Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook and 365 services for users worldwide

Microsoft suffered a major outage affecting Outlook and Microsoft 365 services, with tens of thousands of users unable to access email. The company said it is working aggressively to reduce the impact and restore connectivity. Microsoft confirmed the issue may affect service connectivity for users in any region, with Teams, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Copilot 365 and Defender XDR also potentially impacted. Downdetector reported nearly 130,000 Outlook issue reports by 1 pm Eastern Time, declining to about 60,000 by 3 pm. The company attributed the problem to elevated load on infrastructure across multiple regions, paused deployments, and began restarting affected servers. Experts noted the outage highlighted New Zealand's reliance on a few global tech suppliers, with potential economic losses in the millions locally. Some called for the government to adopt more strategic digital policies, including mandating open-source software for procurement to reduce vulnerability to such disruptions.