German federal agencies unaffected by Microsoft outage

A global Microsoft outage on Friday disrupted email and cloud services worldwide, but German federal authorities continued working normally due to their own secure IT infrastructure. Microsoft reported no cyberattack, citing overloaded servers. The outage affected numerous companies globally, including Workhorse Group and Richemont, which delayed earnings reports, while Taiwan's insurers and AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic also faced issues. Germany's BSI confirmed the federal administration was unaffected, as agencies use the "Bundesclient" system on secure federal networks with local servers. This resilience stems from Germany's "on premise" infrastructure, which protects against external shutdowns, a concern amid US political tensions. Politicians and competitors now urge alternatives, with Schleswig-Holstein successfully transitioning to open-source software like Libre Office and Nextcloud.