Microsoft 365 Issues: A Closer Look at Microsoft 404

Understanding the Recent Microsoft 365 Outages

Microsoft 365 continues to be one of the flagship offerings from Microsoft, serving millions of users, including enterprises and everyday consumers worldwide. While I have been an avid supporter of this suite for years, its rising costs have raised concerns. Recently, however, the platform has demonstrated a troubling trend with a series of noticeable outages that have impacted service reliability.

Recent Outages: An Overview

One of the most significant incidents occurred on October 9, when users faced disruptions with Office.com and related services. Microsoft efficiently rectified the issue within about an hour, attributing the downtime to a configuration error in its North American network infrastructure. Despite the quick response, the incident severely affected users’ workflows.

Just a day prior, on October 8, another outage struck Microsoft 365, this time influencing users reliant on Entra for multi-factor authentication (MFA) into Office services. Like the previous incident, this problem was resolved in approximately four hours, yet it caused considerable frustration among enterprise customers.

A Pattern of Unreliability

The frequency of these outages sheds light on a concerning trend regarding the quality and reliability of Microsoft 365 services. From March 2 to October 9, 2025, there were at least 11 recorded outages, averaging over one incident per month. When compared to 2024, which reported only five outages throughout the entire year, this data signals a notable decline in service stability.

Operational Response and Outlook

Despite the increase in outages, it’s worth noting that Microsoft prioritizes these incidents and typically resolves them quickly, usually within hours. This rapid response is crucial for maintaining business continuity, especially since downtime can disrupt operations and lead to revenue loss.

Customer Expectations and Service Commitments

As Microsoft 365 is a heavily utilized platform, users naturally have heightened expectations for operational excellence. Upon reviewing Microsoft’s service level agreements (SLAs), it is clear that the company commits to 99.9% uptime for its core services, including Microsoft Teams and Office Online. Acknowledging independent reports of outages, it seems unlikely that these incidents have driven uptime below this threshold.

Future Improvements Needed

Nevertheless, Microsoft should consider evolving its SLAs to reflect not just the duration of downtime but also the frequency of outages. Both long-term and persistent short outages present significant challenges. As we move toward 2026, addressing these issues will be essential to restore user confidence and improve service reliability.