Amazon.com Inc. said automated processes in its cloud computing business caused cascading outages across the internet this week, affecting everything from Disney amusement parks and Netflix videos to robot vacuums and Adele ticket sales.
In a statement Friday, Amazon said the problem began Tuesday when an automated computer program — designed to make its network more reliable — ended up causing a "large number” of its systems to unexpectedly behave strangely. That, in turn, created a surge of activity on Amazon’s networks, ultimately preventing users from accessing some of its cloud services.
"Basically, a bad piece of code was executed automatically and it caused a snowball effect,” Forrester analyst Brent Ellis said. The outage persisted "because their internal controls and monitoring systems were taken offline by the storm of traffic caused by the original problem.”