Fax machines roar into life as Microsoft outage hits global business

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A global outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams was easing on Saturday (NZ time) after nearly 24 hours of chaos that crippled online communications, forcing some organisations to…

A global outage of Microsoft Outlook and Teams was easing on Saturday (NZ time) after nearly 24 hours of chaos that crippled online communications, forcing some organisations to revert to fax and halting at least one European bond repurchase.

Microsoft said server issues were behind the incident that also affected its Copilot AI assistant and that a broader roll-out of software fixes was stabilising the system. It said it was not aware of any malicious activity and ruled out AI as the cause.

Outlook and Teams are two of the most widely used workplace applications with hundreds of millions of users. The outage prevented people from performing essential functions such as sending emails, managing calendars and hosting virtual meetings.

It affected government agencies from Australia and Japan to the United States, caused delays at trading firms, hindered some companies from publishing earnings and prompted airlines to warn customers of communication lags, according to public statements.

Organisations that host Microsoft services on their own servers, rather than in the cloud, were somewhat spared.

The outage, reports of which started climbing around 1725 GMT on Thursday (6.25am Friday, NZ time) according to Ookla, is one of the longest in Microsoft's history and the second disruption to its services this year.

Microsoft said the outage specifically hit features tied to Exchange Online - its cloud-based email and scheduling hub - leaving unconnected applications operational.

The incident deepens questions about the global reliance on a handful of Big Tech companies that supply both the essential software and the cloud infrastructure that underpins it.

It also highlighted the dependence on Microsoft's workplace software, with outage reports spiking as employees began their workdays across Asia and Europe, according to Downdetector's parent company, Ookla.

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