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Amazon down - latest updates: Company says it does not have ‘ETA for full recovery’

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Adam Smith
Washington, DC
Wednesday 08 December 2021 04:27 EST
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Related video: Texas blogger helps clear teachers’ Amazon wish lists

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Amazon Web Services, the shopping giant’s internet infrastructure arm, is experiencing technical issues that are echoing across much of the rest of the internet.

A variety of websites and services were hit by problems, which started at approximately 5:00pm GMT yesterday, apparently because of issues with the underlying technology.

That included many of the world’s biggest apps and services, from Disney Plus and Tinder to Coinbase. Games were also hit, with PUBG and League of Legends seeming to go down.

It also hit other Amazon-owned services, including the Alexa voice assistant, the Kindle, Amazon Music and its Ring security cameras.

But it did not appear to be a problem in all locations. Amazon said the problems were in the “US-EAST-1” which is hosted in Virginia and serves areas nearby, meaning that people reliant on other parts of the AWS network may still be able to load services, though it might perform more slowly than usual.

Amazon Web Services outage Meme Report, Volume II

As important as The Independent’s award-winning journalism is to understanding the news, there are, of course, the memes to help round things out.

Here are the latest jokes on Twitter about the Amazon Web Services outage that you need to know:

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 03:03

ICYMI: Amazon hit by technical problems, causing issues across internet

Amazon Web Services, the shopping giant’s internet infrastructure arm, is experiencing technical issues that are echoing across much of the rest of the internet.

A variety of websites and services were hit by problems apparently because of issues with the underlying technology, which is provided by Amazon Web Services or AWS.

That included many of the world’s biggest apps and services, from Disney Plus and Tinder to Coinbase. Games were also hit, with PUBG and League of Legends seeming to go down. The Independent’s Andrew Griffin has full the story.

Amazon hit by major technical issues

Amazon Web Services, the shopping giant’s internet infrastructure arm, is experiencing technical issues that are echoing across much of the rest of the internet.

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 02:33

Pizzagate truther trolls Amazon for AWS outage

You thought web servers were apolitical? Wrong!

Conservative provocateur Jack Posobiec, best known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, trolled Amazon on Tuesday for its AWS outages, noting that conservative video-sharing site Rumble was still up and running.

“Rumble Video is functioning at 100% while Amazon Web Services is suffering a major outage,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Sorry, Bezos bros!”

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 02:08

Amazon says it has found ‘root cause’ of some of its outages

It’s not exactly “Mission Accomplished,” but it’s a start.

Amazon announced it has “identified the root cause” and is “continuing to work towards resolution” of an issue at one of its Northern Virginia Amazon Web Services facilities, according to the official AWS Service Health Dashboard, as AWS outages hit companies across the country.

“Many services have already recovered, however we are working towards full recovery across services,” the company added.

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 01:43

Amazon opens new ‘top secret’ AWS region for classified US government missions

There’s some other Amazon news that isn’t making as many headlines.

The company announced yesterday it is planning to open a new “top secret” region of its Amazon Web Services offerings to the US government. “AWS Top Secret-West is accredited to operate workloads at the Top Secret U.S. security classification level,” the company wrote on its site on Monday. “With two Top Secret Regions, customers in the U.S. defense, intelligence, and national security communities can deploy multi-Region architectures to achieve the highest levels of resiliency and availability essential to their most critical national security missions.”

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 01:18

AWS outage hits Amazon close to home: at delivery warehouses

It’s not just Amazon customers who are experiencing AWS outages.

The company’s own delivery drivers have reported problems with the Flex app, used for tracking delivery operations, and another app the company uses for tracking employee time.

As a result, drivers across the country have been unable to log in and deliver Amazon boxes in states ranging from Florida to Minnesota, Motherboard reported.

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 00:53

Hundreds of Amazon employees convene for ‘war’ council as AWS outage rages

Hundreds of Amazon employees convened on a massive conference call to diagnose the major Amazon Web Services outage that struck today, as problems for many AWS customers continuing through the evening.

One AWS manager described the mood as “the fog of war” to Business Insider.

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 00:28

Still no explanation for what caused AWS outage across country

Nearly a day on, Amazon still hasn’t released a full explanation of what is causing the outage across parts of its Amazon Web Services offering used by major companies.

So far, company reps have offered a barebones statement, noting simply that “there is an AWS service event in the US-East Region (Virginia) affecting Amazon Operations and other customers with resources running from this region. The AWS is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”

Josh Marcus8 December 2021 00:13

AWS outage impacts popular online learning software Canvas

The Amazon Web Services outage has impacted Canvas, a popular virtual learning software used by many in mixed in-person/online classrooms during the pandemic, right in time for finals season at many universities.

“Our AWS friends are reporting incremental recovery, but we’re not there yet,” Instructure, the company that makes Canvas, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Josh Marcus7 December 2021 23:45

Outages aren’t the only thing troubling Amazon at the moment

In addition to a worrying AWS outage, Amazon is facing another potential union vote at one of its warehouses in Bessemer, Alabama, a facility which made headlines internationally earlier this year amid a failed union drive.

Last week, James Moore had this in-depth look at the situation for Independent Premium.

Amazon’s nose bloodied by US union as battle of Bessemer set for rematch

It does big companies good to take a knock from time to time but Amazon’s hard-pressed workers could emerge as the real winners as the company faces a fresh unionisation vote, writes James Moore

Josh Marcus7 December 2021 23:25

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