Microsoft has acknowledged that users across the Americas experienced issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes from 17:54 GMT on Thursday. The company later indicated that the disruption could be impacting Microsoft 365 services globally.
An investigation was launched, and engineers began working to restore services. By 04:36 on Friday, Microsoft reported only a “partial recovery” in some regions. By 13:32, they announced “broader improvements” in North America, “sustained improvements” across much of Europe, and “encouraging recovery signals” in the Asia Pacific region.
Microsoft explained that the restoration of services was gradual due to the scale of the issue and the need for stability once services resumed. A spokesperson for the company expressed, “We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously.” A complete report will be issued after a thorough review.
Experts have remarked that while some workers may have enjoyed the break from email, the incident highlights the heavy reliance many organisations have on cloud-based services. Rob Demain, CEO of cybersecurity firm e2e-assure, noted, “The global Microsoft outage is a stark reminder of how heavily we rely on a handful of big tech providers.”
Matt Saunders, field chief technology officer at consultancy Adaptavist, commented on the challenges of preventing similar issues in the future. “Classic IT disaster planning strategies suggest using a second service for resilience, but it’s nearly impossible for a business to function without tools like Microsoft,” he stated. He added that organisations must prepare for situations where these tools are unavailable.
