Microsoft is currently grappling with a significant global outage that is preventing administrators from accessing the Exchange Admin Center (EAC), causing widespread frustration among IT teams worldwide.

The tech giant has officially designated this problem as a critical service issue, labeled EX1051697 on the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, confirming that it is affecting users on a global scale.

Since the outage began just two hours ago, countless IT administrators have encountered "HTTP Error 500" when trying to log in to the EAC. The error has raised alarm bells, as administrators race to manage their Exchange environments.

Interestingly, Microsoft has mentioned that some savvy admins have found a workaround, reportedly gaining access via a different link: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/exchange#/. However, the reliability of this workaround is still under review.

In a proactive move, Microsoft stated, "We've identified spikes in errors and are conducting further investigations. We're also scrutinizing any recent changes made to the service to determine if they might be contributing to the outage." The company assured users that they are prioritizing this issue.

In a recent update, Microsoft acknowledged that their engineers had successfully reproduced the issue on their end and were gathering additional diagnostic data to expedite troubleshooting.

This isn't the first time Microsoft users have faced access issues; just last month, an outage disrupted Outlook on the web, further complicating users' access to their Exchange Online mailboxes. Another incident also saw delays in sending and receiving emails, causing widespread disruptions.

As of April 09, 12:11 EDT, Microsoft has initiated a temporary workaround by automatically redirecting affected admins to a functioning URL. The company stated, "We've pinpointed a potential authentication issue linked to a specific URL path and are actively redirecting traffic to the corrected URL to mitigate the disruption."

Stay tuned for updates as Microsoft navigates this challenging situation and works diligently to restore full service to its users.