Amazon has resolved a significant outage of its cloud computing service, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which disrupted internet access worldwide on March 11, 2024. The incident affected numerous online platforms, including social media, gaming, food delivery, and streaming services, highlighting the increasing reliance on a small number of companies for critical internet infrastructure.
The outage began early in the morning and caused widespread frustration as users experienced difficulties accessing various services. Approximately three hours after the issue emerged, AWS reported that recovery efforts were underway. By 18:00 Eastern Time, Amazon confirmed that “services returned to normal operations,” according to the AWS health dashboard.
AWS plays a crucial role in the digital ecosystem, providing cloud computing infrastructure for major organizations, including government departments, universities, and businesses. Cybersecurity expert Mike Chapple noted that a “slow and bumpy recovery process” is typical following such disruptions. “It’s similar to what happens after a large-scale power outage,” explained Chapple, an information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.
Amazon attributed the outage to issues with its domain name system, which translates web addresses into numeric IP addresses. This system is essential for websites and applications to function properly. According to DownDetector, a website that tracks online outages, over 11 million user reports were logged, impacting more than 2,500 companies. Users faced difficulties with popular platforms such as Snapchat, Fortnite, Robinhood, and Netflix, among others.
The outage also disrupted Amazon’s own services, with users of devices like Ring doorbell cameras and Alexa-powered speakers reporting malfunctions. Many students across colleges and K-12 schools faced challenges accessing their coursework due to the failure of Canvas, a widely used educational platform. Damien P. Williams, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, lamented, “I currently can’t grade any online assignments, and my students can’t access their online materials.”
Canvas claims to serve approximately 50% of college and university students in North America, including Ivy League institutions. The Ohio State University notified its 70,000 students about potential disruptions on their campuses and advised them to contact instructors for alternative plans.
This incident is not isolated; AWS has faced similar outages in the past, including a notable disruption in late 2021 that affected various sectors for over five hours. Outages also occurred in 2020 and 2017, raising concerns about the vulnerability of internet infrastructure.
The first indications of trouble surfaced at around 03:11Patrick Burgess, a cybersecurity expert at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in the U.K., stated, “The world now runs on the cloud.” He noted that users often cannot pinpoint the source of issues, as they interact with various applications rather than the underlying infrastructure.
Burgess also reassured users that such issues are typically resolved quickly and are unlikely to be the result of a cyberattack. “This looks like a good old-fashioned technology issue,” he remarked, adding that established processes exist for dealing with outages at AWS and its competitors. Such incidents are generally resolved within hours rather than days.
In summary, the AWS outage serves as a stark reminder of the digital world’s fragility and the consequences of relying on a limited number of providers for essential online services. As organizations and individuals continue to depend on cloud computing, the need for robust infrastructure and contingency planning becomes increasingly apparent.
