Microsoft restores services after outage of more than 24 hours
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Business Day (South Africa) and Nile Post
Microsoft announced on Saturday 15 November that it had restored all its services after a global outage of more than 24 hours, which affected Teams, Outlook and Copilot, according to Business Day. The company attributes the incident to a technical problem during an upgrade of its network capacity and rules out artificial intelligence as the cause.
Reports peaked at close to 20,000 per minute, more than 1,500 times the usual level, according to Ookla, which places the start of the rise on Thursday at around 5.25pm GMT. The Downdetector platform recorded 7.4 million reported outages worldwide. Microsoft restored its services gradually, owing to the scale of the problem, to ensure their stability once back up.
The outage affected more than 70 countries, and more than 430 million people use the products concerned. Affected institutions included the Japanese government, the Supreme Court of the Philippines and Australia’s intelligence service. In the United Kingdom, parts of the NHS, some schools and police forces were hit, but UK minister responsible for cybersecurity Liz Lloyd considers the impact on 999 emergency calls to remain limited. In Canada, the national rail network warned that travellers could fail to receive their updates by email. In the United States, staff at the House of Representatives estimate they lost a full day of legislative work.
Microsoft apologised to its customers and partners, and a spokesperson said it takes very seriously the trust they place in its services. A full report on the incident is due to be published once the internal review is complete.
Experts see it as a sign of heavy dependence on a few providers. Rob Demain, chief executive of cybersecurity firm e2e-assure, says the outage shows how much organisations rely on a small number of large technology companies. Matt Saunders, field chief technology officer at consultancy Adaptavist, believes it is almost impossible for a business to operate without these tools and that organisations must plan fallback ways of working.
Individuals and small businesses were also affected. Peter Pentz, a South African winegrower, said his business was almost paralysed, including critical production. An Englishwoman who was about to complete the purchase of her first home saw the transaction delayed, as her solicitor was unable to reach other organisations.
