Microsoft’s popular messaging and collaboration platform, Teams, faced a major outage on Friday that affected thousands of users across North and South America. The company said it had resolved the issue by performing a failover operation, but some users still reported problems with accessing the service.
What caused the outage?
According to Microsoft, the outage was caused by a networking issue that impacted a portion of the team’s service. The company did not provide more details on the nature or source of the issue but said it was working to mitigate the impact.
The outage started around 11 a.m. EST on Friday and quickly escalated in scope, according to outage tracker DownDetector. At its peak, the website recorded more than 14,000 incidents of users reporting issues with Teams. Users complained of being unable to log in, send messages, join meetings, or use other features of the app.
How did Microsoft respond?
Microsoft acknowledged the outage on its X platform, formerly known as Twitter, and said it was investigating the issue. It also updated its service health dashboard to inform users of the status of the service.
“We’ve identified a networking issue impacting a portion of the Teams service, and we’re performing a failover to remediate the impact,” Microsoft said in a post on X at 12:30 p.m. EST.
A failover is the process of switching to a backup system or network when the primary one fails or becomes unavailable. Microsoft said the failover operation did not provide immediate relief to all end users in the affected regions and that it was monitoring the situation closely.
What was the impact of the outage?
The outage disrupted the work of many professionals who rely on Teams for online meetings, chat, file sharing, and other tasks. Teams are part of Microsoft’s 365 software suite, which also includes Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive. The suite has more than 300 million active users, according to Microsoft.
Teams have seen a surge in demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic as more people shift to remote work and online learning. The app had more than 250 million monthly active users as of July 2021, up from 145 million in April 2021, according to Microsoft.
The outage also affected some other Microsoft services that use Teams, such as Skype for Business and Yammer. However, the company said these services were not directly impacted by the networking issue and that users could access them through alternative methods.
How did users react?
Many users took to social media to express their frustration, confusion, or amusement over the outage. Some joked that they had a free day off work, while others wondered if they should switch to other platforms, such as Zoom or Slack.
Some users also reported that they were able to access Teams through their mobile devices or web browsers, while others said they had no issues at all. Some users said the outage was resolved for them by the afternoon, while others said they still faced problems even after Microsoft’s announcement of the failover.
Some users also praised Microsoft for its quick response and communication, while others criticized the company for its lack of transparency and reliability.
