Microsoft Teams Outage - July 20, 2022

On July 20, 2022, at ~9:47 PM EST, Microsoft communicated via tweet (@MSFT365status) that they were investigating reports of users being unable to access Microsoft Teams or leverage any features.

For IT pros or system admins, updates could be found on the Service Health Dashboard via service incident number TM402718.

We've received reports of users being unable to access Microsoft Teams or leverage any features. We're investigating the issue and further updates can be found in your Service Health Dashboard via TM402718.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

A little over an hour later, Microsoft provided an update on the issues:

We’ve determined that a recent deployment contained a broken connection to an internal storage service, which has resulted in impact. We’re working to direct traffic to a healthy service to mitigate impact. Additional information can be found in the admin center under TM402718.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

Shortly after, users reported having trouble access the admin center:

Some users have reported that they are unable to access the admin center to view updates. Please navigate to https://t.co/AEUj8uAGXl for additional information.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

Nearly two hours after the initial alert, Microsoft identified downstream impact:

We've identified downstream impact to multiple Microsoft 365 services with Teams integration, such as Microsoft Word, Office Online and SharePoint Online. We're providing updates for those services via MO402741 in the admin center or through https://t.co/AEUj8uAGXl.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

At 12:13 AM EST and then at 2:15 AM EST, Microsoft shared that progress was being made:

Our telemetry indicates that Microsoft Teams functionality is beginning to recover. We're continuing our efforts to implement relief within the environment. Additional information can be found under TM402718, MO402741, or at https://t.co/AEUj8uAGXl.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

We are continuing to see improvements to the affected Microsoft Teams functionality. We're focused on mitigating the remaining impact. Additional information can be found under TM402718, MO402741, or at https://t.co/4yJVZgRX18.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

The next day, Microsoft finally alerted users that they've confirmed health service availability: 

We've confirmed healthy service availability via internal telemetry, and observed no further instances of impact following our recovery actions. More details are provided under TM402718 and MO402741 in the admin center.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 21, 2022

The Importance of Teams Monitoring

In a cloud-world, outages are bound to happen. While Microsoft is responsible for restoring service during outages, IT needs to take ownership of their environment and user experience. It is crucial to have greater visibility into business impacts during a service outage the moment it happens.

ENow’s Teams Monitoring and Reporting solution enables IT Pros to pinpoint the exact services effected and root cause of the issues an organization is experiencing during a service outage by providing:

• The ability to monitor networks and entire environments in one place with ENow’s OneLook dashboard which makes identifying a problem fast and easy without having to scramble through Twitter and the Service Health Dashboard looking for answers.
• A full picture of all services and subset of services affected during an outage with ENow’s remote probes which covers several Office 365 apps and other cloud-based collaboration services.

Identify the scope of Teams outage impacts and restore workplace productivity with ENow’s Teams Monitoring and Reporting solution. Access your free 14-day trial today!