Microsoft outage: What went wrong and has it been fixed?

Detailed summary

What caused the Microsoft outage, which services have been affected and how widespread has the disruption been?

A global Microsoft outage has disrupted prescription services, school IT systems and government communications in Ireland, leaving users unable to access email and other online tools.

The problems began yesterday evening and continued into today. Microsoft said services were recovering this afternoon, although some users were still experiencing access problems and delays receiving emails.

The disruption mostly impacted Microsoft's email infrastructure, with knock-on effects for features in Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 products.

So, what went wrong, which services have been affected and how widespread has the disruption been?

The HSE said that Healthmail, which deals with prescriptions, was unavailable due to the outage.

It advised GPs and pharmacists to use plain paper prescriptions under the General Medical Services (GMS) scheme until the outage is resolved.

The HSE said that it was reviewing all its systems for any further issues and will engage with services and patients if there are any impacts.

Schools using Microsoft 365 for communication and submitting work also faced disruption, according to Paul Crone, director of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals.

He said the outage would have caused a "little bit of panic" this morning, causing some teachers to pivot with lesson plans and that the outage would have had a greater effect on post-primary than primary schools.

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