TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Dozens of internet sites were unavailable or extremely slow for about four hours Wednesday afternoon due to a failure within Amazon's S-3 Data Center. This data center plays host to a number of websites, stores files, and even provides backup storage services to various companies, including Netflix.
Amazon said that the S-3 data center outage was due to "high error rates," but worked to fix the problem as quick as possible. Because this outage happened in a key part of the internet's infrastructure, even the best connectivity could not have helped the situation.
In the event of a traditional internet outage, one local expert suggest having a back up provider.
"There's lots of internet providers out there. Here in our community, Elecronet, CenturyLink, Comcast," says Blake Dowling, the Chief Executive Officer of Aegis Business Technologies. "Have more than one. Have an alternate that way you have redundancy. Have a firewall that can automatically fail over so that if your primary connection goes down, your secondary kicks in."
Dowling also says it's a good idea to change your internet passwords often to keep you safe, whether you're surfing the web, or experiencing an outage of any kind.
