**Significant Amazon Web Services Outage Affects Various Platforms**
A notable outage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently disturbed a multitude of platforms and services throughout the United States, impacting millions of users. Disrupted services included major applications like Amazon, Alexa, Snapchat, Fortnite, and ChatGPT, along with several others that depend on AWS infrastructure.
The outage initiated shortly after midnight PDT, with AWS pinpointing the primary cause a few hours later. The company stated that it was “continuing to observe recovery” across most impacted services.
AWS serves as a crucial backbone for numerous tech services worldwide, as indicated by reports from The Verge, which enumerated several platforms that faced disruptions. These encompassed not only the previously mentioned services but also the Epic Games Store, Airtable, Canva, and even the McDonald’s app.
According to AWS, the problems were mainly confined to the US-EAST-1 region, although the effects were experienced globally. The company explained that the issue arose from DNS resolution complications connected to the DynamoDB API endpoint in that area, which also impacted other AWS services. Global services relying on US-EAST-1 endpoints, such as IAM updates and DynamoDB Global tables, were likewise encountering difficulties.
As per the latest information, AWS revealed that the fundamental DNS issue had been entirely resolved, although complete recovery was still underway. Some services continued to experience throttling and backlogs, especially with tasks like CloudTrail and Lambda. Furthermore, requests to initiate new EC2 instances in the US-EAST-1 region were still facing heightened error rates.
In a related occurrence, three Apple services—Apple TV, Apple Music, and the App Store—also endured notable outages around the same period. Users reported challenges in streaming content, accessing their music collections, and downloading applications. While it is still uncertain if these outages were linked, Apple is recognized for using AWS for certain services.
As developments unfold, AWS is actively working towards a comprehensive resolution, aiming to restore normal functionality for all users.
