A recent server outage on Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused a shutdown for many platforms, including Disney+, on December 7.
Users began to notice this snag when they lost access to Disney+ at around 10:30 am PT and instead ended up with black screens. AWS also provides service to Netflix, Kindle eBooks, Amazon Music, Ring cameras, Amazon.com, PUBG, League of Legends, and others, which were also facing similar issues.
However, Amazon seemed to be very well aware of the situation as they started providing updates on their official status page as soon as the server was down:
We are seeing impact to multiple AWS APIs in the US-EAST-1 Region. This issue is also affecting some of our monitoring and incident response tooling, which is delaying our ability to provide updates. We have identified root cause of the issue causing service API and console issues in the US-EAST-1 Region, and are starting to see some signs of recovery. We do not have an ETA for full recovery at this time.
Despite the problems originating in the US-EAST-1 Region, that is Virginia, other US states, as well as international services, experienced the downtime due to Amazon’s network services being interconnected.
A few crucial applications were back online by early evening, but Amazon states they are continuing to repair all other affected services. At the moment, users should only experience a slight delay/slow speed while accessing any of the services.
But while slow internet and not being able to access our favorite streaming platforms may seem downright apocalyptic to us, the AWS outage caused some serious issues in Amazon’s own warehouses.
Many Amazon employees posted how they couldn’t access the AtoZ app, which was responsible for allotting and managing their tasks. Without access to the app, they would be unable to carry out any of their job duties.
Besides this, the automatons at the warehouses shut down too, with workers being unable to move shelves, which also led to deliveries being stalled.
The Amazon Fulfillment Center Reddit community was buzzing with evidence of the outage, along with narrating the experience and trying to look at the bright side:
There were also security concerns due to the outage, especially as doorbell and baby monitor cameras for Ring and Alexa’s AI were down, too.
All in all, not the greatest day for Amazon. Makes you really ponder upon how much we depend on online services!
Source: The Verge
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