Infotech Tells CIOs to Verify Workflows and Security Controls After Microsoft 365 Outage

Infotech recommended that CIOs verify the recovery of business-critical workflows, integrations and security controls before declaring normal operations restored after the Microsoft 365 outage that began on November 12. The advisory firm published the guidance in a research note, Microsoft 365 Outage: Immediate Actions for CIOs, PR Newswire reported on November 13.

What Infotech Told CIOs After the Outage

Microsoft is the Redmond-based company behind Microsoft 365, Azure, Copilot and other cloud and productivity products sold to enterprises, governments and consumers. The outage began on a Thursday afternoon with Exchange Online mailbox access failures in the Americas and affected functions in Teams, SharePoint, Copilot and Defender, according to the note. That night, servers that had returned to service failed again under load, and Microsoft added capacity and began rolling back a recent network change.

In the note's midday ET update on November 13, availability was improving but intermittent issues persisted, and Microsoft had not given a restoration time. Microsoft had reported no evidence of malicious activity, and the root cause was still under investigation. Infotech, formerly Info-Tech Research Group, provides an API-driven advisory model to more than 30,000 IT leaders, according to the release.

"CIOs need a clear basis for telling the business it can return to normal operations," said Kate Wood, AVP of Research Development at Infotech. "That means knowing which critical processes have been tested, where security coverage still needs checking, and which teams must continue using workarounds."

Infotech advised IT teams to log unresolved issues and failed workarounds throughout recovery, maintain alternative communications independent of Microsoft 365, and warn employees about phishing, credential-harvesting and deepfake calls. It also said service credits are not automatic and that SLA claims generally require evidence of customer-specific impact, so organizations should preserve service-health advisories and document actual disruption.

Microsoft's Scale Behind the Disruption

Microsoft employs more than 220,000 people globally and reported quarterly revenue of $82.9 billion in Q2 FY2026, up 18% year-over-year, according to akta.pro company records. The same records put its AI business above a $37 billion annual revenue run rate, up 123% year-over-year, driven by Azure AI services and Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. Microsoft's funding records list a $25 billion post-IPO debt round in October 2026.

Earlier Microsoft Developments This Week

On November 13, Kiplinger.com reported that the ongoing outage had left users vulnerable to scams including fake support sites and phishing links, with Eric Hulse advising people to treat unsolicited messages as scams. That day, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre warned the public against scam calls impersonating IT help desks or Microsoft, Punch Newspapers reported. Also on November 13, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturing urged manufacturers to strengthen digital resilience after a Microsoft services disruption, The Edge Malaysia reported.

Infotech's Next Research Steps

Infotech pointed readers to its Develop a Business Continuity Plan, Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan and IT Communications Research Center resources, and offered the full research note for download through its website.