[UPDATE – 11:45 PM]: The downtime is already over. Scroll below for more details.
[ORIGINAL STORY – 5:22 PM]:
Microsoft 365 services including Teams and Outlook are experiencing a global blackout at this very moment. Thousands of users began reporting issues connecting to the online services earlier today, with users around Europe and Asia unable to access or experiencing timeouts when they tried to utilize these services.
Aside from Teams and Outlook, other Microsoft 365 services that have been reportedly affected by the downtime include:
- Exchange Online
- SharePoint Online
- OneDrive for Business
- Graph
This isn’t the first time that Microsoft and its services have experienced an outage. Back in July 2022, Teams was out for the count for folks who tried to access the service. The problem was later determined to be due to a broken connection to an internal storage device, brought about by a then-recent deployment.
We're investigating issues impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services. More info can be found in the admin center under MO502273.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) January 25, 2023
Microsoft’s investigation into the issue is still ongoing. Its most recent reports say that the company has identified a potential networking issue and that it has been isolated.
[UPDATE – 11:45 PM]:
The services that were affected by the downtime apparently have recovered, according to a follow-up tweet from Microsoft at 10:31 PM Malaysian time:
We've confirmed that the impacted services have recovered and remain stable. We're investigating some potential impact to the Exchange Online Service. Further, updates on the Exchange investigation will be available in your admin center under the SI# EX502694.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) January 25, 2023
This particular Microsoft Twitter account didn’t provide many details though in regard to the cause of the massive outage that affected tons of users throughout the world although some may barely feel it at all.
However, the Azure status history page which lists root cause analysis (RCAs) for all service issues encountered by users provided a glimpse of the probable cause behind the downtime. Designated with a tracking ID of VSG1-B90, the page said that the downtime may have something to do with a recent change made to the Microsoft Wide Area Network (WAN).
The incident log also said that the majority of Microsoft services that were affected by the outage recovered automatically once the company rolled back the change which also helped restore the network connectivity.
