New Delhi, November 14 (TNA) Technology giant Microsoft has apologised for a major global service outage that disrupted millions of customers and business partners across several countries. The company said services were gradually recovering and stability was being restored across affected regions.
In a social media post on Friday, Microsoft expressed regret over the disruption, acknowledged the trust customers place in its services, and assured them it takes its responsibility seriously.
Cause of the Outage
Microsoft clarified that a technical issue caused the outage and was not related to a cyberattack or artificial intelligence agents. According to the company, the disruption originated from a problem during an earlier network capacity upgrade, which surfaced following a subsequent network change.
The company said it had addressed the underlying technical issue and was working to restore services across all affected regions. Microsoft also announced that it will release a detailed report on the incident after completing its investigation.
Scope of the Disruption
The outage, which began on Thursday night, was linked to server health-check failures that made several affected servers unavailable. The disruption affected businesses, airlines and government operations across several countries, interrupting access to widely used Microsoft services, including Outlook, Teams and its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot.
More than 130,000 users on outage tracker Downdetector reported problems accessing Outlook earlier on Thursday, although new reports have since fallen from that peak.
Impact on Businesses and Governments
The disruption has left millions of users without access to essential workplace tools, affecting email, meetings and AI-powered services. Businesses and governments have been particularly hit, with many unable to carry out routine operations.
The outage is one of the worst to hit Microsoft’s 365 services this year, and the company is under pressure to restore full functionality as quickly as possible.