What to know about the Amazon cloud outage that exposed the internet's vulnerable backbone

"A massive internet outage stemming from errors in Amazon cloud services on Monday morning demonstrated just how many people rely on the corporate behemoth's computational infrastructure everyday and laid bare the vulnerabilities of an increasingly concentrated system. But despite its omnipresence, most users don't know what or where the cloud is. Here is what to know about the data centers in Northern Virginia where the outage originated, and what the malfunction reveals about a rapidly evolving industry."

"Cloud computing is a technology that allows companies to remotely access massive computing equipment and services without having to purchase and maintain physical infrastructure. In other words, businesses ranging from Snapchat to McDonald's essentially rent Amazon's physical infrastructure located in places all around the world to operate their own websites. Instead of building expensive computing systems in-house, companies rely on Amazon to store data, develop and test software and deliver applications."

A massive internet outage was caused by errors in Amazon cloud services in Northern Virginia, revealing widespread reliance on Amazon's infrastructure and risks from concentrated systems. Cloud computing allows companies to rent massive computing equipment and services rather than purchase and maintain physical hardware. Businesses like Snapchat and McDonald's use Amazon's infrastructure worldwide to host websites, store data, test software and deliver applications. Amazon Web Services holds over 41% of the cloud infrastructure market, with Google and Microsoft trailing. AWS operates four major U.S. hubs in California, Ohio, Virginia and Oregon; proximity to these hubs affects access speed and user experience.

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