Packages pile up as Amazon Web Services outage spells delivery havoc

Host of online services - from Disney to Netfix & Robinhood to Coinbase - hit

An Amazon Web Services outage wreaked havoc on the e-commerce giant’s delivery operation, preventing drivers from getting routes or packages and shutting down communication between Amazon and the thousands of drivers it relies on. 

The outage began about 10 am Eastern time (8.30 pm IST) on Tuesday, according to Downdetector, an online platform that provides users with real-time information about the status of various websites and services. 

At the height of the failure, the web monitoring site reported more than 20,000 complaints for Amazon and more than 11,000 for Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm. 

By 1.45 pm Eastern time, the reported outages had declined by about half for AWS and two-thirds for Amazon, and at 7.35 pm Eastern time, Amazon.com said it had resolved network device issues that led to a web services outage. “With the network device issues resolved, we are now working towards recovery of any impaired services.” 

Earlier, three delivery service partners said an Amazon.com app used to communicate with delivery drivers was down as part of the system failure. Vans that were supposed to be on the road delivering packages sat idle with no communication from the company, the person said. 

The problems came during Amazon’s critical holiday shopping season when the company can ill afford delays that could potentially create lasting logjams. One delivery business owner on the West Coast said the company halted deliveries on Tuesday and planned to regroup on Wednesday.  

At the height of the outage, the web monitoring site reported more than 20,000 complaints for Amazon and more than 11,000 for the company’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services. 

Multiple popular websites were also affected, including those operated by Coinbase Global, Robinhood Markets, Walt Disney and Netflix, according to Downdetector.

Disney said that although people were able to get into its parks, they were having difficulty checking in online and paying for purchases.

Video streaming service Netflix experienced a 26 per cent drop in traffic after the AWS problems were reported, showing how quickly outages can ripple outward, said Doug Madory, an analyst at the network monitoring firm Kentik. “It gets more and more complicated with software running these services, so when something goes sideways it can take a long time to figure out what went wrong and fix it,” he said.

Multiple popular websites were also affected, including those operated by McDonald’s, Venmo and T Rowe Price, according to Downdetector.

Webcast presentations from Comcast and Altice USA at UBS’s Global TMT Conference experienced disruptions on Tuesday, and the Charter Communications presentation was rescheduled.

AWS is the leading cloud-computing provider, selling companies computing power and software services on demand rather than maintaining their own data centers and teams in-house. Its customers include a wide range of industries and the federal government.
 

Smart homes are left not so smart after all

The outage at Amazon.com’s cloud-computing arm left thousands of people in the US without working fridges, roombas (robot vacuum cleaners) and doorbells, highlighting just how reliant people have become on the company as the Internet of Things proliferates across homes. 

Affected Amazon services included the voice assistant Alexa and smart-doorbell unit, Ring. 

Multiple Ring users even said they weren’t able to get into their homes without access to the phone app, which was down. 

Others said they weren’t able to turn on their Christmas lights. Smart light bulbs stopped responding to voice commands, many people reported.

Basic household chores also become impossible for some.

The outage prompted people to reflect on the pitfalls of having a “smart” home that’s overly dependent on not only the internet, but one company in particular -- while those with “dumb” homes gloated that their fridges and light switches were working just fine. (Isabella Steger | Bloomberg)