An AWS outage shut down several applications and disrupted services, but did not disrupt Ethereum despite hosting more than 64% of nodes.
Although Amazon Web Services (AWS) had a minor outage on Tuesday, where it was temporarily unavailable, Ethereum was not affected. The temporary downtime did not affect the nodes on the Ethereum network, which are mostly hosted on AWS.
AWS first revealed at 12:08 PDT which launched an investigation into the increased error rates and latencies that it had noticed. The company then provided 10 more status updates, with the latest confirming that its issues lasted from 11:49 a.m. PDT to 3:37 p.m. PDT.
The final update provides extensive details, stating that several AWS services experienced the issue in the US. According to AWS, the outage caused problems for customers directly through API Gateway and indirectly through other AWS services. The update also specified that customer issues experienced at the time include login or authentication failures with the AWS Management Console or the Cognito service. Additionally, customers may have had trouble contacting AWS Support through chat or calls.
By 1:41 PM, AWS had resolved the issue and began processing a backlog of backlogged requests. At 3:37 PM, AWS finished processing the backlog and confirmed that all processes were working properly.
AWS outage did not affect Ethereum
Ethereum Proponent Evan Van Ness aware AWS downtime on Twitter, confirming that “Ethereum is up and running without being affected.” While the downtime affected the Associated Press and some other major news organizations, not all services that rely on AWS experienced downtime. The AWS update specified that the issue affected services in the “US-EAST-1 Region.”
According Ethernode Information, Amazon hosts 64.4% of Ethereum nodes, with Google Cloud at just 5.2%. However, the outage was likely not strong enough to affect Ethereum as only one AWS region was affected.
The recent outage may resume talks about centralizing Ethereum. Enthusiasts have chided Ethereum for its relationship with the Infura infrastructure, responsible for the network nodes used by organizations. More than a few organizations primarily use AWS for hosting.
More about the blackout
Several other businesses were affected by the downtime. While it may be impossible to specify the number of organizations using AWS or recently impacted, reports indicate that major fast food companies have had to suspend some services. According to The Verge reportBurger King, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell had to pause app ordering until the issue was resolved.
In addition to fast food companies, engineers from Hacker News and Reddit also complained that troubleshooting consoles were not available. Delta Air Lines was also reportedly affected.
An AWS 2021 court had more severe effects than recent downtime. The issue reportedly affected various services, including access to Amazon.com, Amazon Music, and Alexa. Security cameras, including Wyze and Ring, also recorded downtime. Additionally, the list extended to streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus, with reports from Venmo, Cash App, Coinbase, and Tinder.
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Tolu is a Lagos-based blockchain and cryptocurrency enthusiast. He likes to demystify the crypto stories down to the basics so that anyone anywhere can understand them without too much prior knowledge. When he’s not up to his neck in crypto-stories, Tolu likes music, loves to sing, and is an avid movie buff.
