Microsoft sees positive results as global IT disruption slowly clears

Microsoft reports positive results in its efforts to bring services back online for millions of customers around the world following a massive global outage.

What Happened

The disruption began around 6pm GMT on Thursday, hitting key services such as Outlook, Teams, and Copilot. Initially affecting users in the United States, the problem spread across the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. Microsoft stated that the issue likely stems from server settings rather than a cyber attack. The outage disrupted government agencies in Australia, Japan, and the United States, alongside major artificial intelligence firms OpenAI and Anthropic. In Japan, the economy, trade and industry minister reported a major impact on the country. Australia's spy agency and federal police also reported disruptions, with predictions of billions of dollars in damage.

Impact and Recovery

Microsoft applied a software patch and reported positive results for server stability, though some service degradation continues for Microsoft 365 and consumer products. In the United Kingdom, NHS England advised health staff to use paper records or alternative IT systems, while urging patients to attend appointments and use 999 for emergencies. Education sectors faced heavy disruption, affecting hundreds of schools, colleges, and universities. Ofsted was unable to receive emails, while the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford reported unavailable systems like Outlook and OneDrive. Microsoft noted that traffic is gradually being restored and recovery actions are expanding to other regions.

Context

Global technology infrastructure relies heavily on centralized cloud services and software platforms operated by a handful of major providers. When core server configurations fail, the resulting disruption can instantly cascade across vital public services, healthcare networks, and educational institutions worldwide. Companies typically respond to such widespread technical failures by rolling out patches and systematically restoring server traffic region by region.