Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that its cloud services, which experienced a significant disruption on Tuesday, have been restored. The outage impacted websites such as the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Boston Globe, among others. After several hours of reported outages on Downdetector.com, Amazon confirmed that the issue had been resolved and all AWS services were operating normally.
The incident highlights the critical role that Amazon’s cloud offerings, including its younger Lambda service, play in various industries, from transportation to financial services. Research conducted by cloud company Datadog in the past year reveals that over half of organizations operating in the cloud utilize Lambda or similar “serverless” technologies.
The outage reports on Downdetector.com decreased to fewer than 700 after peaking at over 12,000 earlier in the day. Although this disruption was smaller in terms of duration and scope compared to the major 2017 outage of its data-hosting service, Amazon S3, it still caused notable disruptions across various platforms.
Interestingly, the outage also affected AWS’s own web page that describes disruptions in its operations, failing to load at one point during the incident. Amazon later identified the root cause as an issue with a subsystem responsible for capacity management for AWS Lambda. This problem resulted in errors for customers directly and indirectly impacted other AWS services.
AWS Lambda is a service that enables customers to run computer programs without having to manage underlying servers, offering greater convenience and scalability.
In addition to the transportation and media sectors, the outage had implications for the U.S. securities regulator’s EDGAR system, Southwest Airlines, the Verge, and AP for Students.
The incident serves as a reminder of the reliance on cloud services and the potential impact of disruptions. As more businesses adopt cloud technologies, ensuring robust infrastructure and monitoring systems becomes crucial to prevent and address such outages promptly.
