Microsoft’s cloud platform suffered a global outage Wednesday, taking down major services and partner websites.
Microsoft’s Azure cloud service experienced a widespread outage beginning around noon ET, disrupting access to Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Minecraft, among other platforms. The company confirmed the issue on its Azure status page, attributing it to an “inadvertent configuration change.”
“We suspect that an inadvertent configuration change triggered this issue,” Microsoft said in its update, adding that teams were working to restore normal service.
The outage rippled across Microsoft’s ecosystem, leaving users unable to access productivity apps, games, and online content.
- Microsoft 365 users reported being unable to log into Outlook, Teams, and other enterprise tools.
- Xbox and Minecraft players saw connection errors and issues loading Game Pass libraries.
- Several non-Microsoft websites, including Costco, Starbucks, and multiple airline pages also went offline due to their reliance on Azure infrastructure.
The outage occurred just hours before Microsoft’s scheduled earnings announcement, adding pressure to restore services quickly.
Recovery Efforts Underway
By 3:57PM ET, Microsoft said it had begun deploying its “last known good configuration” and was rerouting traffic through healthy nodes. “Customers may have begun to see initial signs of recovery,” the company wrote, projecting that full restoration could be completed by 6:20PM ET (23:20 UTC).
The incident comes just one week after a major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage that took down banks, government portals, and several major apps. Microsoft’s outage, while widespread, appeared less severe and was contained more quickly.
Featured image credits: Mike Segar Mike Segar/REUTERS
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