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Millions of users worldwide have been unable to access Microsoft services, including Outlook email and the Teams meeting platform, due to a server outage that has continued for more than 12 hours.
The disruption has affected routine operations at banks, government offices and courts in several countries. Microsoft said it had made partial progress in resolving the issue, while confirming that the incident was not caused by a cyberattack, CNN and BBC reported.
According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, reports of service disruptions spread across 74 countries and territories within about an hour. At around 6pm on Thursday, nearly 140,000 reports of problems with Outlook were recorded, around 2,000 times higher than normal levels.
Microsoft says more than 430 million people use its Microsoft 365 applications, while over 90 per cent of Fortune 500 companies use its Copilot AI chatbot, highlighting the widespread impact of the disruption.
The outage has disrupted public and private services in several countries, including the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.
Local governments in several US cities reported email service disruptions and advised residents to contact them by phone for urgent assistance. Employees at financial institutions in Hong Kong, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, also reported difficulties carrying out their work.
Some airlines have faced operational disruptions, while AI services such as OpenAI and Anthropic have also experienced problems.
On Friday morning, Microsoft said it had achieved partial success in addressing the issue. The company was reviewing server performance and checking whether the corrective measures were working as expected.
It reported positive results in improving server stability and capacity following traffic optimisation.
A Microsoft executive said the outage was not related to a security vulnerability. In an earlier update, the company said some servers had unexpectedly stopped functioning, placing additional pressure on the remaining servers and triggering the wider disruption.
The incident has also renewed debate in Europe about the need to strengthen its technological independence. European countries rely heavily on major US technology companies for digital infrastructure.
Neil Shearing, an economist at Capital Economics, said Europe’s internet infrastructure was largely built around US technology, with no major competitor offering a comparable alternative.
Jake Moore, an adviser at cybersecurity firm ESET, explained that when some servers fail, the remaining ones face additional pressure, slowing down the entire system.
Technology journalist Jacob Ward said the outage was a stark reminder of how heavily the world relies on cloud systems and how vulnerable that dependence can make essential services.
