Outlook Fails Over the Weekend (Again)
Brief:
Over the weekend, Microsoft experienced a significant outage affecting its Outlook email service and other Microsoft 365 applications. The disruption began around 1:00 PM PST on Saturday, March 1, 2025, with over 35,000 users reporting issues accessing their emails. Microsoft identified a "problematic code change" as the root cause and promptly reverted the update, leading to a gradual restoration of services.
Affected Systems:
Microsoft 365
Microsoft Outlook
What Does This Mean to Me:
Operational disruptions can cause significant operational challenges during outages, affecting communication and productivity. Extended downtime can delay access to critical business data, hindering decision-making processes.
Why This Matters for Small Businesses:
Small businesses rely on cloud service providers like Microsoft to remain up and running constantly. If their services are unstable, it creates a trust problem between users and their software, elevating anxiety and stress.
How to Protect Your Business:
Develop Contingency Plans — establish protocols for alternative communication channels, such as backup email systems or messaging platforms, to maintain operations during service disruptions.
Regular Data Backups — implement routine backups of essential data to ensure accessibility and prevent loss during unforeseen outages.
Stay Informed — monitor service status dashboards and subscribe to alerts from service providers to receive timely updates on potential issues.
Recommended Response and Countermeasures:
Disaster Recovery Planning
Online Backups
Microsoft has earned a reputation for being less than available 365 days a year. As the article points out, this outage comes on the heels of other outages experienced earlier this year. Relying on Microsoft, in my opinion, is foolish: the more one can do to distance oneself from Microsoft, the better. If you’ve got questions, contact me.
Prepared by:
Russell Mickler
Principal Consultant, Mickler & Associates, Inc.
rmickler@micklerandassociates.com
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