Microsoft 365 outage hits South Africa

Service disruptions reported worldwide

A Microsoft system outage affected users in South Africa and the United Kingdom on Thursday. The outage, which began around 0700 local time, disrupted access to a range of Microsoft services, including email, Teams, and OneDrive.

Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, reported a surge in South Africans reporting problems with Microsoft 365 from around 0700 on Friday morning. The outage also affected users in the United Kingdom, with reports of problems peaking at around 0800 GMT.

Microsoft has not yet commented on the cause of the outage, but it is believed to be related to a problem with the company's Azure cloud platform. Azure is a cloud computing platform that provides a range of services, including compute, storage, networking, and analytics.

The outage has caused significant disruption for businesses and individuals in South Africa. Many businesses rely on Microsoft 365 for their email, collaboration, and productivity tools. The outage has also affected schools and universities, which use Microsoft 365 for online learning.

Microsoft has said that it is working to resolve the issue and that it will provide updates as they become available.

Conclusion

The Microsoft 365 outage is a reminder of the importance of having a reliable cloud provider. Businesses and individuals should carefully consider the risks of relying on a single cloud provider and should develop contingency plans in case of an outage.