WTH Amazon!? Prime Day goes to the dogs
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Over 20 years ago, Amazon started its march toward becoming the top retailer, on or offline, in the world. Ten years ago, Amazon Web Services began its journey to becoming the No. 1 public cloud provider anywhere. Today, July 16, 2018, Amazon is blowing years of work and billions in value, as both its sales site and cloud collapse under the weight of Prime Day 2018.
Read also: 5 Prime Day deals you shouldn't miss | Amazon Prime Day 2018: The best early deals in tech so far
Overwhelmed by millions of eager shoppers, Amazon and its vaunted services are having perhaps their worst day ever. Instead of great buys, customers are running into errors featuring cute, but not for sale, dogs.
Amazon hasn't said why this is happening. One snarky user suggested that "Amazon.com must not be following the Well-Architected Framework Guide." This is Amazon's own textbook on how to build cloud applications.
Amazon has been running on AWS since 2011. As then-Amazon engineering lead Jon Jenkins explained, "We started thinking in 2009 about how to use it [AWS] for Amazon.com. ...On November 10, 2010 is the day we turned off the last physical web server serving Amazon.com."
Alas, even with years more experience, AWS didn't prove up to the challenge. Amazon still has to fix up its own dog food.
My own informed guess, based on what I've been seeing, is Amazon front-end caching and AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) have proven not up to the job with dealing with millions of simultaneous shoppers.
Officially, an Amazon spokesperson said on July 17, "AWS continues to function normally. We saw some intermittent AWS Management Console issues earlier today, but they did not drive any meaningful impact on Amazon's Consumer Business."
You can mitigate Amazon's problems by using the alternative Amazon Smile web interface. This site is for users who want to donate part of their sales to a charity of their choice. In addition, if you have a direct link to a product, such as those listed below, that should work as well.
An Amazon spokesperson told ZDNet, "Some customers are having difficulty shopping, and we're working to resolve this issue quickly. Many are shopping successfully -- in the first hour of Prime Day in the US, customers have ordered more items compared to the first hour last year. There are hundreds of thousands of deals to come and more than 34 hours to shop Prime Day."
That's nice, but the vast majority of users I know and surveyed have been getting to know Amazon's dogs really well.
Meanwhile, over on AWS, when I tried to get to my AWS Management Console, guess what I found? Go ahead, guess. Yes, that's right: That same Amazon puppy error page. Oh, come on, Amazon!
"We are currently experiencing intermittent errors accessing the AWS Management Console when using account login credentials," admitted Amazon at 5:10pm ET. The AWS Console is how you control your AWS resources. Amazon also claimed the underlying AWS services and console logins using IAM users are operating normally.
Since then, Amazon has updated the message. It now states, "We have identified the root cause for the intermittent errors accessing the AWS Management Console when using root account login credentials. We are beginning to see recovery, and continue to work toward full resolution."
Eventually, Amazon will get everything running. That's not the real issue. The real deal is that Prime Day is one of Amazon's biggest events of the year and Amazon blew it.
As my colleague Jason Perlow sarcastically put it, "If only Amazon had a tremendous amount of elastically scalable data centers with georedundancy. If only."
Read also: Amazon Prime Day 2018: How to find the best deals | Amazon Prime Day 2018: The best student deals in tech
This won't be enough to make Amazon or AWS's loyal customers go elsewhere for their goods or cloud services. But it does underline in red ink that even Amazon can make tremendous technology mistakes.
Good luck, folks. If you want to shop this sale, you're going to need it. In the meantime, here are some direct links to sales, which ZDNet has found to be working.
Amazon Prime Day: Business tech deals you shouldn't miss
Smart security cameras
- Save $60 on Amazon Cloud Cam, only $59.99
- Save $54.99 on Blink XT 1 (1 cam), only $75
- Save $90 on Blink XT 1 (2 cam), only $139.99
- Save $30 on Blink Indoor (1 cam), only $69
- Save $50 on Blink Indoor (2 cam), only $99.99
- Save $80 on Blink Indoor (3 cam), only $149.99
- Save $129 on Blink Indoor (5 cam), only $229.99
- Save $90 on Blink XT (3 cam), only $229.99
- Save $150 on Blink XT (5 cam), only $349.99
- Save $59.01 on Ring Spotlight (battery powered or wired), only $139.99
- Save 30 percent on Ring Video Doorbell 2, only $139.99
- Save $75 on Ring Video Doorbell Pro, only $174
Alexa devices
- Save $20 on Echo Dot, only $29.99
- Save $20 on Echo Dot Kids Edition, only $59.99
- Save $100 on Echo Look, only $99.99
- Save $50 on Echo Plus, only $99.99
- Save $100 on Echo Show, only $129.99
- Save $179 on Echo Show bundled with Ring Video Doorbell Pro, only $299.99
- Save $30 on Echo Spot, only $99.99
- Save $30 on Echo (second generation), only $69.99
Tablets and e-readers
- Save $45 on Fire HD 10 bundled with Show Mode Charging Dock, only $144.99
