Microsoft Teams goes down just as Europe logs on to work remotely

Microsoft’s chat and communications tool, Microsoft Teams, went down across Europe this morning for more than two hours. The outage started just as thousands of workers started to sign into the service and attempt to work remotely amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Microsoft Teams users were experiencing issues signing into the service and sending messages, and Microsoft rectified the issues after just over two hours.

The timing was less than ideal, just as many businesses are encouraging employees to work remotely and collaborate using services like Microsoft Teams. Even schools are also using tools like Microsoft Teams for remote education, with some schools in The Netherlands instructing students to log into the service today for digital questions.

This is the second major outage to hit Microsoft Teams this year. The service also went down after Microsoft forgot to renew a key SSL security certificate last month. Microsoft eventually got Teams working again after three hours of issues, and apologized for missing the expired certificate.

Microsoft’s Teams issues also come just hours after Xbox Live went down briefly. Microsoft hasn’t revealed the exact cause of the Xbox Live outage, but it’s likely related to an increase in demand. Steam reached a new concurrent online user record of 20 million, just as people start to stay at home more during the coronavirus pandemic.

:story: The Verge