Monash expert: The Microsoft outage – recovery process and how Australian organisations can cope with future incidents

A Monash University expert is available for comment regarding a global outage of Microsoft software, the recovery process, and how organisations can prepare for such incidents to minimise impact. 

Dr Mohammad Goudarzi, Faculty of Information Technology

Contact via: +61 450 501 248 or teju.harikrishna@monash.edu 

Distributed systemsCloud computing and edge computingInternet of Things

The following can be attributed to Dr Goudarzi:

“Normally, in large-scale and interconnected systems, like Microsoft cloud platforms in this case, detecting a disruption may be quick, but identifying its underlying cause can take considerably longer. Engineers typically work to contain the impact and restore services while investigating the cause. Recovery also requires checking that restored systems remain stable as workloads return. 

“My view is that investment in reliability needs to keep pace with investment in new features. Providers need carefully tested updates, capacity to absorb failures and ways to stop faults spreading. Customers need a rehearsed plan for keeping essential work and communications going when their usual services are unavailable.

“Organisations in Australia need to prioritise and regularly test contingency plans for technology outages. Also, diversifying selected services across providers can reduce dependence on a single supplier, but the alternatives must be sufficiently independent and practical to switch to. 

“For example, an organisation could prepare Zoom as a backup for Teams meetings, provided staff can sign in and access meeting details without relying on the affected Microsoft services. The arrangement should be configured and tested beforehand, so switching platforms is practical during an outage. Simply using multiple providers without testing the processes involved does not guarantee business continuity.

“Microsoft has reported disruption to Exchange Online and dependent features in services including Teams, SharePoint and Copilot. The impact varies across customers and functions; it does not mean every application is completely unavailable. Problems with email, calendars and connected workflows can delay customer responses, approvals, teaching and other essential activities.

“A less visible consequence is that staff may lose access to communication tools they need to coordinate their response. The effects can also extend to connected applications: a product from another company can experience disruption if it depends on the affected Microsoft services.

“These disruptions can also continue after access returns. Organisations may need to clear backlogs, check unfinished work and catch up on delayed decisions. Restoring the technology is only one part of restoring normal operations.”