Microsoft has admitted to fresh issues with Office 365 that have seen users struggle to log in since Friday.
We're investigating issues related to repeated credential prompts and users being unable to log in using the Outlook client under EX152471. Admins please check the admin center for more details.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) October 30, 2018
The belated acknowledgement comes after frustrated users of the cloud-based enterprise software suite lined up on Twitter to complain about accessibility issues, several saying they had been ongoing since Friday.
This was from yesterday!!!! Furthermore, my users were reporting this on FRIDAY and I spent all weekend troubleshooting this. Please for the love of god find a way to get these advisories posted sooner.
— John Gardner (@jfgardner71) October 30, 2018
Office 365 Down
UK users of Microsoft Office 365 typically have their data hosted at three UK data centres, in London, Cardiff and Durham.
The latest hiccup comes after several high profile outages in both September and June, as reported by Computer Business Review. Last week EMEA users of Sharepoint and Microsoft Teams were also experiencing latency and login issues.
We've completed load balancing changes across the affected infrastructure and have validated that service has been restored. Further details on this event can be found in the admin portal under SP151830 and SP151847.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) October 22, 2018
Pete Banham, cyber resilience expert at Mimecast, told Computer Business Review in an emailed statement: “The continuity of business critical systems is vital for organisations today to maintain productivity and effective customer service. This Office 365 issue is a clear reminder that in the cloud age, it’s often down to individual organisations to ensure they have a plan B.”
He added: “Employees can also create security and compliance risks during downtime when using unsanctioned or consumer IT services to get the job done. We are urging organisations to consider a cyber resilience strategy that assures the ability to recover and continue with business as usual.”
Microsoft Office 365 (a combination of services) typically holds data at rest for UK users out of three data centres: Skype for Business from Cardiff and Durham; Planner from Ireland and the Netherlands; Project Online from Durham and London; OneNote from Cardiff and London.
Azure Active Directory meanwhile typically runs from data centres in Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States.
Microsoft says “Office 365 is designed to provide a consistent experience independent of the location of your customer data.”
“The performance, international availability, and supported languages of Office 365 are not determined by your Geo and data center locations. Microsoft’s continued investments in its global cloud network, global cloud infrastructure, and services architecture help provide users with a singular, consistent experience independent of where their data is stored.”
