Amazon cloud computing outage lead to chaos at warehouses, delivery workers and several streaming services affected
Several websites and services were downed Tuesday due to an Amazon cloud computing outage.
Amazon Web Services reported issues with several APIs and the AWS Management Console on its status page. Because the troubles are with AWS’ primary US-East-1 region in northern Virginia, not all users may be affected.
Around 11 a.m. AWS reported late Tuesday night that many of the fundamental issues causing the outage had been resolved.
According to AWS’ status page, all difficulties affecting its popular EC2 cloud computing service have been addressed as of 6:30 p.m.
“We are seeing improvement in availability across most AWS services,” the notice stated. “We continue to work toward full recovery for all impacted AWS Services and API operations.”
Among the services affected by the outage were Disney+, Netflix, Slack, Ticketmaster, Robinhood, and Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US.
The disruption also affected Amazon’s internal tools. They couldn’t access the Flex or AtoZ apps, making it difficult to scan items or find delivery routes, warehouse and delivery personnel claimed on Reddit.
Amazon representative Richard Rocha said the AWS disruption was affecting Amazon’s warehouse and shipping operations. Rocha said that the organisation is “working to quickly resolve the issue.”
Amazon did not respond to concerns about how many facilities and delivery locations were affected.
Amazon merchants also experienced issues accessing Seller Central, an internal system for managing orders.
The business said it was “currently monitoring a network-wide technical outage” affecting delivery operations in a message issued to drivers via Amazon Chime, an internal chat tool.
The message advised drivers to “stand by” if they couldn’t continue delivering because of the outage.
Amazon driver Samuel Caceres told CNBC that his delivery facility has been “at a standstill” since 8 a.m. PST. Since then, drivers and warehouse workers have been standing by.
Many warehouse and delivery workers were told to stay in break rooms until the difficulties were rectified. The company sent several Flex drivers home for the day because they couldn’t sign up for shifts.
The outage comes at a bad time for Amazon’s retail business. During “peak season,” when holiday buyers submit a flood of purchases, the e-commerce behemoth is under intense pressure to deliver on schedule.
Its in-house delivery arm, which includes contracted delivery businesses and Flex drivers, is increasingly in charge. According to ShipMatrix data, it delivers almost two-thirds of its own parcels in the US.