Amazon Web Services Restored After Disruption Impacts Transportation and Media Sites
Updated: Jan 4
[Edited] Amazon.com has announced that its cloud services, provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), have been restored following a significant disruption that affected websites such as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Boston Globe.
The outage, which lasted for several hours, has now been resolved, and all AWS services are operating normally, according to Amazon.
The impact of Tuesday's disruption highlights the widespread adoption of Amazon's Lambda service and the critical role that many of its cloud offerings play in various industries. Research from cloud company Datadog reveals that over half of organizations operating in the cloud utilize Lambda or similar "serverless" technologies.
Reports of outages on Downdetector initially exceeded 12,000 but later dropped to less than 700. While the disruption was smaller in terms of duration and scope compared to a similar incident in 2017 involving Amazon's data-hosting service, Amazon S3, it still caused inconvenience for users.
The outage even affected AWS's own web page, which experienced loading issues at one point during the disruption. Amazon has identified the root cause as an issue with a subsystem responsible for capacity management for AWS Lambda, resulting in errors for customers and indirectly impacting other AWS services.
AWS Lambda is a service that allows customers to run computer programs without the need to manage underlying servers. The outage also had repercussions for services such as the U.S. securities regulator's EDGAR system, Southwest Airlines, the Verge, and AP for Students.
Twitter users expressed their frustration with the outage, with one user humorously commenting, "I don't know, Alexa won't tell me because #AWS and her services are down!" Delta Air Lines also reported problems with its website, although it is unclear if it was directly related to the AWS outage.
United Airlines stated that its operations were minimally affected and assured customers that they were "out of impact." Other Amazon services, including Amazon Music and Alexa, were also impacted by the disruption, as reported by Downdetector.
This is not the first major outage for Amazon's cloud services. In December 2021, disruptions to its cloud services temporarily affected streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney+, as well as Robinhood and Amazon's e-commerce website, just before Christmas.
Shares of Amazon remained largely unchanged in after-market trading following the announcement of the service restoration.
Amazon's cloud services, provided by AWS, have been restored after a major disruption.
The outage affected websites such as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Boston Globe.
The Lambda service and other cloud offerings from Amazon play a crucial role in various industries.
Source: REUTERS