Dutch municipalities, courts and universities hit by global Microsoft 365 outage
A global Microsoft 365 outage is disrupting operations at several organizations in the Netherlands. Services including Outlook and Teams are experiencing outages, leaving users unable to access them or facing limited functionality. Microsoft has said that it is seeing improvements in server stability.
The disruption has affected the digital services of numerous Dutch municipalities, including Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft, and Leeuwarden. Twenterand warned that residents may experience delays in receiving replies to emails or having their messages delivered. Several provincial governments have also reported problems, including those in Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Groningen, Overijssel, and Noord-Brabant.
The disruption has also affected the Dutch court system, with problems sending and receiving emails. However, courts can still be contacted by phone.
“We’re seeing positive results for server stability after applying an upstream authentication/routing configuration component patch to a portion of our infrastructure,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft added that it would continue monitoring the results and was working to expand the fix to servers supporting regions that are coming back online. “As of now, we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident,” it also reiterated.
It is gradually expanding the fix to other servers, particularly those supporting regions entering peak business hours. However, Microsoft has not yet provided a timeline for a full recovery.
The outage is also causing problems for Dutch higher education institutions. The University of Twente and Radboud University have warned students about potential disruptions to Microsoft 365 services.
Radboud University has also had to make alternative arrangements for its Bachelor's Open Day on Friday. The event will proceed as planned, but students who register may not receive confirmation emails. The university has directed people with questions to its WhatsApp contact number instead.
SURF, which coordinates the shared digital infrastructure for universities and universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands, is also experiencing difficulties.
Regional broadcasters are also experiencing problems. Omroep Flevoland and RTV Utrecht had already reported disruptions, while Omroep Brabant confirmed later on Friday morning that it was affected as well. However, viewers can still reach Omroep Brabant by phone or through social media to share news tips.
The disruption is also affecting a range of other Dutch organizations. These include the Dutch Society for Intensive Care, sports organization NOC*NSF, broadcaster advertising agency Ster, and the Dutch Association of Mayors.
The disruption extends beyond Microsoft's email and meeting services. Other affected applications include SharePoint, Planner, To Do and Power BI, as well as parts of Microsoft's security software.
However, the impact varies between services. Users can still access files stored directly in SharePoint, while some Teams functions, including calendar integration and meeting scheduling, are experiencing problems.