Microsoft outage 'stark reminder' of how much we rely on tech
A critical Microsoft outage lasting more than 22 hours has raised questions about how heavily vital services rely on a handful of major tech firms.
A critical Microsoft outage lasting more than 22 hours has raised questions about how heavily vital services rely on a handful of major tech firms.
The disruption, which affected Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook, was caused by routine automated checks that took some servers offline, overloading the remaining ones with traffic.
The recovery took nearly a full day while engineers gradually restored services, highlighting how embedded the firm's services are in modern society.
Around 430 million people globally use Microsoft 365, and issues were reported across more than 70 countries; there was no ETA for when services will be fully recovered, Microsoft added in a statement late on Friday (GMT).
Flora Hamilton, executive director of the Small Business Charter, said the outage was a stark reminder of how much firms rely on digital systems - like Microsoft Outlook - to keep their operations running.
The disruption was not just confined to businesses, but also affected organisations and public institutions around the world.
The fallout from the outage had a wide-ranging effect, knocking out email systems for the US House of Representatives and Australian intelligence agencies, as well as disrupting court systems in Singapore and airline support desks in India.
He said a solution for the future could be to split services per region to reduce the impact, something which already happens with Amazon's cloud computing service, AWS.
For now, Microsoft said it was reviewing what went wrong, with the findings expected to inform steps to prevent a similar disruption from happening again.
What happened
A critical Microsoft outage lasting more than 22 hours has raised questions about how heavily vital services rely on a handful of major tech firms.
The disruption, which affected Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook, was caused by routine automated checks that took some servers offline, overloading the remaining ones with traffic.
The recovery took nearly a full day while engineers gradually restored services, highlighting how embedded the firm's services are in modern society.
What changed
Around 430 million people globally use Microsoft 365, and issues were reported across more than 70 countries; there was no ETA for when services will be fully recovered, Microsoft added in a statement late on Friday (GMT).
Who is affected
Flora Hamilton, executive director of the Small Business Charter, said the outage was a stark reminder of how much firms rely on digital systems - like Microsoft Outlook - to keep their operations running.
The disruption was not just confined to businesses, but also affected organisations and public institutions around the world.
Why it matters
The fallout from the outage had a wide-ranging effect, knocking out email systems for the US House of Representatives and Australian intelligence agencies, as well as disrupting court systems in Singapore and airline support desks in India.
He said a solution for the future could be to split services per region to reduce the impact, something which already happens with Amazon's cloud computing service, AWS.
Response
For now, Microsoft said it was reviewing what went wrong, with the findings expected to inform steps to prevent a similar disruption from happening again.