Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft services are now back up and running after a global outage earlier today.
The issue was first reported in Europe and Asia, but was soon confirmed to be affecting global customers. Microsoft confirmed the cause of the issue had been identified and work is underway to fix it.
Microsoft has since confirmed that the services is “performing as expected” but those still experiencing difficulties should restart their systems.
“We’ve monitored the environment and confirmed that the service is performing as expected. If a user is still experiencing impact, they need to restart their clients to recover,” the tech company said on Twitter.
We've monitored the environment and confirmed that the service is performing as expected. If a user is still experiencing impact, they need to restart their clients to recover. Further details can be found under TM252802 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) April 27, 2021
Microsoft Teams is used by numerous NHS organisations. In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, NHS Digital rolled Microsoft Teams out across the entire NHS to support remote working.
Between 16 – 20 March, all users of NHSmail in England and Scotland were given access to Teams, the Microsoft workplace collaboration platform that forms part of the Office365 suite.
The roll-out of the software was accelerated to help NHS teams better communicate and collaborate around their responses to Covid-19, and counter the increased risks associated with the virus.
We’ve confirmed that this issue affects users globally. We’re reviewing monitoring telemetry and recent changes to isolate the source of the issue. More information can be found under TM252802 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) April 27, 2021
By October 2020 more than 65 million messages had been sent using the platform since its roll out, while more than 13 million meetings had been held using the service.
An agreement was also struck between NHS Digital, NHSX and Microsoft in June 2020, offering all NHS organisations access to Microsoft 365 tools in a deal expected to save the health services hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Microsoft 365 was deployed to about 1.2 million staff across NHS organisations including trusts; clinical commissioning groups; and health informatics services.
Organisations were expected to be able to access savings through their existing agreements, receiving additional discounts on the products included in the deal, according to NHS Digital. Savings were expected to come from the terms of licensing and productivity gains.
The deal builds on an agreement with the company from April 2018 that enabled NHS organisations to use Windows 10 to strengthen their defences against cyber attacks following the WannaCry attack.
Organisations have until October 2021 to full implement all elements of Microsoft 365. The deal will run for a minimum of 3 years, to April 2023.