The worst part of all this is that GitHub's CTO and VP of Engineering sent out the usual "here's what we'll do to fix things" letter to their larger customers and, without exaggeration, it boiled down to: 1) "Here's a bunch of stuff we already did!" which... clearly isn't working, and 2) "We're continuing our Azure migration." also clearly not working.

So needless to say, if you depend on GitHub for critical business operations, you need to start thinking about what a world without GitHub looks like for your business and start working your way toward that. I know my confidence in GitHub's engineering leadership is at rock bottom.

▲

Eji1700 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I could sorta see a situation where the reality is "we're in the middle of a miserable transition and it'll clean up when we're done" but I don't think anyone has confidence that's all it is at this point.

▲

everforward 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Even that doesn’t really make sense to me, unless they’ve done it in a way where everything has to move at once.

Everywhere I’ve worked, if a migration is causing this much downtime then you kill the migration or slow it down. If every change has a 10% chance of bringing the site down, you only do a change every week or two until you can work out the kinks.

	▲	shrikant 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		...or you keep fighting forward with the migration, because if it's seen as a failure then some pretty big heads will have to roll...
	▲	acedTrex 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I mean, they are seemingly breaking every week or two so that might be what they are doing.

▲

suriya-ganesh 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

also it should be noted that LinkedIn had a 5 year plan of migrating everything to azure but abandoned it after a year.

▲

AustinDev 22 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Vibe coding and it's consequences.

"The evidence is clear: Either you embrace AI, or get out of this career." -Github CEO

"Sooner than later, 80% of the code is going to be written by Copilot. And that doesn’t mean the developer is going to be replaced." -Github CEO

▲

sysworld 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

ooooh, they're migrating to Azure, now everything makes sense.

▲

spondyl 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Here are some relevant excerpts from an October 2025 article[1]:

> In a message to GitHub’s staff, CTO Vladimir Fedorov notes that GitHub is constrained on capacity in its Virginia data center. “It’s existential for us to keep up with the demands of AI and Copilot, which are changing how people use GitHub,” he writes.

> The plan, he writes, is for GitHub to completely move out of its own data centers in 24 months. “This means we have 18 months to execute (with a 6 month buffer),” Fedorov’s memo says. He acknowledges that since any migration of this scope will have to run in parallel on both the new and old infrastructure for at least six months, the team realistically needs to get this work done in the next 12 months.

If you consider that six month parallel window to have started from the time of the October memo (written presumably at the start of October), then that puts us currently or past the point where they would have cut off their old DC and defaulted to Azure only.

Whether plans or timelines changed, I have no idea of course but the above does make for a convenient timeline that would explain the recent instability. Of course, it could also just be symptomatic of increased AI usage generally and the same problems might have surfaced at a software level regardless of whether they were in a DC or on Azure.

Putting that nuance aside, personally I like the idea that Azure is simply a giant pile of shit operated by a corporation with no taste.

[1]: https://thenewstack.io/github-will-prioritize-migrating-to-a...

▲

Barrin92 4 hours ago | parent [-]

>It’s existential for us to keep up with the demands of AI and Copilot

if by chance the CTO reads this, as a user of GitHub I would find it really existential if GitHub continues functioning as a reliable hub for git workflows (hence the name), and I have the strong suspicion nobody except for the shareholders gives a lick about copilot or 'AI' if it makes the core service the site was designed for unusable

▲

ncruces 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

AI and Copilot increase the load on git workflows.

▲

jwoq9118 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For GitHub to remain profitable they have to appease those shareholders you mentioned.

▲

denkmoon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why? What is the correlation between profit and shareholder sentiment (besides the fact that shareholders want said profits)? They don't really influence the operation of the business meaningfully.

	▲	kevin_thibedeau 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Growth chart gotta go up. Only chumps run a business that makes a steady return.

▲

conception 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Incorrect. They need to appease/trick/threaten/etc those that are paying for their services. Shareholders just demand they do so at the greatest (often short term) rate.

▲

comice 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

yeah currently working with Azure. what a PITA.

I wonder if the extended downtime is just due to the on-call engineers waiting for their azure auth tokens to refresh within azure's own damn network.

▲

pm90 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

i heard that they asked LinkedIn to do this too and they either refused or their systems were too complex so they refused to. Maybe that explains why LI availability seems ok

▲

kleene_op 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Azure, the color of BSOD

▲

cyanydeez 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

they're not just migrating to Azure, they're vibrating to Azure!

▲

justinko an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There’s plenty of alternatives, but people continue to stay. Therefore, it’s not as bad as you think it is.

▲

packetlost 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I second this. I'm done.

▲

ryukoposting 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is "migrating to Azure" the new "migrating to SAP?"

	▲	trvz 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That’s not for to … SAP.