Microsoft (MSFT.O) said it is making progress restoring access to flagship
software after an outage that disrupted global government agencies, traders and
corporate customers. In a notice posted around 9:00 a.m. ET the company said
service availability is improving and “mail queues have fallen significantly,
nearing normal.” It warned users of more than 20 products and services may still
encounter errors. The cause remains unclear; Microsoft said core processes on
some servers became unresponsive under heavy load and initial remediation was
hampered by subsequent server errors. The company said it will provide more
details after the incident and that there is no evidence of malicious activity.