Microsoft services fully restored after global outage

Microsoft has fully restored services across Teams, Outlook, and other products, ending a global outage that disrupted online communications for businesses and governments for over 24 hours. The company confirmed it addressed the underlying server issue and ruled out malicious activity or AI as the cause. The outage affected hundreds of millions of users of the widely used workplace applications, preventing email, calendar, and virtual meeting functions. Disruptions hit government agencies from Australia to the US, caused trading delays, hindered earnings publications, and prompted airlines to warn of communication lags, with the HSE in Ireland advising paper prescriptions. This is one of Microsoft's longest outages and its second this year, raising concerns about global reliance on a few Big Tech providers. Downdetector logged over 7.4 million reports, and analysts estimate insured losses between $300 million and $500 million, though switching costs may limit customer defections to rivals.