Amazon Web Services (AWS) Suffers Outage

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On June 13, a minor outage occurred at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leading cloud computing giant, creating a three-hour disruption. It affected several organizations, as well as the blockchain game Illuvium and the cryptocurrency wallet Phantom.
Interestingly, despite a considerable percentage (64.5%) of Ethereum network nodes being hosted by AWS as per Ethernodes, Ethereum's operations remained unfazed throughout the episode.

The hiccup at AWS started around 12:08 pm PDT, with the company recognizing increased error rates and latency issues in various regions of the U.S. The glitch notably impacted mainstream media platforms like the Associated Press, inhibiting their ability to publish content during this period.

Ethereum enthusiast, Evan Van Ness, drew attention to this event, expressing relief that the Ethereum network showed no signs of disturbance. He speculated that if a similar glitch were to happen on AWS's European servers, the implications could be more severe due to the high amount of Ether staked on the liquid staking platform Lido, which relies heavily on AWS services. Currently, Lido hosts about 7.1 million Ether, constituting approximately 35% of the total stake.

The Ethereum network's dependence on infrastructure providers like Infura, offering network nodes to various entities, has sparked debates about centralization in the past. Infura and platforms like Lido, relying extensively on AWS for their cloud hosting services, only amplify these concerns.

Just around 20 minutes post the initial detection of the problem, AWS linked the issue to AWS Lambda, a service that permits customers to execute code for diverse application types. At 3:37 PM PDT, roughly three hours after the glitch, AWS declared that the issue had been resolved and that normal operations had resumed across all AWS services.

In the competitive cloud hosting market, AWS occupies a significant position with a commanding 34% market share, as stated by the hosting platform Kinsta. The recent incident serves as a reminder of the ripple effects a disruption at a major player like AWS can potentially have on various digital ecosystems, including the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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