Multiple businesses around the world suffered Microsoft 365 outages during the recent IT fiasco. Reports reveal the fault was due to a configuration error in Azure Front Door.
For enterprises whose productivity depends on “always-on” collaboration tools, the recent Microsoft 365 outage should be a red alert.
How did your business cope, and what can you do better if it happens again?
Here’s what we learned from the Microsoft 365 outage. This is how to restore order out of chaos.
Engineering Resilience for M365-Dependent Business
Below is a playbook you can adopt (or adapt) now. Think of this as resilience engineering, not just backup planning.
Hybrid or Fallback Routing
Maintain secondary SMTP / mail relay paths outside Microsoft 365 (e.g. a backup email gateway or on-premise SMTP). This strategy ensures inbound email isn’t dropped during Azure / M365 failover
Cache Functional Fallback
Configuring Microsoft 365 apps to rely more on cached mode, local files, or sync buffers reduces total dependence on live servers.
Segregate Dependencies
Avoid monolithic reliance on a single M365 service for mission-critical workflows. If Teams or SharePoint fails, you have alternate communication/collaboration channels.
API / Data Backup & Sync
Regularly export mission-critical data (mail archives, SharePoint lists, Teams chat logs) to neutral storage sites. This strategy enables faster recovery or fallback to alternate platforms.
You’ll find hidden coupling before a real outage does
Simulate partial M365 outages (e.g. disable service endpoints, block DNS, throttle API) as part of regular disaster drills. You’ll find hidden coupling before a real outage does
Tactical Moves During a Microsoft 365 Outage:
- Activate your runbook — gather stakeholders, stand up your incident command, and assign roles (communication, remediation, user support).
- Switch to fallback systems — activate backup SMTP gateways, alternative collaboration tools (Slack, Zoom, local file servers).
- Track and log everything — timestamp all symptoms, error codes, latencies, user complaints, and any workaround efforts.
- Communicate early and often — notify users of degradation status, expected resolution efforts, and interim workaround steps.
- Prepare your cutover timeline — as the cloud recovers, carefully reintroduce dependencies (e.g. redirect mail, re-enable APIs) in controlled phases, not all at once.
Aftermath: Learn, Harden, Repeat
- Conduct a post-mortem with blameless review: what failed, what was invisible, what recovery steps choked.
- Update your runbooks and automation with any lessons.
- Pressure test the new version via fault injection / “blackout drills” on nonproduction setups.
- Reassess licensing or architecture tradeoffs: do you rely too heavily on M365 features that lack alternate paths?
Troubleshoot Future Microsoft 365 Outages
Microsoft 365 is battle-tested but it is still vulnerable to outages. It is often that case that human error is responsible for IT outages.
As managed IT professionals in London, our job is to expect imperfection in cloud platforms, and troubleshoot “degradation”.
The recent Microsoft outage was a wake-up call: don’t wait for the next downtime to discover your brittleness. If you can’t function for 3 to 5 hours without Teams or Exchange, your architecture needs rethinking — now.