Microsoft outage hits 450 million users after failed network update
Email and collaboration tools went down in 74 countries, disrupting trials, pharmacies, and corporate workflows across the globe.
By Jack Thompson ·
Microsoft acknowledged on Friday that its Microsoft 365 outage had not yet fully resolved, warning that some users would continue to experience delayed email delivery and intermittent access. The company reported encouraging recovery progress as the disruption entered its second day. Engineers traced the failure to a technical issue that arose during an upgrade following a recent network change, which caused servers to become unexpectedly unavailable during automated checks.
The service interruption began midday Thursday in the United States. Within one hour, the tracking site Downdetector logged reports from 74 countries and territories. Microsoft stated in January that it held more than 450 million paid commercial subscriptions for its 365 services. While the company said it had no indication of malicious activity or a cyberattack, posts on X showed engineers struggling to stabilize the system. Teams in North America were restored Thursday, though connectivity issues persisted for some users.
The outage forced immediate operational changes in public sectors around the world. In Manchester, England, Judge Maurice Greene dismissed a jury from a trial, citing delays that demonstrated the court's heavy reliance on digital systems. British police suspended online crime reporting, instructing the public to call for urgent matters. The National Pharmacy Association in the U.K. warned of prescription delays, as the issue affected the National Health Service's ability to email orders to pharmacies.
U.S. law enforcement also faced hurdles. The Arapahoe County sheriff's office in Colorado reported disruptions to online bond payments. Governments in Singapore, Japan, Greece, and Norway confirmed that the failure affected operations and communications within various ministries. In Hong Kong, Danny Lau, who runs an aluminum company, said his business could not receive updates from U.S. customers via Outlook. He noted that further delays could impact his production timeline. Some banks in the city also reported disruptions.
The incident has reignited debates about dependency on a small number of American technology providers. Chi Onwurah, who chairs the Science and Technology Committee in the British Parliament, stated that the outage highlights the lack of resilience in the U.K.'s digital infrastructure. She argued that this dependency poses dangers to security, the economy, and public services. A spokesperson for Germany's digitization ministry, Florian Druckenthaner, said the government's IT security agency believes German business was widely affected, though major government disruptions were not reported. He added that the outage demonstrates the need to build redundancies and alternatives.
Jeremy Singer, a professor at the University of Glasgow, described the situation as a virtual snow day for many office workers. He suggested the event emphasizes the need for more resilience in the IT ecosystem. OpenAI and Anthropic also reported connection problems with Microsoft 365 tools. The disruption parallels the 2024 CrowdStrike outage, which grounded flights and disrupted hospitals and banks following a faulty update. Microsoft continued to restore services gradually on Friday, with email queues approaching normal levels by morning in the U.S.
