AWS Suffers Technical Issues in US-East-1 Region

On Tuesday, Amazon‘s cloud computing unit suffered a disruption that resulted in a blackout on several websites and services. A notification on the AWS status page stated that the system was encountering some issues with some types of APIs and AWS Management Console.

While the technical problems are significant, they only feature in the US-EAST-1 region in Northern Virginia, therefore, are limited to a specific area. The outage started around 11:am EST on Tuesday and by the evening, most of the technicalities that caused the interruption were moderated. The issues related to the famous EC2 cloud computing service were solved by 6:30 pm EST. However, the other functionalities were yet to be figured out, stated the AWS’ status page.

While the note reported better accessibility of the AWS services in many regions, it mentioned that there was still some restoration work left with the cumulative AWS services and API operations. Several services like Disney+, Netflix, Slack, Ticketmaster, Robinhood, and Coinbase faced issues with the recent outage.

The interruption also affected pivotal appliances used in the Amazon Warehouse services. People involved in delivery with the drivers confirmed that they were not able to access Amazon’s Flex, which subsequently affected the workers’ ability to scan items and avail delivery routes.

Amazon’s spokesperson Richard Rocha acknowledged that the people at the Amazon stockrooms were facing issues with the AWS outage. However, they denied giving an answer to the number of warehouses affected. The company’s Seller Central, a native site for the management of customer orders, was not accessible too.

Amazon Chime, a novel communication service for drivers and Amazon workers, received a notice from the company explaining that the firm was presently overlooking a network-wide technology blackout. The notice also asserted that if the delivery persons encountered a problem while delivery, they should reach a secure place and wait for some time.

One Amazon driver in Washington state, named Samuel Caceres reported that his delivery services had been at a halt since the morning, while the other warehouse workers had paused the work due to the AWS blackout. The unavailability of services resulted in workers being made to sit in break rooms until the technicalities were mitigated. Many Flex Drivers, who used their own automobiles to conduct deliveries, were denied shifts due to the above reasons.

While the issues will hopefully be resolved soon, the blackout couldn’t have come at a worse time. Amazon market is undergoing a peak season, with users going on a shopping spree availing the discounts of the e-commerce giant’s interface. Amazon’s in-house delivery wing, with contracted and Flex drivers, is witnessing a spike in orders with the firm delivering around two-thirds of its own items in the United States.