Today’s Microsoft 365 outage is a good reminder of how much we still rely on email for. There have been many attempts over the years to replace email with new systems and while some have had partial success, our inboxes seem to get busier than ever.

We rely on email to send everything from correspondence to signature requests, links and attachments, meeting summaries, tickets to events and so much more. When email services aren’t available, is creates a problem for many of us.

The cause of today’s issue appears to relate to servers being automatically taken offline after they failed to pass an automated test. Automation is important when managing infrastructure at scale, so it isn’t surprising that Microsoft has these types of systems to help care for their vast server estate. The more troubling part of the issue is the time it has taken to restore services after this issue occurred.

The message for a long time has been, cloud services will not only reduce your costs but also be more reliable that hosting your own. While this is true, it also comes with a hook; total reliance on the service provider as we have seen today.

This isn’t the first time outages like this have occurred and it won’t be the last. It is a good reminder that your business continuity plan should include contingencies for extended outages of the digital platforms we rely on.

If your business depends on AI Agents and other digital services that suddenly become unavailable, what will the impact be? Something to consider as we accelerate our adoption of AI.

Now is a great time to take action:

• Map your service dependencies
• Document your RTO (Recovery Time Objective)
• Document your processes for service outages
• Look for ways to diversify your dependence on specific models or services
• If it is mission critical, build redundancy into the design

This isn’t a technology problem, it is a business continuity issue. Engage the business in developing the plan and make sure everyone understands it.