- Save $50 on Fire HD 10, only $99.99
- Save $30 on Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, only $49.99
- Save $40 on Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet, only $89.99
- Save $30 on Fire HD 8 bundled with Show Mode Charging Dock, only $79.99
- Save $20 on Fire HD 7, only $29.99
- Save $30 on Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet, only $69.99
- Save $30 on Kindle, only $49.99
- Save $30 on Kindle for Kids, only $69.99
- Save $50 on Kindle Oasis, only $199.99
- Save $40 Kindle Paperwhite, only $79.99
- Save $36 on Apple iPad (2017 model), only $284.95
- Save $54 on Lenovo Tab 4 Plus (w/LTE), only $169
- Save $30 on Samsung Galaxy Tab A, only $399
Computers and laptops
- Save $89 on Asus VivoBook F510UA, only $509.99
- Save $29 on HP Stream, only $199.02
- Save $154 on Google Pixelbook, only $845
- Save $64 on Acer Chromebook 11, only $139
- Save $35 on Acer Chromebook 15, only $314
- Save $150 on Acer Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop, only $899
- Save $150 on MSI GL62M gaming laptop, only $799
- Save $898 on Microsoft Surface Book 13.5-inch 2-in-1, only $900.19
- Save $138 on Microsoft Surface Book 2, only $1,360
- Save $278 on Microsoft Surface Laptop, only $1,021
- Save $70 on 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook XE500C13, only $229.96
Smartphones
- Save $300 on LG V35 ThinQ, only $599.99
- Save $60 on Moto G6 64GB, only $259.99
- Save $300 on the Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone, only $499.99
- Save $30 on the Huawei Mate SE smartphone, only $219.99
- Save $100 on Honor View 10, only $399
- Save $30 on Honor 7X, only $170
- Save $15 on Nokia 2-8GB, only $80
- Save $250 on Essential Phone 128GB, only $249
- Save $220 on Samsung Galaxy Note 8, only $649.99
- Save $430 on Samsung Galaxy S9 (unlocked) bundled with Amazon Echo + Amazon Echo Spot + Samsung Smart Home Monitoring Kit, only $719.99
- Save $430 on Samsung Galaxy S9+ (unlocked) bundled with Amazon Echo + Amazon Echo Spot + Samsung Smart Home Monitoring Kit, only $839.99
Smartwatches and fitness trackers
- Save $60 on Fitbit Alta HR, only $90
- Save $102 on Fossil Women's Venture Smartwatch Gen 3, only $153
- Save 20 percent on Garmin Approach X40 GPS Golf Band, only $182)
- Save $20 on Garmin Vívofit 4, only $60
- Save $29 on Garmin Vîvofit JR, only $50
- Save $80 on the Huawei Watch 2 Sports, only$219.99
- Save $80 on the Huawei Watch 2 Classic, only $289.99
- Save $20 on the Huawei Band 2, only $49.99
Televisions, media players, and projectors
- Save $35 on Fire TV, only $34.99
- Save $20 on Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, only $19.99
- Save $30 on Fire TV Cube with Far-Field Voice Control and 4K UHD/HDR, only $89.99
- Save $110 on Toshiba 4K Ultra HD Fire TV Edition, only $289.99
- Save $300 on LG 55-inch OLED5C7P OLED TV, only $1,696.99
- Save $300 on LG 65-inch OLED65C7P OLED TV, only $2,296.99
- Save $95 on TCL 40S305 40-inch Roku TV, only $194.99
- Save $70 on TCL 32S305 32-inch Roku TV, only $129.99
- Save $20 on Nvidia Shield TV with remote and controller, only $179.99
- Save $275 on PX747-4K projector, only $1,000
3D printers
- Save $60 on Comgrow Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Aluminum, only $239
- Save $400 on Dremel Digilab 3D20 3D Printer, only $599
Headphones and speakers
- Save 25 percent on Roccat PC headset
- Save $30 on Jabra Elite 45e sport earphones, only $70
- Save $75 on Bose QuietComfort 25, only $125
- Save $100 on Sennheiser HD 4.50 Special Edition, only $99
- Save $95 on Q Acoustics M4 sound bar with built-in subwoofer, only $309
- Save $150 on ELAC Uni-fi UB5 Bookshelf Speaker (pair), only $350
Storage, SSD, flash drives, and GPUs
- Save $54 on SanDisk Ultra 128GB Micro SDXC Card, only $23.88
- Save $10 on percent on Yubico YubiKey 4, only $30
- Save $90 on Gigabyte Radeon RX 580 8GB GPU, only $259.99
- Save $46 on SanDisk Ultra 400GB microSDXC card with adapter, only $185
- Save $50 SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD, only $199
Monitors
- Save $100 on LG 27UD68-W 27-Inch 4K Monitor, only $345
- Save $100 on LG 27UD68-W 27-Inch 4K Monitor, only $345
- Save $80 on ViewSonic G2402 24-inch Gaming Monitor, only $170
- Save $200 on ViewSonic VX4380-4K 43-inch Frameless LED Monitor, only $525
Networking devices
- Save $22 on Netgear Wi-Fi Range Extender, only $23
- Save $55 on TP-Link Archer AC1900 Wi-Fi Router, only $65
- Save $70 on Netgear Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi System, only $220
- Save $30 on Google WiFi System 1-pack, only $100
- Save $30 on Asus Wireless AC1700 Router, only $60
IoT devices and miscellaneous gadgets
- Save $2.50 on Tile Sport Key Finder, only $32.49
- Save $20 on TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug, only $19.99
- Save $90 on Shark ION Robot 750 Vacuum, only $289.98
- Save $90 on Ecobee3 Smart Thermostat bundle, only $200
- Save $50 on Abode Essentials Starter Kit, only $230
- Save $50 on First Alert Onelink Safe & Sound, only $200
- Save $50 on Netgear Arlo Baby Monitor, only $150
- Save 25 percent on the illy Y5 Espresso and Coffee Machine and $5 off your first coffee capsule or ground reorder when you sign up for Amazon Dash Replenishment.
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