A major technical disruption affecting Microsoft's online services has disrupted businesses, government departments and individual users across several countries. The outage affected several Microsoft 365 products, including Outlook, Teams, Copilot and Exchange Online, leaving many users unable to access emails and essential workplace tools.
The Associated Press reported that complaints surged across different regions, with Downdetector recording around 130,000 reports of Outlook-related problems at the peak of the disruption. Government operations and business communications were also affected in parts of Asia and the United States. Some organisations had to rely on alternative communication methods while services remained unstable.
Microsoft said its investigation had identified a problem involving a process on affected servers that was becoming overwhelmed and preventing them from handling requests properly. Engineers began repairing the infrastructure, changing network configurations and gradually restoring traffic to affected systems.
The company said it had found no indication that the incident was caused by a cyberattack. On November 13, Microsoft reported improvements in server stability and began expanding corrective measures across additional infrastructure. However, recovery remained uneven, with some users continuing to experience problems.
The disruption has renewed concerns about the world's growing dependence on a small number of major technology providers. When essential cloud-based services fail, the consequences can extend beyond inconvenience, affecting public administration, education, healthcare and international business operations.
