Microsoft celebrates end of Office 2021 LTSC with MS 365 outage

Microsoft marked the conclusion of support for Office 2021 Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) with a Microsoft 365 service disruption for certain European users. The impacted service is Global Secure Access (GSA), which allows customers to access Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Teams, and Windows 365 Cloud PCs. Microsoft claims the cause is "A section of GSA infrastructure is performing below acceptable performance thresholds, affecting connectivity to Microsoft 365 services and resulting in impact."

The company is implementing traffic and performance optimizations, and the system is now functioning, but the timing is inconvenient as it aligns with the end of support for Office LTSC 2021. Microsoft encourages users to migrate to Microsoft 365, although on-premises Office LTSC 2024 remains an option for those who prefer it. The specific cause of the latest outage remains unclear, and Microsoft is providing updates on its Service Health Status page.

However, the page currently displays a message indicating no active issues: "We are having trouble getting info about your service incidents, advisories, and history right now. Try again in a few minutes." Enterprises have already determined whether to remain with on-premises Office, transition to the cloud, or pursue another solution.

While Office 2021 LTSC will continue functioning, Microsoft's decision to end support necessitates customer action for compliance reasons. Those who have transitioned to Microsoft 365 are now questioning the decision as the cloud services, despite Microsoft's assurances, have proven to be less reliable than anticipated, and an apology alone does not suffice when productivity is affected.