Amazon Web Services experiences outage
On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the market leader in the cloud computing arena, faced an outage that impacted publishers, online businesses, and news organizations. The root cause of the issue was traced to AWS Lambda, which is used by AWS customers to run code for different types of applications. Many of the affected AWS services were “fully recovered” two hours after the outage began, and all services were operating normally by 6:30 pm ET.
Impact
The AWS outage affected some of the world’s largest businesses and organizations, including Coca-Cola, Netflix, and government agencies. Publishers and news organizations, such as The Verge and The Associated Press, were also impacted, with some unable to operate their sites amid breaking news that former President Donald Trump was appearing in court in Miami. Although Delta Air Lines experienced some slowing of inbound calls, the outage did not impact bookings, flights, or other airport operations. However, the online business impact of the outage is yet to be fully determined.
Philosophical Discussion
The recent AWS outage is not the first of its kind, and it highlights the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Cloud computing has become an integral part of modern-day businesses, and an unexpected outage can have severe repercussions on the operations of a business unit. Organizations should have a disaster recovery plan that addresses contingencies arising from a service disruption, similar to the AWS outage. In an era of increased technology reliance, businesses must have measures in place to mitigate service disruptions and ensure business continuity.
Editorial and Advice
Amazon is holding a two-day security conference in Anaheim, California, to promote its cloud offerings to its clients or other companies interested in storing their data on AWS. The timing of the outage during such an event casts a shadow on AWS’s reliability, and businesses might turn to competitors for storing their data, in light of recent outages. To maintain confidence in cloud computing and ensure business continuity, it is crucial for businesses to consider disaster recovery and business continuity planning for contingencies arising from a service disruption. Organizations must proactively evaluate and establish business continuity plans that address the eventuality of unexpected outages and disruptions.
Conclusion
The AWS outage is a reminder of the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Businesses must have measures in place to mitigate service disruptions and ensure continuity of operations. As cloud computing continues to gain prominence, it is essential to evaluate the reliability of cloud service providers and weigh the risks and benefits of relying on them.
<< photo by Karol Czinege >>
