A widespread global Microsoft outage that entered its second day is continuing to disrupt businesses, public services, and daily communications across more than 70 countries. The technical failure, which began on Thursday, has severely impacted essential office software and collaboration platforms including Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, and the AI assistant Copilot.
As recovery efforts continue, Microsoft reported that attempts to fix the server infrastructure issues were not progressing "as expected." While the tech giant observed early signs of stabilisation and marginal success in certain areas, engineers are working on alternate workstreams to manage sustained traffic imbalances and restore full capacity.
The disruption has been felt across multiple sectors globally. In the United Kingdom, several police forces, local governments, and NHS trusts reported operational hurdles—such as difficulties processing referrals and handling online submissions—though critical emergency lines like 999 remained active. Major UK transport hubs, including Heathrow, Manchester, and Stansted airports, reported largely normal operations despite minor technical processes being impacted. Government officials confirmed that UK intelligence operations and secret security systems were unaffected due to isolated infrastructure.
Industry experts have noted that the extended recovery window is unusually long for a major global tech provider, prompting renewed discussions among businesses regarding concentration risk and the critical need for operational contingency plans. Microsoft has repeatedly confirmed that the incident was not caused by a cyber-security breach or malicious activity.
