Delta puts numbers on CrowdStrike outage, sets up interesting discovery period
Delta put some figures on its plans to recover at least $500 million in damages from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.
In an SEC filing, Delta broke down the outage impact this way:
- $380 million direct revenue impact due to refunds and customer compensation with SkyMiles or cash.
- $170 million in non-fuel expenses due to operational recovery, which includes customer expense reimbursement and crew costs.
- $50 million in gains from lower fuel expenses due to 7,000 flight cancellations.
Add it up and you get to Delta's $500 million figure.
CrowdStrike and Microsoft have volleyed letters with Delta and the core points against Delta were:
- Both vendors offered to help Delta, but didn't get responses.
- Delta's creaky infrastructure and IT practices shouldn't be put on vendors.
- Delta has to explain why it couldn't recover when competitors restored operations faster.
What's next? More volleying between a customer and two vendors and a handful of lawsuits. The discovery process on Delta's technical architecture is going to be fascinating to watch and fodder for IT management case studies in the future.
About Larry Dignan: Dignan was most recently Celonis Media’s Editor-in-Chief, where he sat at the intersection of media and marketing. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of ZDNet and has covered the technology industry and transformation trends for more than two decades, publishing articles in CNET, Knowledge@Wharton, Wall Street Week, Interactive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University and a member of the Advisory Board for The Fox Business School's Institute of Business and Information Technology. Constellation Insights does the following: Cover the buy side and sell side of enterprise tech with news, analysis, profiles, interviews, and event coverage of vendors, as well as Constellation Research's community and…...
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