Microsoft allegedly blocked an ICC prosecutor’s mailbox under US sanctions, highlighting potential risks for any organization relying on its services.
Although Microsoft service cutoffs by government mandate are rare, they can happen and carry significant business continuity implications.
Most companies critically depend on Microsoft 365, Azure, Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, and Windows, making a full outage extremely disruptive.
Calculations using return on security investment (ROSI) show the annual expected loss from a Microsoft cutoff is low (around tens of dollars) compared to the high cost of creating an independent IT stack.
Accurate risk assessment is hampered by limited data and many assumptions, so organizations must balance costs, probabilities, and strategic priorities.
Some governments, like Denmark, are exploring alternatives to Microsoft for non-financial reasons, showing that other values besides profit can drive major IT transitions.
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