A major outage began in Microsoft's business software suite Microsoft 365 in the early hours of the 13th Japan time. The impact spread across multiple services, including Outlook, with recovery under way in some areas.
A major outage began in Microsoft's cloud-based Microsoft 365 service in the early hours of the 13th Japan time, prompting users worldwide to report being unable to connect to email and business applications. The affected services included Outlook, Teams, Exchange, SharePoint, Copilot and Defender XDR, disrupting companies' business infrastructure.
A spokesperson for Microsoft's Japanese subsidiary said that no facts suggesting a cyberattack had been confirmed. The company said the outage was caused by multiple servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable, placing a heavier load on the remaining infrastructure.
According to Downdetector data, outage reports in Japan, particularly for Outlook, rose sharply after around 4 a.m. Reports also said that the number of problem reports in the United States reached 130,000 at its peak.
The company is currently working to safely restore the affected servers, but has not indicated when full recovery will be achieved.
Compared with previous major outages affecting Azure and Microsoft 365, the latest outage is not a new or unprecedented event. The company is expected to continue taking steps to prevent a recurrence.