By BBC and CNN
A GLOBAL Microsoft outage is continuing to affect tens of thousands of users today (Nov. 13) with services including Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot hit with connectivity problems for more than 10 hours.
Reports of issues with Outlook alone peaked globally at about 140,000 on Thursday, according to monitoring website Downdetector – this went down to 28,000 overnight
Microsoft says its attempts to fix the issue are not “taking as expected”, adding that the issue hasn’t been caused by a cyber-security incident.
More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, and tech giant’s OpenAI and Anthropic have reported problems as a result of the outage.
Microsoft says it has observed “marginal success” in its latest efforts to treat the incident.
The company has said in its latest update that is it continuing to monitor activity across regions to evaluate server status and determine what actions it can take to improve capacity.
It says this consists of reviewing server performance as well as confirming developed patches have been applied, and are working as intended after infrastructure reboots are completed.
What is known about the Microsoft outage:
– First reports: Thursday saw a surge of reports of issues with Microsoft services on monitoring website Downdetector. At around 18:00 GMT, nearly 140,000 people had flagged problems with Outlook – more than 2,000 times the normal level.
– The cause: Microsoft says the cause was “elevated load” on its infrastructure – meaning servers had higher-than-normal stress. In this case, some servers became “unexpectedly unavailable”, overloading the others.
– Ripple effect: Because Microsoft infrastructure is used by other tech companies, there are also knock-on effects with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic reporting issues with their tools.
– Struggles to fix: The technology conglomerate first said it was “seeing positive results” in its efforts to restart services. But, several hours later, it said in a subsequent update that the fixes weren’t taking “as expected” and it was still fixing issues on multiple fronts.
– No signs it was malicious: Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna said this is not a cyber-security incident. An expert told the BBC earlier that the outage looked like “incredible incompetence”.
– The scale of the impact: From government systems in Singapore and Japan, to Australian spy agencies and Filipino Supreme Court communications – the outage’s affects are being felt in at least 74 countries across the world.
Airlines affected by Microsoft outage
Several airlines are reporting disruptions to their email support and communications due to the Microsoft outage, posting statements to customers on social media.
Indian budget carrier IndiGo said its “email support services are currently impacted, and we may not be able to receive your emails.” It directed customers to reach out via their website or mobile app.
Akasa Air, another low-cost Indian carrier, similarly said its “email support services are currently experiencing delays.”
And South African carrier CemAir said it was “experiencing some system disruptions due to the global Microsoft outage.”
None of the carriers reported flight disruptions.
Indian flag carrier Air India said it was “closely monitoring the ongoing Microsoft outage” and has rerouted emails. The airline said its flight operations “remain unaffected” and “there is currently no impact on any of our communication channels.”
Europe pushing for tech sovereignty
The Microsoft outage comes at a time when Europe is pushing for greater tech sovereignty, aiming to run its own servers and reduce dependency on foreign providers.
Europe lacks the kind of mega tech companies that abound in the US, making it reliant on American firms for its digital services, but there is sentiment in Europe that it should become less reliant on the United States for its tech needs.
That sentiment has hardened during US President Donald Trump’s second term, when he has hit the continent with huge tariffs and threatened to take over the Danish territory of Greenland.
Earlier this year French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that government officials will ditch Zoom and other US-owned video conferencing tools and begin using French-owned software. The decision is intended partly to reduce “dependencies on non-European actors,” Lecornu said.
“The internet in Europe is essentially a US construct, a US system. And Europe doesn’t really have a competitor to any of that,” Neil Shearing, group chief economist at Capital Economics, told CNN earlier this year.
On Friday, that question resurfaced as Microsoft’s outage stretched beyond 12 hours, disrupting countries across the globe.
“That tech sovereignty conversation, while it’s been mostly political, I bet it’s real sharp today,” technology journalist and founder of The Rip Current podcast Jacob Ward told CNN.
“I think it is probably, for everybody, a wake up call about just how vulnerable we can be, even as we enjoy the convenience of these cloud systems.”
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: The Microsoft logo is visible in Munich, Germany on October 26. Photo – Matthias Balk/picture alliance/Getty Images and published by CNN
Insert: An IndiGo Airbus A321-253XLR aircraft takes off from Athens International Airport in Athens, Greece, on November 6. Photo – Nicolas Koutsokostas/NurPhoto/Getty Images and published by CNN
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