Car Hits Utility Pole, Takes Out EC2 Datacenter

1sockchuck writes "An Amazon cloud computing data center lost power Tuesday when a vehicle struck a nearby utility pole. When utility power was lost, a transfer switch in the data center failed to properly manage the shift to backup power. Amazon said a "small number" of EC2 customers lost service for about an hour, but the downtime followed three power outages last week at data centers supporting EC2 customers. Tuesday's incident is reminiscent of a 2007 outage at a Dallas data center when a truck crash took out a power transformer."

Comments

Re:Murphy's law

[turing_m]

Nice try, but you still fail to grammar.

This is why I long ago resolved to never, ever, ever correct someone else's grammar on slashdot. The risk in inadvertently failing to grammar is unacceptable.

Re:Hurrr, durrr

[plover]

What about your power supply? Is that not allowed to go along a road? I am all for underground power BTW but I know that if you operate a digger and you want to find the owner of a cable the easiest way is to break it and wait for the complaints.

That's also the fastest way to get rescued off a desert island or out in the woods, and why you should always carry a piece of fiber in your pocket. Should you get stranded, you simply bury the fiber, and some asshole with a backhoe will be along in about five minutes to cut it. Ask him to rescue you.