Microsoft has fully restored its services following a massive global outage that disrupted governments, businesses, and public services worldwide. The tech giant announced on Saturday morning that all affected customers and regions had been brought back online after one of the worst IT failures in recent years. The outage impacted critical services, including healthcare, courts, airlines, and banks, with reports from over 70 countries and territories.
The disruption began around midday on Thursday in the US and 6pm in the UK, affecting Microsoft 365 services like Outlook, Teams, and AI assistant Copilot. Downdetector, an online tracker, recorded outage reports from 74 countries within an hour of the initial issues. Microsoft attributed the problem to a network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change, clarifying that it was not related to cyberattacks or AI agents.
The incident has reignited concerns about the over-reliance on a few tech companies for essential digital infrastructure. Tim Clement-Jones, a former chair of the House of Lords artificial intelligence select committee, called the outage an "I told you so moment" for Britain's dependence on US tech. Jeremy Singer, a professor at the University of Glasgow, emphasized the need for more resilience in the IT ecosystem due to the heavy dependence on Microsoft's digital infrastructure.