The disruptions offer the latest example of the cascading problems that can erupt when so many communications and technology platforms depend on the same provider.

Microsoft says it "deeply sorry for the disruption."

The company says it doesn’t have a timeline for a full recovery and blamed a “technical issue” for the outage, saying it was not the result of a cyberattack or artificial intelligence. NBC News’ Christine Romans reports.

The House of Representatives, health care providers, schools and many other organizations were affected.