Microsoft restores services after global outage disrupts email and workplace tools
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New Delhi: Microsoft has fully restored its services after a global disruption left users unable to access email, virtual meetings and several cloud-based workplace applications for more than a day.
The company updated its service status page to show that all products are operational, bringing relief to businesses and consumers across multiple countries who had faced access issues since Thursday.
Microsoft said the problem originated from a technical issue linked to an earlier network capacity upgrade, which surfaced after a subsequent network change. The company clarified that the outage was not connected to cyber threats or artificial intelligence systems.
"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," Microsoft said in a post on X, adding that it takes customer trust in its services very seriously.
According to the company, the disruption primarily affected Exchange Online, its cloud email platform. The impact then spread to services that depend on it, including Outlook, Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Defender XDR.
Users reported trouble accessing calendars, scheduling meetings and retrieving information through Copilot during the outage.
Microsoft's understanding of the issue changed as its investigation progressed. The company initially attributed the disruption to increased infrastructure load across several regions before finding that several servers had unexpectedly gone offline, placing additional pressure on the remaining systems.
The company later ruled out unusually high user traffic as the cause.
Restoration efforts also faced hurdles, as some servers that were brought back online became unresponsive after traffic was redirected towards them. Engineers then adjusted traffic management processes and restored capacity in stages while monitoring system stability.
Airlines also said their email-based customer support channel had been affected, though alternative support channels remained available.
(Inputs from IANS)