Checking the Operational Status of Microsoft Services

Earlier today Microsoft customers started having some problems signing into several online services with their Microsoft Account.

How did we first hear about this?

Turns out social media can reveal an issue with an online service very quickly and even before the company itself is aware of a limitation or outage with their own services.

That is exactly what happened earlier today as comments started to appear on Twitter as users posted about their challenges in getting access to Microsoft services that required the use of their Microsoft Account.

That in turn sent me looking for official word from Microsoft on what the outage might be and how widespread it was at that moment.

In order to get this online service status, I jump into a search engine and start looking for those various status pages for Microsoft's online services and checking them.

As a resource for all of us, I am going to list out the official Microsoft service status pages that are available online and you can bookmark them from here to keep for future use as necessary.

Outlook and OneDrive Service Status (Consumer)

Located at: https://portal.office.com/servicestatus

Xbox Live Status

Located at: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live-status

Microsoft Azure Status

Located at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/

Office 365 Service Status

Located at: http://status.office365.com/

Note: Office 365 Administrators can get a specific service status for their subscription by logging into their Office 365 Service Health Dashboard at https://portal.microsoftonline.com/servicestatus/servicestatus.aspx

Skype Heartbeat Status

Located at: http://heartbeat.skype.com/

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But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.