Amazon Web Services Errors Disrupt Big Part of the Internet

Amazon’s cloud-computing service was beset by errors on Tuesday, disrupting thousands of US online services from project-management and expense-reporting tools to commuter alerts, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon Web Services reported "high error rates" with its S3 service, which it describes as a "simple storage solution" that can be used to house data, manage web applications and host software that customers can download via the internet. S3 is used by nearly 150,000 websites, including ESPN.com and aol.com, according to SimilarTech.com, which profiles sites. Amazon worked on the problem throughout Tuesday and later said on its website that S3 was operating normally.

AWS is the company’s fastest-growing and most profitable division, generating $3.5 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter. It’s the biggest cloud-services provider, with data centers around the world that handle the computing power for many large companies, such as Netflix and Capital One.

Atlassian reported that AWS disruptions caused problems with its online project management tool Trello and employee communications tool HipChat. Expensify attributed problems with its expense reporting system to the AWS errors. Metra, a commuter rail system in Chicago, alerted riders the AWS problems would affect its electronic service updates. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also said its cloud provider was working to resolve a web page-loading issue.