Microsoft Exchange Admin Center takes extended siesta in the EU

Wasn't the cloud supposed to be the cheap, reliable option?

Updated Microsoft's Exchange Administration Center (EAC) has fallen over and appears to be struggling to get up.

The issue affects users trying to access EAC to administer Exchange Online for their users. Users began expressing frustration about the service being down just before lunchtime in the UK. The issue appears widespread in Europe, with users from countries such as Germany, Poland, and Belgium reporting problems.

Canada and the US appear fine, hinting that the issue might be location-based. The Register asked Microsoft for more details, but the company has not responded.

The EAC manages mailboxes, administers groups, and migrates data, among other functions. A lot of its functionality is also accessible via PowerShell, which currently seems to be working fine. However, the company has not commented on the issue or when it will be resolved.

Microsoft is very keen for customers to migrate from on-premises versions of Exchange to the company's cloud, although one observer on social media remarked: "The amount of downtime they are facing is getting to a point where you can't even argue 'Cloud has better availability.'"

Quite. The long-held assertion that the cloud is a cheaper, more reliable option than an on-premises rack of servers has been ringing increasingly hollow in recent times. Microsoft suffered an Outlook outage over the weekend, and some Microsoft 365 users experienced downtime on Monday.

The company attributed its most recent cloud failures to a problematic code change. It has yet to explain why so much of Europe appears to be experiencing a slowdown or complete outage in the EAC.

The company says: "The Exchange admin center (EAC) is a modern, web-based management console for managing Exchange that's designed to provide an experience more in line with the overall Microsoft 365 admin experience."

Judging by recent outages across Microsoft 365, we'd say it has done a stellar job there. ®

Updated to add on March 5:

A Microsoft spokesperson directed us to the company's @MSFT365Status feed on X for status updates.

Another spokesperson got in touch overnight to tell us that issue had been "addressed" and that more information could be found in EX1022875.

So now you know.