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TECHNOLOGY Wednesday 1 March 2017

Amazon cloud storage failure causes widespread disruption

MAE ANDERSON stayed up, although it re-
AP Technology Reporter ported “degraded ser-
NEW YORK (AP) — Usually vice “ for some features.
people don’t notice the Users reported that file
“cloud” — unless, that is, it sharing in particular ap-
turns into a massive storm. peared to freeze up.
Which was the case Tues- The Associated Press’ own
day when Amazon’s huge photos, webfeeds and oth-
cloud-computing service er online services were also
suffered a major outage. affected.
Amazon Web Services, TECHNICAL KNOCK-
by far the world’s largest OUTAGE
provider of internet-based Major cloud-computing
computing services, suf- outages don’t occur very
fered an unspecified often — perhaps every year
breakdown in its eastern or two — but they do hap-
U.S. region starting about pen. In 2015, Amazon’s Dy-
midday Tuesday. The re- namoDB service, a cloud-
sult: unprecedented and based database, had
widespread performance problems that affected
problems for thousands of companies like Netflix and
websites and apps. This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows the Amazon logo in Santa Monica, Calif. Medium. But usually pro-
While few services went Associated Press viders have workarounds
down completely, thou- that can get things work-
sands, if not tens of thou- mally is. ing what we believe will exactly what is happen- ing again quickly.
sands of companies had The outage, said Forrester remediate the issue,” the ing yet, it’s hard to know “What’s really surprising
trouble with functions analyst Dave Bartoletti, company said. just how serious the outage to me is that there’s no
ranging from file sharing shouldn’t cause compa- WHY S3 MATTERS is. “We do know it’s bad,” fallback — usually there is
to webfeeds to loading nies to assume “the cloud Amazon S3 stores files and Mogull said. “We just don’t some sort of backup plan
any type of data stored is dangerous.” data for companies on re- know how bad.” to move data over, and
on Amazon’s “simple stor- Amazon’s problems began mote servers. Amazon start- At S3 customers, the prob- it will be made available
age service,” known as S3. when one S3 region based ed offering it in 2006, and lem affected both “front- within a few minutes,” said
Amazon services began in Virginia began to expe- it’s used for everything from end” operations — mean- Patrick Moorhead, an ana-
returning around 4 p.m. rience what the company building websites and apps ing the websites and apps lyst at Moor Insights & Strat-
EST, and an hour later the called “increased error to storing images, customer that users see — and back- egy.
company noted on its ser- rates.” In a statement, Am- data and customer trans- end data processing that AFTEREFFECTS
vice site that S3 was fully azon said as of 4 p.m. EST it actions. takes place out of sight. Forrester’s Bartoletti said
recovered and “operating was still experiencing errors “Anything you can think Some smaller online ser- the problems on Tuesday
normally.” that were “impacting vari- about storing in the most vices, such as Trello, Scribd could lead to some Ama-
CONCENTRATING THE ous AWS services.” cost-effective way pos- and IFTTT, appeared to be zon customers storing their
CLOUD “We are working hard at re- sible,” is how Rich Mogull, down for a while, although data on Amazon’s servers
The breakdown shows the pairing S3, believe we un- CEO of data security firm all have since recovered. in more than one location,
risks of depending heavily derstand root cause, and Securosis, puts it. The corporate message or even shifting to other
on a few big companies are working on implement- Since Amazon hasn’t said service Slack, by contrast, providers.q
for cloud computing. Ama-
zon’s service is significantly AT&T-Time Warner deal may
larger by revenue than any
of its nearest rivals — Mi- have easier path to approval
crosoft’s Azure, Google’s
Cloud Platform and IBM, AP Technology Writer Wall Street Journal that the
according to Forrester Re- NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T’s agency likely won’t be in-
search. $85 billion purchase of Time volved because of chang-
With so few large provid- Warner may be getting an es in the deal’s structure.
ers, any outage can have easier path to approval Last week, magazine pub-
a disproportionate effect. after the chief telecom- lisher and TV station owner
But some analysts argue munications regulator says Meredith announced plans This Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, file photo shows the AT&T sign at
that the Amazon outage it isn’t likely to review the buy Time Warner’s lone a store in Hialeah, Fla.
doesn’t prove there’s a deal. Federal Communi- TV station for $70 million. Associated Press
problem with cloud com- cations Commission Chair- AT&T’s takeover of that sta- FCC review. confirmed Pai’s comments
puting — it just highlights man Ajit Pai is telling The tion would have meant an
how reliable the cloud nor- FCC spokesman Neil Grace to The Associated Press. q