• Analysis
Global Microsoft outage: signs of stabilisation after 12 hours affecting millions of users
Microsoft said it was seeing early signs of stabilisation after a global Microsoft outage disrupted services for millions of users for more than 12 hours on Thursday and Friday, with some users reporting problems with Microsoft Teams and Outlook email.
The failure hit businesses and public services around the world, leaving vital Microsoft systems unusable for stretches of more than 12 hours across Thursday and Friday.
- •The global Microsoft outage affected millions of users, though some but not all reported problems.
- •The services hit included Microsoft Teams and Outlook email.
- •Microsoft said it was seeing early signs of stabilisation as the disruption stretched into Friday.
The scale of the disruption matters because of how many people depend on the affected products. More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, according to Microsoft, and the company says more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Copilot, its AI chatbot.
As for what went wrong, Microsoft said there were no indications that the outage had been caused by a cyber-attack. The company's latest position, given as the failure entered its second day, was that it was seeing early signs of stabilisation - while some but not all users were still reporting problems with services including Microsoft Teams and Outlook email.
