A more than 12-hour outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams crippled communications for businesses and governments globally on Friday. The disruption, which is one of the longest in Microsoft's history and the second disruption to its services this year, prevented users from performing essential functions such as sending emails, managing calendars, and hosting virtual meetings.
Microsoft stated that server issues were behind the incident, which also affected its Copilot AI assistant. The company said it was not aware of any malicious activity and noted that the outage specifically hit features tied to Exchange Online—its cloud-based email and scheduling hub—while leaving unconnected applications operational. In its latest update, Microsoft said efforts to improve serviceability were not progressing as expected, stating, “We’re identifying alternate workstreams that can be applied to increase capacity in the face of sustained traffic management imbalances.”
The outage affected government agencies from Australia to Japan and the United States. In Australia, where the spy agency and federal police were among the organizations caught in the outage, Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft does not suspect a cyber attack. At a press conference, Burke said, “They believe they are dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry.” Burke added, “The impact that they are dealing with … is very much on email systems.”
A spokesperson for the UK government said it was working with Microsoft to find a solution for the outage that hit organizations such as the NHS and London’s Metropolitan Police. The NHS reported that its local services were turning to alternate measures such as using IT systems or paper records. The Metropolitan Police reported that the lack of access to emails and other services was impacting its ability to report some crimes online, though its ability to respond to calls was not affected.
The fallout for businesses was widespread. European exchange operator Euronext reported email disruptions, British insurer Aviva activated backups for its earnings calls, and Danish shipping giant Maersk warned customers of delayed updates. In Taiwan, the outage disrupted fund management at securities firms, life insurers, and investment trust companies. One company cancelled a bond repurchase transaction, while another resorted to using fax to confirm trades.
Other global impacts included:
American AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic faced issues with Microsoft connectors.
Indian airlines IndiGo, Akasa Air, and Air India reported impacted email support services.
US electric truck maker Workhorse Group rescheduled its results to November 16.
Switzerland's Richemont briefly delayed its first-half results announcement on Friday.
The US House of Representatives reported the outage impacted its users.
Microsoft shares fell 1.7% before the bell, lagging the broader market. Josh Gilbert, a market analyst at trading platform eToro, said, "The bigger worry is that this is not the first Microsoft 365 outage this year. If reliability starts to look like a recurring problem, it hands every IT department a reason to think twice before putting even more of their business in one provider’s hands."
Microsoft reported a previous outage of its Azure cloud platform last month, and faced another 365 services outage in January this year and October last year.
