“We have completed our efforts to address the underlying issue of the incident and restored service to the remaining impacted customers and regions,” the US-based firm said on its Microsoft 365 status page as a global IT failure ended on Saturday morning.
The massive technical disruption began on Thursday when users around the world lost access to core workplace tools, 1News reported. The stoppage crippled Microsoft 365 services, hitting popular applications like Outlook email, the Teams communication platform, and the Copilot AI assistant.
Downdetector received outage reports from users in more than 70 countries and territories, according to The Guardian. Governments, courts, healthcare services, airlines, banks, and schools faced widespread disruption as servers failed across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, RNZ reported.
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. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services. This was a technical issue…
In the United Kingdom, ambulance services suffered a serious impact, and hospital staff had to resort to paper records, The Guardian reported. Court systems in the UK also faced delays, while in Australia, services operated by the national domestic security and intelligence agency Asio were hit.
Server health checks triggered global outages
The global outage affected as many as 74 countries, according to Al Jazeera. Microsoft reported in January that it had more than 450 million paid commercial subscriptions to its 365 services, while its website notes about 430 million people use the apps, The Guardian reported.
Tech expert Paul Stenhouse explained on the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame show that Microsoft runs hundreds of thousands of servers worldwide, each performing regular health checks, the NZ Herald reported. Stenhouse said a server health check was tripped and servers reported themselves as unwell.
“I’m not feeling too good. I’m gonna shut down, go and send your traffic to someone else,” Stenhouse said, describing the automated response that set off a domino effect.
We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected infrastructure. We know our customers rely on our services to get important work done every day, and regret the impact these outages…
As servers began shutting down and rerouting traffic, remaining servers became overloaded in a vicious loop, Stenhouse told the NZ Herald. Microsoft attributed the disruption to an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change, Al Jazeera reported.
Businesses may recover losses through insurance
While the economic impact of the global Microsoft outage could be in the billions, businesses may have a chance to recover losses through insurance, 1News reported. “could well have a claim with their insurer,” Barrister John Gibbered, who specialises in insurance law, said businesses with policies including business interruption.
We're investigating reports of users experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas. More details can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543.
“Business interruption is when an unexpected or unforeseen occurs which prevents a business from carrying out its normal activities,” Gibbered said.
Making a direct claim to Microsoft would prove far more difficult for most commercial users, Gibbered told 1News. Stenhouse said that everyday users and smaller clients signed up to terms that are not friendly toward compensation, but enterprise customers typically maintain service level agreements with uptime guarantees.
“I do think Microsoft’s probably going to have to do something here,” Stenhouse said, while a Microsoft Australia-New Zealand spokesman stated on Friday that the company had no comment on compensation at this stage.
Society relies heavily on cloud infrastructure providers
The widespread breakdown highlighted society’s heavy reliance on a small number of cloud infrastructure providers. Kenneth Johnson, an associate professor of computer and information sciences at AUT, said businesses must accept operational risks as they grow more dependent on Microsoft platforms, 1News reported.
Johnson suggested that organizations establish alternative contact pathways, such as personal email addresses, though he acknowledged that switching communication channels is difficult and sending sensitive data through personal channels creates security problems. Gibbered advised businesses to read terms and conditions thoroughly and check that they have strong systems in place to maintain operations during major IT failures.
“This is the lesson from today, that businesses need to check they have good system and processes in place to ensure that their businesses can continue even when events like this occur,” Gibbered told 1News.
Security analysts also pointed to data sovereignty as a growing concern for governments. Some European nations have already begun moving critical communications off major US cloud providers and onto free alternative systems.
Frequently Asked Questions About the IT Disruption
How many countries experienced disruptions during the Microsoft outage?
Monitoring data from Downdetector showed that users reported problems in at least 74 countries and territories across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
What specific Microsoft applications went offline?
The outage impacted Microsoft 365, taking down the Outlook email platform, the Teams communication system, and the Copilot AI assistant.
What caused the servers to fail simultaneously?
An issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade surfaced following a recent network change, triggering automated health checks that caused servers to shut down and overload remaining infrastructure in a loop.
Did the technical failure stem from a cyberattack?
Microsoft said that the major disruption was due to a technical issue and was not related to cyber activity or AI agents.
Are everyday users eligible for financial compensation?
Stenhouse said that everyday users typically agreed to standard terms that offer little recourse, though enterprise clients rely on service level agreements promising high uptime.