A widespread outage affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused significant disruptions to numerous popular websites and services on Monday, showcasing the global reliance on cloud infrastructure. Although the outage seems to be fixed as the day begins on the East Coast, lingering outages continue to be reported.
CNBC reports that in the early hours of Monday morning, Amazon Web Services, a dominant player in the cloud infrastructure market, reported a major outage that impacted countless websites and services worldwide. The issue, which began shortly after midnight Pacific Daylight Time in AWS’ primary US-East-1 region, was attributed to Domain Name System (DNS) problems with DynamoDB, a critical database service that underpins many other AWS applications.
The outage affected a wide range of well-known companies and services, including Amazon, Disney+, Lyft, the McDonald’s app, The New York Times, Reddit, Ring, Robinhood, Snapchat, T-Mobile, United Airlines, Venmo, and Verizon. Government websites in the United Kingdom, such as Gov.uk and HM Revenue and Customs, also experienced issues, as reported by the website Downdetector.
Lloyds Banking Group confirmed that some of its services were affected by the outage, while social media users reported disruptions to popular cloud-based games like Roblox and Fortnite. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase stated that many of its users were unable to access the service due to the AWS outage. Graphic design tool Canva and generative AI search tool Perplexity also reported functionality issues related to the underlying cloud provider.
AWS cited an “operational issue” affecting “multiple services” and worked on “multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery.” By 6:35 a.m. ET, the company announced that the issue had been “fully mitigated,” with most AWS service operations returning to normal. However, some requests continued to be throttled as the company worked towards a full resolution.
This incident serves as a stark reminder of the world’s dependence on a small number of major cloud service providers, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. When a significant outage occurs, it can have far-reaching consequences, impacting businesses and consumers alike.
Experts emphasize that while there is no indication that the AWS outage was caused by a cyber attack, the incident highlights the importance of resilience in cybersecurity. Businesses should not only focus on defending against threats but also have contingency plans in place to maintain service continuity during unexpected technical failures.
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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