On Monday, November 25th, Microsoft announced that it is investigating the issue causing its Microsoft 365 service to crash, with thousands of users reporting problems with Outlook, Exchange, and Teams functionalities.
According to data from the online service DownDetector, reports of Microsoft 365 outages started around 4 AM Eastern Time and sharply increased before 9 AM. By 11 AM Eastern Time, there were over 4,000 reported outage incidents.
Microsoft began deploying solutions to the affected systems around 9 AM Eastern Time and by around 11:50 AM, they reported that solutions had been sent to approximately 98% of the affected systems.
Despite solutions being sent to the majority of affected users, the company stated that the progress of “target system restarts” was slower than expected.
The technology company did not specify the exact cause of the widespread outage.
In July this year, Microsoft’s operations were also affected after a “defect” in a software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. That incident led to thousands of flights being grounded or delayed globally, broadcasters going off the air, and disruptions to hospital computer systems and emergency services.