November 13, 2026: Microsoft’s global service disruption entered its second day on Friday, November 13, leaving businesses, government agencies and millions of users struggling to access Outlook, Teams and other products across its software ecosystem. The outage, which began on Thursday, has disrupted workplace communication, delayed business operations and raised concerns about the risks of organisations relying heavily on a single technology provider.
The disruption initially triggered a sharp spike in complaints on Downdetector, with more than 130,000 users reporting problems accessing Outlook shortly after 1 pm on Thursday. Reports subsequently declined from their peak, but users continued to experience difficulties sending and receiving emails, loading inboxes and accessing other Microsoft services. Teams, Copilot, OneDrive and Microsoft 365 were among the affected platforms.
Microsoft attributed the disruption to elevated traffic and infrastructure load across multiple regions. In an update on Friday, the company said a portion of its infrastructure was experiencing unusually high demand, potentially contributing to connectivity problems. The outage tracker reported that complaints about Microsoft services spread across 74 countries and territories within approximately an hour.
The company said it was pursuing multiple recovery efforts to address the surge in traffic and restore its backend infrastructure. It also clarified that it was not aware of any malicious activity behind the incident. Microsoft said it would publish a detailed explanation of the underlying cause in a post incident report after the disruption was resolved.
Recovery remained uneven on Friday, although the company reported improvements in several regions. Microsoft said it had completed recovery actions across parts of its Asia Pacific infrastructure and was gradually restoring traffic. By the evening, it reported broader improvements across North America and much of Europe.
Email delivery was also showing signs of recovery across a growing portion of the affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure. However, some customers could still experience intermittent problems as the company worked through delayed messages. Microsoft extended its email timeout window to 48 hours to help preserve delayed emails while prioritising the reduction of accumulated mail queues.
Microsoft Outlook disruption hits companies, governments across the world
The disruption has exposed how deeply Microsoft services are embedded in business operations and public infrastructure. In the UK, the outage had a serious impact on parts of the National Health Service, according to Rachel Harrison, public services head at the GMB union. Staff handling emergency calls were reportedly unable to refer patient details through their usual channels, creating a substantial backlog. Emergency and life threatening call outs appeared to remain unaffected.
The National Pharmacy Association also warned that prescription processing was being delayed because pharmacies were facing communication problems with doctors’ offices. The UK’s Supreme Court said it was temporarily unable to receive emails, although its online portal and contact forms continued to function.
The impact extended to financial markets and major businesses. European stock exchange operator Euronext asked listed companies to use telephone communication for urgent corporate matters after its teams experienced email disruptions. The operator manages exchanges in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Oslo, Athens and Milan.
Luxury group Richemont, which owns Cartier, also delayed the announcement of its first half financial results because of the Microsoft disruption. The company said it was unclear when the issue would be resolved.
In India, the outage affected several large organisations and their communication systems. Bharti Airtel experienced disruptions to internal communications, with employees unable to access emails and share customer outage alerts through their usual channels. The telecom operator also reported increased traffic to its call centres.
IndiGo said its email support services were affected by the global disruption and warned customers that it might not be able to receive their emails. Air India, however, said its flight operations remained unaffected and that it was monitoring the situation.
The disruption also affected a major professional services firm in the Big Four, where employees rely extensively on Microsoft’s workplace applications. Internal technology teams were working to restore services, with operations gradually returning to normal.
Industry executives said the incident highlighted the need for businesses to build alternative communication systems rather than depend entirely on email and collaboration platforms. Rahul Ganapathy, co founder and CEO of Atsuya Technologies, said the outage had affected even companies that did not rely entirely on Microsoft’s ecosystem, as communications with customers using Outlook and scheduled Teams meetings were disrupted.
The incident has also renewed questions about India’s dependence on external technology providers. Sai Rahul Poruri, CEO of FOSS United, said the disruption should serve as a wake up call for the country to diversify its technology infrastructure. He argued that dependence on a single email provider could expose businesses and government institutions to significant operational and financial risks.
Poruri also pointed to the potential benefits of encouraging multiple email service providers, including those built on free and open source software. Such an approach, he said, could create opportunities for domestic micro, small and medium enterprises while supporting India’s broader technology ambitions.
Cybersecurity experts have cautioned businesses against adopting unsafe workarounds during the disruption. Ben Mudie, field CTO for Asia Pacific at Tenable, said employees might turn to personal email accounts or unapproved file sharing services when workplace systems become unavailable. Such practices could expose confidential business information and create opportunities for impersonation and fraud.
He emphasised that an outage does not automatically indicate a cyberattack, but businesses need approved alternative communication channels and tested continuity plans to maintain operations without compromising security.
As Microsoft continues its recovery efforts, the incident has become a reminder of the operational risks associated with concentrated dependence on cloud based workplace infrastructure. While services are gradually returning, the disruption has demonstrated how an infrastructure problem at a single technology provider can quickly affect businesses, public services and institutions across multiple countries.
