AWS is woven into so many aspects of our daily lives that an outage would leave your day-to-day looking radically different.
With the recent AWS outage, it has become even clearer that our lives are increasingly dependent on technology we often take for granted. We live in a world where our fridges can connect to the internet, our beds can be controlled by an app, and there’s so much media available to stream that it boggles the mind. If you’re a tech enthusiast, all this may sound great. But when your daily life is this dependent on technology, an outage can feel catastrophic.
Here’s a look at AWS and some of the ways it has become a hidden backbone to modern life.
What Exactly Is AWS?
AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. While you’re most likely using or have used Amazon for its free shipping and offerings like Amazon Prime, the businesses you support and the services you subscribe to often use AWS to support their own infrastructures. Whether it’s using their cloud to host and store data or their media offerings to streamline the editing and posting process, your favorite apps likely use AWS in some way to provide their services.
What All Relies on AWS?
The short answer? Many, many things. The recent AWS outage knocked out some features of Amazon as well as apps like Canva and Duolingo. Even people’s beds weren’t safe. The Detroit News reported that customers who used Eight Sleep’s “high-spec internet-enabled mattresses” suddenly found themselves with an effectively useless bed. The article relays that “people reported being awoken in discomfort by beds that locked in an upright incline, became unbearably warm, blinked flashing lights or even sounded a wake-up alarm.”
If you’ve got any kind of smart home technology, you should find out whether or not it’s dependent on AWS. There’s a good chance the answer is yes, but it’s still good to have confirmation. It will be one more piece of information to help you troubleshoot the next time something goes haywire.
What Can You Do?
If you’re a tech enthusiast, there’s not really a fun answer here. You’ll have to choose between your technology and functionality. As cool as it is to have a bed that can automatically deliver data about your sleep habits or a fridge that can connect to the internet and build your shopping list for you, the drawback is that an internet outage can leave everything bricked. The best way to avoid having your technology fail on you is to find workarounds that don’t touch that technology at all.
Consider what apps and services you actually need. Is a smart bed crucial for you to get a good night’s sleep? Can you run your household and daily life in an analog way? Sure, it might feel like you’re getting left behind in the short term, but you’ll find yourself better off. Home appliances that connect to the internet have weaknesses and failure points that their “dumb” counterparts don’t have.
Getting locked out of your home because your smart locks failed is incredibly inconvenient. And, if we’re honest with ourselves, it’s a little ridiculous. We can enjoy technological advancements without becoming so dependent on them that we find ourselves lost and unable to even sleep if a server crashes.
Source
Smart beds flipped out during the AWS outage, and so did their sleepy owners, The Detroit News, 2025.
