Widespread outage hits Microsoft; attempts to fix issue 'not working as expected'
Disruption affects users across India and other parts of the world, with Microsoft attributing the outage to unexpected server failures
A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted access to Outlook, Teams and several other services, affecting users across the world, including India. Thousands of users began reporting problems accessing the applications.
While Microsoft identified an issue causing servers to fail automated health checks before becoming unavailable, it said attempts to restore the affected servers and manage traffic across its infrastructure were not working as expected.
According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, nearly 1.3 lakh users reported problems accessing Outlook shortly after 1 pm Eastern Time. Although reports subsequently declined, users continued to flag difficulties sending and receiving emails and loading their inboxes.
Besides Teams, the disruption also affected Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services.
Users in parts of Asia reported difficulties accessing Microsoft platforms on Friday (November 13) morning. In Japan, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki said the outage had affected the government's IT infrastructure, adding that officials were closely monitoring the situation.
What caused the outage?
Microsoft initially said that parts of its infrastructure were experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which could have contributed to connectivity problems.
However, the company later clarified that the increased load was not the result of a surge in user traffic. Instead, a number of servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, placing additional pressure on the remaining infrastructure.
Microsoft said it had identified an issue causing servers to fail automated health checks before becoming unavailable. Its attempts to restore the affected servers and manage traffic across its infrastructure were not working as expected.
The company also attempted to limit traffic to certain parts of its infrastructure while exploring alternative ways to increase capacity and reduce the impact on users.
In updates posted on social media, Microsoft said it was pursuing multiple recovery measures to address the disruption.
Was Microsoft hacked?
The outage prompted questions about a possible cyberattack, particularly amid growing concerns about cybersecurity threats and AI-enabled attacks.
However, Microsoft executive vice-president of Copilot, Agents and Platform, Charles Lamanna, said there was no indication that the disruption was caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack.
Microsoft also said that they are working to restore affected infrastructure and reduce the impact on users. The company had earlier announced that it had successfully restored Teams in North America.
The disruption also prompted government bodies in the United States and Australia to issue notices acknowledging its impact on operations.
(With inputs from agencies.)