Microsoft outage exposes risks of single-provider cloud reliance for Indian businesses
A global Microsoft 365 outage beginning November 12 disrupted workplace services worldwide, including in India, affecting Outlook, Exchange Online, and SharePoint, with user reports peaking at 138,058 on November 13. Microsoft attributed the issue to servers failing automated health checks, which overloaded remaining infrastructure, and said recovery was limited. The outage also impacted IndiGo's email support and connectors for OpenAI and Anthropic, prompting experts to urge Indian businesses to diversify cloud providers. Experts noted that interconnected cloud systems make outages hard to contain, with power failures and human error cited as leading causes. They recommended multi-cloud strategies, disaster recovery planning, and board-level resilience focus, while cautioning that AI tools can aid detection but introduce new risks.