Microsoft restores services after global outage hits governments worldwide

Microsoft has fully restored its services after a global outage that disrupted governments, businesses, and public services worldwide, marking one of the worst IT failures in years. The company confirmed on Saturday morning that it had addressed the underlying issue and restored service to all affected customers and regions. The outage, which began on Thursday, impacted governments in Japan, Singapore, Australia, and European nations, along with courts, healthcare, airlines, and banks. In the UK, NHS England services were hit, with hospital staff using paper records and ambulance services suffering serious impacts, while US school districts and a Colorado detention facility faced operational challenges. Microsoft apologized on Friday, stating the incident was not cyber-related but stemmed from a network capacity upgrade issue. The disruption has raised concerns about overreliance on single tech providers, with experts like University College London's Steven Murdoch noting complex system interactions often cause such large-scale failures.