Microsoft outage highlights global reliance on cloud services
A 22-hour outage of Microsoft 365 disrupted email and other services for millions of users worldwide, prompting criticism of dependence on a few tech providers.
A technical failure during routine automated checks caused a Microsoft 365 outage that lasted more than 22 hours, taking Outlook and other services offline and affecting users in more than 70 countries. Engineers restored the services gradually, citing the need to manage traffic on remaining servers.
Flora Hamilton, executive director of the Small Business Charter, said the incident underscored how essential digital systems are for small and medium-sized enterprises, noting that email is vital for communication with customers and suppliers.
The disruption impacted a range of organisations, including the US House of Representatives, Australian intelligence agencies, Singaporean courts and airline support desks in India. About 430 million people use Microsoft 365 globally.
Microsoft apologised, attributing the outage to a technical failure rather than a cyber-attack, and said it was reviewing the incident to prevent future occurrences.
Walter Pasquarelli, an AI strategist, said the event exposed the vulnerability of governments, businesses and critical infrastructure that depend on such services. Gergely Orosz, a former software engineer, noted the unusually long recovery time and suggested regional segregation of services as a possible mitigation strategy.