata Group. Tata’s legacy goes far beyond business—his leadership transformed Tata Group into a global powerhouse while maintaining a strong ethical compass. His death was a profound loss for India and the world, leaving behind a legacy of philanthropy, innovation, and corporate responsibility.
7. Nobel Prizes Celebrate Google’s AI Pioneers
2024 was a landmark year for AI, with three Google scientists taking home Nobel Prizes for their groundbreaking work. Geoff Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering work on neural networks. Meanwhile, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper from Google DeepMind won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of AlphaFold 2, an AI model that revolutionized protein structure prediction and has accelerated breakthroughs in healthcare.
Their work has solidified 2024 as a defining year for AI’s potential to shape the future of science and medicine.
8. SpaceX’s Starship Ocean Landing
SpaceX hit a major milestone in 2024 with the successful ocean landing of its Starship rocket. While the rocket’s descent was far from smooth, and parts of the vehicle broke apart, the mission achieved its goal: a controlled return to Earth after a test flight. This success is another step toward making space travel more sustainable and revolutionizing the way we explore space.
9. The World’s Largest IT Outage: Microsoft’s Meltdown
July 19 will be remembered as one of the worst days in IT history, when a massive Microsoft system failure sent shockwaves around the globe. The outage, caused by a flawed software update, disrupted 8.5 million Windows devices and brought down critical systems in healthcare, retail, and emergency services. While the issue was eventually fixed, the recovery process was long and arduous, highlighting the risks of an increasingly interconnected digital world.
As we look ahead, the stories of 2024 will remind us of the power of innovation and the resilience needed to navigate an ever-evolving world.