Microsoft reports outage of some Office and cloud services

Microsoft Corp said it is investigating outages of some Office applications and cloud services.

“We are investigating reports of issues connecting to Microsoft services globally,” the company wrote in an update on a site to monitor accessibility of its Azure cloud services on July 30.

The issue is also impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services and features, Microsoft said in a post on social network X. Microsoft 365 includes common productivity applications like Outlook, Word and Excel.

Users may be either unable to access the apps, or experience worsened connection or performance, the company said in a message to customers seen by Bloomberg.

Reports of outages on Azure and Microsoft 365 began to spike shortly after 7am New York time and comprised hundreds of complaints as at 9.40am, according to user reports compiled by Downdetector.

Earlier in July 2024, some eight million computers running on the Windows operating system

crashed after cyber-security firm CrowdStrike Holdings released a flawed software update.

In addition, Microsoft has also been grappling with the fallout from a series of cyber attacks that prompted the US government to issue a scathing report calling for company-wide changes.

Microsoft is scheduled to report earnings on the afternoon of July 30, with investors looking for signs that the company is starting to monetise its investments in artificial intelligence. BLOOMBERG