An Azure Active Directory issue that causes authentication problems is affecting a subset of Microsoft customers worldwide on many MIcrosoft services, including Office, Dynamics, Teams, Xbox Live and the Azure Portal. Customers began to complain at around 3:15 pm ET on March 15 about their inability to use services running on Azure, and as of 5:15 pm ET, the problem was still not resolved.
Currently, a message on the Azure Status page says: “CURRENT STATUS: Engineering teams have identified a potential underlying cause and are exploring mitigation options. The next update will be delivered in 60 minutes or as events warrant.”
Since the Admin Portal also runs on Azure, several Twitter users complained that they were unable to obtain an update on the outage.
This is not the first time that an Azure Active Directory authentication problem has resulted in disruptions to various Microsoft services. In late September 2020, Microsoft had several Azure AD authentication issues affecting many of its services.
Update (17:20 ET): It looks like Microsoft is releasing a fix. On the Azure Status page: “CURRENT STATUS: Engineering teams are currently implementing mitigation worldwide. Customers should begin to see recovery now, with the complete mitigation expected in 60 minutes.”
This is a developing story. More to come.