A huge Amazon Web Services outage has taken out multiple web services including Alexa, Ring, Snapchat and many more.
The issues appeared to start at around 7.40am BST when a large spike on Downdetector showed reported problems with Amazon Web Services – which in turn has taken down many services that rely on its cloud computing power.
The exact cause of the issues isn’t clear, but the Amazon Web Services dashboard shows an “operational issue” in North Virginia. The AWS dashboard says “engineers were immediately engaged and are actively working on both mitigating the issue”.
The knock-on effects appear to be widespread, including many banks – you can follow all of the latest updates here in this liveblog…
The latest news
A huge Amazon Web Services outage has taken down much of the internetAlexa, Snapchat, Ring, Zoom and multiple banks are experiencing problemsThe issues started at around 2.40am ET / 7.40am BST
This is an online earthquake
(Image credit: Downdetector)
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage started at around 7.40am BST, according to Downdetector – and the ripple effect has taken out much of the internet.
Right now, Alexa, Snapchat, Ring, Roblox, Fortnite, Zero, Signal, Canva and countless others are showing huge spikes in reports on Downdetector.
The problems show just how many services rely on Amazon’s cloud computing services. The AWS Health Dashboard is showing an “operational issue” in North Virginia that’s producing “increased error rates and latencies”. This is going to have serious repercussions today for millions…
This explains those Alexa issues
(Image credit: Future)
While it’s unlikely to be the most serious issue today, the first time many saw the impact of the Amazon Web Services outage was with its Alexa voice assistant.
This Reddit thread shows many were recently reporting problems with the assistant, with some saying they “had to turn the lights off manually” and couldn’t set their alarms.
Well, AWS is the root cause – and Alexa is far from the only service experiencing problems. Alongside Ring, Snapchat and Zoom, we’re also seeing banking apps like Lloyds and Halifax in the UK and Robinhood in the US showing large spikes on Downdetector…
Your bank may also be hit
(Image credit: Downdetector)
While the problems with our Echo devices this morning are annoying, a more serious repercussion from the AWS outage for many will be that multiple banks have been hit.
In the UK, Downdetector is showing large spikes on Lloyds, Halifasx Bank of Scotland and even HM Revenue & Customs. It just shows how deep and wide the Amazon Web Services infrastructure is, and how badly the internet is affected when it runs into rare problems.
The latest from the AWS dashboard at 1.26am PDT / 9.26am BST is that “significant error rates” are happening in the ‘US-EAST-1 Region’ and that “engineers were immediately engaged and are actively working on both mitigating the issue, and fully understanding the root cause”. Let’s hope they do that sooner rather than later…
Who is affected?
(Image credit: Downdetector)
The easier question for today’s AWS outage might be ‘who hasn’t been hit’?
Right now on Downdetector, we’re seeing large spikes on dozens of services. On the more serious side, this includes Zoom, Slack, Blink Security, Venmo and, in the UK, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, HM Revenue & Customs, Bank of Scotland and more.
But the AWS earthquake is also rippling through Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, Duolingo, PlayStations Network and yes, even Wordle.
Even Downdetector is showing a rare red banner showing the severity of the Amazon Web Services outage in the US-East-1 region. We should get another update on the AWS Dashboard soon…
Ring owners are very confused right now
(Image credit: Ring)
The AWS outage has rippled far and wide across the internet, but some of the biggest hit have been Amazon’s own services like Alexa and Ring.
For many, Ring cameras have become intertwined with their daily schedule – and that’s now been massively disrupted today, as TechRadar’s Senior Writer AI told me.
“Every morning I go for a coffee before work, taking the dog a walk around the block before sitting at my desk for the day. Normally, my smartphone gets bombarded with Ring doorbell notifications from the busy neighbors moving in and out, as I pay close attention to the app waiting for the postman.
“Today, however, until I realized that AWS services were down I just sat confused as to why the normal morning ruckus of the school run wasn’t happening. I work with headphones on and rely on Ring to know when to open the door for the postie before my dog gets alerted by their presence.
“With Ring struggling this morning, I’m going to have to stay ultra aware as I wait for the knock on my door, fully accepting that my tiny French Bulldog is going to go crazy at the thought of an intruder.
“Millions of people rely on Ring for security and safety concerns, while others just need the video doorbell for simplifying life and knowing when mail has been delivered. My Ring doorbell is one of the best tech purchases I’ve ever made, and that’s only emphasized when it stops working and I can’t go about my day the way I usually would”, he said.
Source: Latest from TechRadar US in Internet News
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