Microsoft outage exposes risks of relying on one cloud provider

A global Microsoft outage disrupted services including Outlook, Teams and Copilot, highlighting business reliance on a single technology provider and raising questions about cloud system resilience. The disruption began Thursday, November 12, and continued into Friday, affecting South African organisations such as SARS and the City of Cape Town. Analyst Arthur Goldstuck said the problem originated in Microsoft's Exchange Online infrastructure, potentially triggered by a network configuration issue causing cascading server failures. Microsoft reported progress after applying a patch but had not declared the incident resolved. Goldstuck noted the outage followed strong financial results and cost-cutting measures, including a voluntary buyout programme, though no direct link has been established. He warned the incident exposed vulnerabilities in AI-dependent services.