Amazon automation bug triggers AWS outage

Amazon released a detailed report on October 20, explaining that a bug in its automation software, DynamoDB, caused a widespread AWS outage that disrupted thousands of websites, apps and services.

DynamoDB, the service that stores AWS customers’ data and manages hundreds of thousands of DNS records, encountered a fault that produced an empty DNS entry for Amazon’s North Virginia data centers. The system’s self‑repair function failed, forcing Amazon to intervene manually. While the issue persisted, any system that needed to connect to DynamoDB suffered DNS failures, effectively knocking out half of the internet for many users.

Affected services ranged from Amazon itself and Alexa devices to Bank of America, Snapchat, Canva, Reddit, Apple Music, Apple TV, Lyft, Duolingo, Fortnite, Disney+, Venmo, Doordash, Hulu, PlayStation and even Eight Sleep’s internet‑connected beds. Some sites were slow to respond, others were completely inaccessible.

In a statement, Amazon said, “We apologize for the impact this event caused our customers. While we have a strong track record of operating our services with the highest levels of availability, we know how critical our services are to our customers, their applications and end users, and their businesses. We know this event impacted many customers in significant ways. We will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to improve our availability even further.”

Amazon’s report details the root cause, the steps taken to resolve the problem, and measures planned to prevent a recurrence of this type of outage.