AWS Outage Wreaks Havoc on Global Services, Leaving Millions Without Access

Amazon's AWS Outage Brings Down Services Like Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite A severe outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on October 20 left many popular websites, apps, and services offline, affecting millions of users worldwide. The incident highlighted the critical role that cloud computing plays in modern technology infrastructure. According to AWS' service health page, the US-EAST-1 region experienced "increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services" around 1:15PM ET. This led to widespread disruptions, including: Amazon's own Alexa assistant, which was slow or unresponsive Snapchat and Fortnite, both of which were unavailable for several hours Venmo transactions that failed to complete Lyft app users reporting slower-than-usual response times "It feels like half the internet is dealing with a hangover," said an AWS spokesperson. "We're working diligently to resolve the issue as quickly as possible." AWS' reliance on cloud computing has become increasingly crucial for many businesses and services, which often rely on its scalable infrastructure to operate. "Cloud computing has transformed the way we build and deploy applications," said Mark Milligan, a technology expert at Forrester Research. "However, it also introduces new risks and challenges that can have far-reaching consequences when they go wrong." The outage serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of modern technology infrastructure and the potential for cascading failures. As of 4:30PM ET, AWS reported that services were slowly returning to normal, with many affected applications now functioning smoothly. However, it remains unclear what caused the initial outage or how long it will take for AWS to fully recover. AWS has not yet commented on the root cause of the incident or provided a timeline for its resolution. As the company continues to investigate and work towards recovery, users can expect further updates in the coming hours and days. In the meantime, businesses and individuals reliant on AWS services are advised to monitor their applications closely and prepare for potential disruptions. Background: AWS is Amazon's cloud computing division, providing a suite of services including compute power, storage, databases, analytics, machine learning, and more. Its US-EAST-1 region is one of the largest and most critical data centers in the world, supporting numerous high-profile applications and services. Additional Perspectives: Industry experts note that while outages like this are rare, they highlight the importance of cloud computing resilience and disaster recovery planning. "It's a wake-up call for businesses to review their cloud infrastructure and ensure they have robust backup plans in place," said Milligan. As AWS continues to navigate the aftermath of this outage, it will be crucial to identify the root cause and implement measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. *Reporting by Engadget.*