Microsoft outage hits New Mexico agencies
State and local leaders switched to backup systems after a global email failure disrupted operations across the state on Thursday.
By Aiko Petrov ·
Microsoft’s global email failure forced New Mexico organizations to pause standard digital workflows on Thursday. The disruption affected state and local government bodies, healthcare providers, and educational institutions across the state.
The outage began at approximately 10:50 a.m. on Thursday. Charles Lamanna, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Copilot, Agents and Platform systems, addressed the issue in a social media post Thursday evening. He stated that the company was working to resolve the problem and confirmed that there was no indication the failure resulted from malicious or cyber activity.
Lauren Dodd Thorp, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Information Technology, said state employees shifted quickly to Microsoft Teams and other cloud-based tools. She noted that agencies continued to carry out their core functions and serve the public during the disruption. The department worked around the clock to provide timely information to various agencies.
Healthcare systems reported limited impact. Chris Ramirez, a spokesperson for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, said the primary effect was an inability to send and receive email. Clinical, educational, and research activities continued without interruption. Kourtney Muñoz, a spokesperson for Presbyterian Healthcare Services, confirmed that all patient services remained available. Staff used established alternative communication channels to coordinate work and support ongoing operations.
Local government agencies also adapted. Chief Ben Valdez of the Santa Fe Police Department reported that the department’s email service was restored at about 8 p.m. on Thursday. Valdez stated that the agency maintained operations using redundancies built into its communications plan. The Navajo Nation Emergency Operations Center created a temporary Gmail account to handle disaster-related communications. The original email service was restored by 9 a.m. on Friday.
Steve Carr, a spokesperson for the University of New Mexico, acknowledged that the outage disrupted communication and day-to-day work. However, voice calls, messaging through Microsoft Teams, and video meetings remained available. Carr added that the university’s learning management system and finance, HR, and student administrative systems were not impacted, allowing teaching and critical business operations to continue.
Barry Massey, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said New Mexico court systems were not affected by the outage. The state court system does not use Outlook. While the Microsoft outage caused a global disruption, the state’s court operations continued as usual.
A national Federal Aviation Administration ground stop occurred on Friday due to an apparent communications problem. Some speculation linked this event to the Microsoft outage, but U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the two incidents were not related, according to CNN reports.
