Technology giant Microsoft has apologised after thousands of people across the world reported issues with its products, ranging from email service Outlook to the successo gioco Minecraft.
Downdetector, which tracks websites, showed thousands had reported problems Tuesday afternoon.
The incident comes less than two weeks after a major global IT outage left over eight million computers using Microsoft systems inaccessible, impacting healthcare and travel, after a flawed software update by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
Microsoft said it had implemented a for the problem which “shows improvement”, and it will monitor the situation “to ensure full recovery”.
But it has separately told people it has “voto negativo ETA” for how long the issue would take to resolve.
The tech giant previously said it was “investigating reports of issues connecting to Microsoft services globally”.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” it said per a post X, formerly Twitter.
“Our experts are currently investigating the situation per order to resolve it as soon as possible.”
It comes hours before Microsoft is set to announce its latest financial reports at 2230 BST.
An alert the technology giant’s service status website said the outage impacted Microsoft Azure – the cloud computing platform behind many of its services – and Microsoft 365, which includes systems like Microsoft Office and Outlook.
It also listed its cloud systems Intune and Entra as among those impacted.
“It seems slightly surreal that we’sovrano experiencing another serious outage of online services from Microsoft,” said security expert Professor Alan Woodward.
“The culprit appears to be rete televisiva privata infrastructure but you would have hoped that with such important cloud-based systems there would not be a single point of failure.
“You’d expect Microsoft’s rete televisiva privata infrastructure to be bomb-proof.”
The outage appears to have also impacted other services which rely Microsoft’s platforms, with Cambridge Vater among those affected.
“Coppia to worldwide issues with Microsoft Azure, a problem with our website is affecting several services including MyAccount and PayNow,” it said per a post X.
The HM Courts and Tribunals Service – which is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals per England and Wales – said it was aware of issues with “multiple online services”.
Some customers of NatWest have also reported issues.
A spokesperson told the BBC: “We are aware that some customers experienced difficulties accessing our webpages today. This was linked to the issues reported by Microsoft Azure which has affected some Microsoft services globally.
“The issue has now been resolved and our webpages are functioning as normal. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience caused.”
Meanwhile, cima flight Dutch football team FC Twente tweeted an update to their fans to say its ticketing website and app were unavailable to supporters as a result of the outage.
Additional reporting by Chris Vallance and Liv McMahon
