How Exactly Did Amazon Screw Over The Internet Last Week?
Have no clue what AWS is, or why it's so significant? If you didn't before, you probably have an idea after last week's major internet outage. That's how dominant AWS S3 (Amazon's web-based storage service) is, and why it's so crucial to learn its in's and out's so you want have your own royal screw up in future.
What happened last Tuesday?
If you felt like the internet was acting a little "broken" last week, it's because it was, pretty much. Maybe the apps on your phone weren't working, or images on websites weren't loading – if webpages were loading at all. That's because AWS was experiencing a service disruption.
Thing is, AWS is the largest provider of cloud services. And, funnily enough, Amazon's AWS service dashboard depended on its cloud service. While the dashboard indicated no issues whatsoever, the fully or partially broken apps, websites and devices said otherwise. That included Adobe, Cracked, Imgur, Mailchimp, Quora, Slack, our dear Digg dot com – and even health tracking sites like Downdetector and Is It Down Right Now. Whoops.
Turns out, it was a simple typo that accidentally took out a whole slew of servers instead of just the few that were supposed to be serviced. Again, whoops.
Amazon resolved its AWS S3 issues by 2:10 that day, received a ton of blowback and went on to promptly assure us all that they will not break the internet again.
Why We Still Trust The Cloud
Listen, we all make mistakes – and Amazon's mistakes have been few and far between. In fact, minus a DDoS attack on their services last year (definitely not their fault), Amazon's AWS S3 storage is one of the most reliable shared storage services out there. That makes this outage an exception to their general standard.
Amazon still guarantees 99.9% high-availability of their service. If they fall below that, they reimburse 10% back to their customers. It's part of why the cloud giant is (still) loved and used by so many major companies – and why AWS engineers are some the highest in-demand employees.
If you're interested in being not the person whose typo took down the internet, definitely pick up this Amazon Web Services Technical Certification Training. Following this little stint, it'll seriously impress prospective employers that you can 1) pick apart what went wrong with this most recent outage and 2) know how to expertly manage the (wildly popular) AWS platform.
This training includes seven hours of hands-on training navigating the AWS management console. You'll be a pro in no time, we promise. Master AWS platform terminology and concepts and pick up this Amazon Web Services Technical Certification Training for $39 – that's 86% off the original price of $299.
Ultimately, the internet is full of nice things. Let's prove to ourselves (and our employers) that we can, in fact, have nice things.
If you buy something through our posts, we may receive a small share of the sale. Please buy a Ferrari. For more of Digg's suggestions on how to spend your money, check out Digg Picks.