Amazon’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services experienced an outage on Tuesday, affecting news publishers and other websites. About two hours after customers began experiencing errors, the company said the affected services were “fully recovered.”
- Amazon said it had experienced multiple error rates for AWS services in the Northern Virginia region, where it clusters data centers. News websites including Dow Jones-owned Barron’s and MarketWatch were affected along with the Associated Press.
- The outage was first confirmed shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern time and it was unclear how widespread the problem was. The Boston Globe and New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority also tweeted that their websites were affected.
- AWS experienced a longer outage in December 2021, which affected several U.S. companies for more than five hours. Other major AWS customers include Netflix, Deloitte, and Comcast, the Washington Post reported, adding AWS revenue was $21 billion in the first quarter.
- During its last earnings report, Amazon announced plans to open a new AWS Region in Malaysia and it launched a second AWS Region in Australia to continue expanding its cloud services coverage.
What’s Next: The outage comes as Amazon is holding a two-day security conference in Anaheim, Calif., to tout its cloud offerings to companies that might be interested in storing their data on its network of servers around the world. Companies have been cutting back their spending on the unit.
—Liz Moyer and MarketWatch