[bgentry]

The important quote from the timeline:

Mar 01 9:41 AM PST

We want to provide some additional information on the power issue in a single Availability Zone in the ME-CENTRAL-1 Region. At around 4:30 AM PST, one of our Availability Zones (mec1-az2) was impacted by objects that struck the data center, creating sparks and fire. The fire department shut off power to the facility and generators as they worked to put out the fire. We are still awaiting permission to turn the power back on, and once we have, we will ensure we restore power and connectivity safely. It will take several hours to restore connectivity to the impacted AZ. The other AZs in the region are functioning normally.

[dehrmann]

> impacted by objects

Well that's a way of phrasing it.

I assume these were missiles.

[jiggawatts]

This reminds me of a visit to an Equinix data centre where the sales person was droning on and on about how incredibly reliable their power supplies were, how uninterruptible everything was, etc, etc…

Essentially, he was trying to assure us that no-no-no, we don’t need multiple zones like the public clouds, they can instead guarantee 100% uninterrupted power under all circumstances.

A bit bored and annoyed, I pointed to the giant red button conspicuously placed in the middle of a pillar and asked what it is for.

“Oh, that’s in case there’s a fire!”

“What does it do?”

“It cuts… the power… uhh… for the safety of the fire department.”

“So… if there’s a wisp of smoke in a corner somewhere, the fireys turn up, the first thing they do is… cut the power?”

“… yes.”

“Not 100% then, is it?”

[protocolture]

Equinix in Sydney plonked 2 datacenters right on top of each other, and still insists that they are useful as redundant sites.

There was a locally very funny situation for a while when a tech influencer was insisting both equinix sites could be shut down by a single building collapse. He was wrong, but he wasn't so wrong that people shouldn't make better infrastructure decisions.

[vntok]

Should have pushed it.

[Imustaskforhelp]

> we will ensure we restore power and connectivity safely

this would require human intervention and I am a bit worried what if the strike can happen again and human lives might be lost.

IIRC there have been cases in history where sometimes a same location is targeted across multiple days. Obviously, AWS might have local employees working in the region but would there be an evaluation of this threat itself within the relevant team in AWS. What if they try to bring the service back but then missiles are struck again and what if human lives might be lost on it. Let's just hope that it could be part of a evaluation as well.

[subscribed]

I wouldn't risk it.

Both Americans and Israelis are known for double taps. Surely Iran can adapt their tactics too.

[pwarner]

But I mean,are the employees safe at home? I guess if the really targeted the data center then home is safer, but in the fog of war maybe the data center wasn't the target?

[zozbot234]

> this would require human intervention

Amazon has self-propelled robots that handle their logistics and fulfillment, don't they? Send in the robots.

[tokyobreakfast]

> this would require human intervention

that's the difference between heroes and ordinary employees who bitch about having to go into the office twice a month.

same as the stories you hear of guys taking snow-cats up a mountain in a blizzard to restore phone circuits or radio transmitters gone offline.