What the outage means for your business
A customer waiting for a quotation does not see the technical incident behind the delay. They see a business that has not replied. That is why continuity planning should include a clear way for staff to communicate when their usual mailbox is unavailable.
This article responds to the disruption reported on 13 November 2026. It is not a live status report: check Microsoft Service health for the current position and the impact on your own organisation.
What Proofpoint Essentials Business includes
Proofpoint’s published Business package includes inbound and outbound filtering, antivirus, spam filtering, impersonation protection, content and data loss prevention filters, URL Defense and attachment reputation checks. Its continuity features include 30 days of Emergency Inbox, email spooling and Instant Replay.
Full attachment sandboxing, email encryption and long term archiving are not included in the standard Business package. We confirm the exact subscription and configuration in your quotation.
How it works with Microsoft 365
For this continuity setup, your domain’s MX records point to Proofpoint in advance. MX records tell other email systems where to send incoming messages. Proofpoint filters the mail and forwards it to your existing Microsoft 365 mailboxes.
Normal mail route: sender → Proofpoint → Microsoft 365 → your Outlook mailbox. Staff continue using their usual email addresses and Outlook during normal operation.
What happens when Microsoft 365 cannot accept mail?
Proofpoint queues messages it cannot deliver. Staff can sign into its Emergency Inbox through a browser to read queued mail, reply and compose messages using their normal business email address. The emergency portal is hosted by Proofpoint, separately from Outlook.
When Microsoft 365 accepts delivery again, queued incoming messages are forwarded to the original mailboxes. Staff return to Outlook once access is restored.
What staff see in the Emergency Inbox
This is a temporary webmail interface, not a complete copy of Outlook. Staff should not expect their full historic folders, calendars or contacts. It provides access to the messages available through Proofpoint’s continuity service.
For example, staff can respond to a new enquiry held in the queue while delivery to Microsoft 365 is unavailable. They need internet access and a tested portal login that remains usable during the outage.
The deployment method matters
Proofpoint also offers an integrated deployment where MX records remain pointed at Microsoft 365. In that arrangement, Microsoft receives incoming mail first and sends it to Proofpoint for filtering.
That route still depends on Microsoft accepting the incoming message before Proofpoint receives it. For an independent incoming mail route during a Microsoft delivery outage, we plan the MX based deployment described above, with mail reaching Proofpoint first. We configure and test the routing, user access and continuity process before they are needed.
What it will not do
The emergency portal is not a full copy of every historic Outlook folder. It will not restore Teams, SharePoint or Microsoft authentication services. An outage affecting mailbox access while Microsoft still accepts incoming mail can behave differently from a delivery failure; the affected mail must be available to Proofpoint for continuity access.
Installing a service during an incident cannot recover messages that never passed through it. DNS changes, mail connectors, authentication and testing take planning. No continuity service can promise that every kind of outage will leave email completely unaffected.
A managed move with Bury I.T. Support
We can review your domains, users and existing filtering, then plan the routing changes, check legitimate mail flow and show staff how to use emergency access. A continuity drill makes the procedure familiar before it is needed.
If you are an existing client and would like to move to Proofpoint Essentials Business, or want us to review your current email protection, get in touch. Call 0161 884 3303 or use our contact page for a quotation and migration plan.
Official sources and further reading
These primary sources were checked when this article was last reviewed.