Microsoft Outage Hits Europe, Thousands of Users Affected

A major outage has hit Microsoft services in Europe, leaving thousands of users without access to various online platforms and applications.

According to reports, the outage began around 5:00 AM CET on Thursday, with users in the UK, France, Germany, and other European countries affected. Microsoft’s services, including Outlook, Office 365, and Azure, were unavailable or experiencing issues, causing disruptions to businesses, schools, and individual users.

“We are currently experiencing issues with some of our services, including Outlook, Office 365, and Azure,” Microsoft said in a statement. “Our team is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

The cause of the outage is not yet clear, but Microsoft has confirmed that it is not related to a cyberattack. The company’s engineering teams are working to identify the root cause and implement a fix.

Many users took to social media to express their frustration and disappointment, with some sharing images of error messages and warning of significant disruptions to their daily work.

“So far, the Microsoft outage has stopped me from doing any work for over an hour,” tweeted one frustrated user. “Unbelievable.”

The outage has particularly affected businesses that rely heavily on Microsoft services, including those in the healthcare and education sectors.

“It’s caused a lot of chaos in our office,” said one employee. “We’re trying to get things done, but it’s not happening. We’re having to find alternative ways to get our work done.”

Microsoft has apologized for the inconvenience and is working to get its services back online as quickly as possible.

“We apologize for the disruption this has caused and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue,” the company said in a statement.

The outage is a significant blow to Microsoft, which has been working to improve its reliability and resilience in recent months. Earlier this year, the company launched a major effort to improve its services and apps, including a new mobile app and updated Office software.

As the situation unfolds, Microsoft users in Europe are expected to remain without access to certain services until the issue is resolved.