A massive Microsoft outage on Wednesday disrupted websites and online platforms worldwide. Services for Heathrow, NatWest, and Minecraft went offline for several hours, leaving millions unable to access essential tools before systems were restored later in the evening.
Users across the globe report widespread failures
Outage tracker Downdetector showed thousands of complaints from users struggling to load websites or log into accounts. Pages froze, emails failed to send, and online transactions stalled across several countries.
Microsoft confirmed that users of Microsoft 365 faced serious delays with Outlook and other services. By 21:00 GMT, the company said many websites were operational again after it reversed a faulty update that caused the issue.
Azure cloud breakdown triggers ripple effect
Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, which powers a large share of the world’s internet infrastructure, reported “degradation of services” around 16:00 GMT. The company blamed the issue on “DNS problems,” the same fault that had recently caused a major outage at Amazon Web Services.
Amazon said its systems continued to run normally during the Microsoft disruption.
In the UK, websites for Asda, M&S, and O2 were hit. In the United States, users experienced issues accessing Starbucks and Kroger’s websites.
Businesses rush to manage the fallout
Microsoft acknowledged that business customers using Microsoft 365 were heavily affected. Some company web pages showed an error message reading, “Uh oh! Something went wrong with the previous request.”
Because the official service status page was down, Microsoft posted regular updates on X to keep users informed.
NatWest confirmed that its main website briefly went offline but said mobile banking, chat, and phone services continued without interruption.
Consumers urged to document failed payments
Consumer organisation Which? said companies should keep customers informed and offer compensation where necessary. “Customers should keep evidence of any failed or delayed payments in case they need to make a claim,” said Which? consumer expert Lisa Webb. She advised anyone worried about missed bills to contact their providers and ask for late fees to be waived.
Scottish Parliament session suspended after outage
In Scotland, parliamentary proceedings were halted after technical issues disrupted the Parliament’s online voting system. The delay forced the postponement of a debate on a land reform bill that would let the government intervene in private land sales and break up large estates.
A senior source in the Scottish Parliament said the failure was likely linked to Microsoft’s global outage.
Experts warn about dependence on cloud giants
Specialists said the full extent of the outage remains unclear, but Microsoft Azure controls roughly 20% of the global cloud market. Microsoft later confirmed that an “inadvertent configuration change” caused the breakdown, describing it as an internal adjustment with unintended consequences.
Dr Saqib Kakvi from Royal Holloway University warned that reliance on a few major cloud providers increases the risk of widespread failures. “When Microsoft, Amazon, or Google go down, hundreds or thousands of services go down with them,” he said. He explained that economic pressures have pushed most businesses to depend on these few massive platforms, leaving the web increasingly fragile.
Incident exposes fragility of global internet systems
Professor Gregory Falco of Cornell University said the outage revealed how complex and vulnerable digital infrastructure has become. “Azure and AWS may seem like single platforms, but they’re made up of thousands of interconnected components,” he said. Some are run by the providers themselves, while others depend on third parties such as CrowdStrike, whose faulty update last year disrupted millions of Microsoft systems.
Falco warned that a single technical error can now trigger worldwide failures, exposing how dependent and delicate the modern internet truly is.
