Microsoft's global service outage continues to affect users, with disruptions to Outlook, Microsoft Teams and artificial intelligence software Copilot reported since Thursday.
The widespread outage has affected businesses, schools, healthcare services and government institutions, raising concerns about the impact of the disruption on daily operations.
In the United Kingdom, healthcare professionals have warned of significant challenges for the National Health Service (NHS), while several schools have reported problems accessing Microsoft's services.
Some schools have urged parents to contact them by telephone rather than email while the disruption persists.
The UK Parliament has also confirmed that alternative communication arrangements have been put in place to minimise the impact on its operations.
Although the exact number of affected users remains unclear, the scale of the disruption is believed to be significant, with approximately 430 million people using Microsoft 365 services worldwide.
The outage has also affected individuals and businesses relying on Microsoft's platforms for important transactions and communication.
A woman from Staffordshire, identified as Georgia, said the disruption had delayed the completion of her first home purchase.
Another user, Martin, initially welcomed the absence of emails before realising that the outage could affect the conclusion of an important business deal.
Microsoft has since reported encouraging progress in restoring its services, particularly in Europe, while conditions in North America were also showing signs of improvement.
However, the company warned that some users could continue experiencing intermittent disruptions as recovery efforts continued.
The technology giant previously confirmed that the outage was not caused by a cybersecurity breach, attributing the disruption to technical issues affecting its infrastructure.