April 16 (Reuters) – Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) cloud service division Amazon Web Services (AWS) said on Sunday it was investigating an issue where users attempting to access AWS signup were receiving error messages.
Hundreds of users reported issues with accessing Amazon Web Services on Sunday, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector.com.
Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa was also down for thousands of users in the United States, according to Downdetector.com. More than 15,000 users reported issues with Alexa at the peak of disruption, Downdetector data showed.
On April 16, Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced an unexpected outage that affected hundreds of users attempting to access the platform’s signup page. The issue was reported by users on Downdetector.com, a website that tracks outages and disruptions in various online services. Alexa, Amazon’s popular voice assistant, was also down for thousands of users in the United States at the same time, according to Downdetector data.
The outage was quickly noticed by AWS, and the company stated that it was investigating the issue. It is unclear what caused the problem, but AWS users were unable to access the signup page and received error messages instead. Meanwhile, Alexa users reported that they were having trouble accessing the voice assistant’s features, including setting alarms, playing music, and getting news updates.
Downdetector reported that more than 15,000 Alexa users experienced issues at the peak of the disruption, highlighting the significant impact of the outage. The incident also underscores the growing reliance on cloud-based services and the potential consequences of their downtime. As more businesses and individuals rely on cloud computing and storage, any disruption to these services can have a significant impact on their operations.
This is not the first time that AWS has experienced an outage, with previous incidents impacting popular services like Netflix and Airbnb. In 2017, AWS’s S3 storage service experienced a significant outage that affected hundreds of thousands of websites and online services. The outage lasted for several hours, highlighting the potential risks of relying on a single cloud provider.
In response to the outage, AWS has assured customers that it is taking steps to prevent similar incidents in the future. The company has invested heavily in its infrastructure and is continually improving its services to ensure maximum uptime and availability. Nevertheless, incidents like these serve as a reminder of the importance of having contingency plans and backup systems in place to mitigate the impact of any potential downtime.
Overall, the AWS outage on April 16 serves as a reminder of the importance of cloud-based services and the potential risks associated with their downtime. While AWS is taking steps to improve its services, it is essential for businesses and individuals to have contingency plans in place to ensure continuity in the event of any disruption.
Users also reported issues accessing Amazon’s mobile app.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters queries on reasons for the outage and estimated timeline for resolution.
Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.
