Millions of people worldwide have been unable to access Microsoft services, including Outlook email and Teams, after a major technical outage disrupted businesses, government agencies, banks and courts across several countries.
The disruption, which lasted more than 12 hours, affected essential workplace tools and communication systems, leaving organizations struggling to carry out routine operations.
Downdetector, a platform that tracks service interruptions, reported that complaints about the outage spread across 74 countries and territories within about an hour.
In the United States, several city administrations reported widespread email problems, while government offices and other organizations experienced difficulties accessing Microsoft’s services.
The impact was also felt in the United Kingdom, where disruption to the National Health Service’s email system was expected to prevent some patients from receiving their medication prescriptions on time.
Microsoft said it was working to restore the affected services but had struggled to resolve the problem quickly. The company also ruled out a cybersecurity breach as the cause of the disruption.
The prolonged outage has highlighted the dependence of businesses and public institutions on Microsoft’s cloud-based services, particularly Outlook and Teams, for daily communication, administration and service delivery.
With millions of users affected across multiple regions, organizations were left waiting for the company to restore normal access to its platforms.
