Usually people don\u2019t notice the \u201ccloud\u201d \u2014 unless, that is, it turns into a massive storm. Which was the case Tuesday when Amazon\u2019s huge cloud-computing service suffered a major outage.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amazon Web Services, by far the world\u2019s largest provider of internet-based computing services, suffered an unspecified breakdown in its eastern U.S. region starting about midday Tuesday. The result: unprecedented and widespread performance problems for thousands of websites and apps.<\/p>\n
While few services went down completely, thousands, if not tens of thousands of companies had trouble with functions ranging from file sharing to webfeeds to loading any type of data stored on Amazon\u2019s \u201csimple storage service,\u201d known as S3. Amazon services began returning around 4 p.m. EST, and an hour later the company noted on its service site that S3 was fully recovered and \u201coperating normally.\u201d<\/p>\n
CONCENTRATING THE CLOUD<\/strong><\/p>\n The breakdown shows the risks of depending heavily on a few big companies for cloud computing. Amazon\u2019s service is significantly larger by revenue than any of its nearest rivals \u2014 Microsoft\u2019s Azure, Google\u2019s Cloud Platform and IBM, according to Forrester Research.<\/p>\n With so few large providers, any outage can have a disproportionate effect. But some analysts argue that the Amazon outage doesn\u2019t prove there\u2019s a problem with cloud computing \u2014 it just highlights how reliable the cloud normally is.<\/p>\n The outage, said Forrester analyst Dave Bartoletti, shouldn\u2019t cause companies to assume \u201cthe cloud is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s problems began when one S3 region based in Virginia began to experience what the company called \u201cincreased error rates.\u201d In a statement, Amazon said as of 4 p.m. EST it was still experiencing errors that were \u201cimpacting various AWS services.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working hard at repairing S3, believe we understand root cause, and are working on implementing what we believe will remediate the issue,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n WHY S3 MATTERS<\/strong><\/p>\n Amazon S3 stores files and data for companies on remote servers. Amazon started offering it in 2006, and it\u2019s used for everything from building websites and apps to storing images, customer data and customer transactions.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything you can think about storing in the most cost-effective way possible,\u201d is how Rich Mogull, CEO of data security firm Securosis, puts it.<\/p>\n Since Amazon hasn\u2019t said exactly what is happening yet, it\u2019s hard to know just how serious the outage is. \u201cWe do know it\u2019s bad,\u201d Mogull said. \u201cWe just don\u2019t know how bad.\u201d<\/p>\n At S3 customers, the problem affected both \u201cfront-end\u201d operations \u2014 meaning the websites and apps that users see \u2014 and back-end data processing that takes place out of sight. Some smaller online services, such as Trello, Scribd and IFTTT, appeared to be down for a while, although all have since recovered.<\/p>\n The corporate message service Slack, by contrast, stayed up, although it reported \u201cdegraded service \u201c for some features. Users reported that file sharing in particular appeared to freeze up.<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 own photos, webfeeds and other online services were also affected.<\/p>\n TECHNICAL KNOCKOUTAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n Major cloud-computing outages don\u2019t occur very often \u2014 perhaps every year or two \u2014 but they do happen. In 2015, Amazon\u2019s DynamoDB service, a cloud-based database, had problems that affected companies like Netflix and Medium. But usually providers have workarounds that can get things working again quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really surprising to me is that there\u2019s no fallback \u2014 usually there is some sort of backup plan to move data over, and it will be made available within a few minutes,\u201d said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.<\/p>\n AFTEREFFECTS<\/strong><\/p>\n Forrester\u2019s Bartoletti said the problems on Tuesday could lead to some Amazon customers storing their data on Amazon\u2019s servers in more than one location, or even shifting to other providers.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot more large companies could look at their application architecture and ask \u2018how could we have insulated ourselves a little bit more,\u2019\u201d he said. But he added, \u201cI don\u2019t think it fundamentally changes how incredibly reliable the S3 service has been.\u201d\u2014AP<\/p>\n Image: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Usually people don\u2019t notice the \u201ccloud\u201d \u2014 unless, that is, it turns into a massive storm. 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