Hindsight: The Business Opportunity Presented by AWS Challenges

Hindisght with Mike Davis
Hindsight with Mike Davis

By Mike Davis, National Cloud & Data Center Specialist

The December AWS Outage Affected Users Globally

On Dec. 7, the AWS US-East-1 Cloud Compute Region went off-line causing wide-spread internet application outages. Customers were impacted globally including high-profile sites such as Netflix, Disney+, Ring, Ticketmaster, Venmo, Roku, Fidelity Investments, Hootsuite and many others using the AWS Cloud Compute platform to deliver commercial and residential applications and services.

Amazon warehouses also ground to a halt when the AWS outage caused drivers and warehouse workers lost connectivity to the Warehouse Management and Delivery applications through their handheld compute devices.

On Dec. 15, another AWS outage affected multiple high-profile customer sites as well as users across the globe, lasting for an hour and a half.

In this post, we’ll explain what happened, how the AWS outage may have affected your customers and provide you with insights that you can use to advocate for business continuance and disaster recovery solutions with your customers.

What Happened

The AWS outage started on Dec. 7 at approximately 12:30 p.m. ET and was focused on the AWS US-East-1 Region in Northern Virginia, their largest compute region. At 5:47 p.m. ET, AWS reported that it had “mitigated the underlying issue” and companies were able to start the restore process.

“The root cause of this issue is an impairment of several network devices in the US-EAST-1 Region,” according to the AWS Service Health Dashboard. As of 7:30 p.m. ET, AWS reported that the network devices issue had been resolved and it was “now working towards recovery of any impaired services.”

This five hour and 17-minute AWS outage resulted in millions to tens of millions in lost revenue and productivity.

What’s Happening Now

On Dec. 15, another AWS outage affected internet connectivity in two regions of the U.S. West Coast, including Oregon and northern California. Services for high-profile customer sites including Netflix, Slack, Amazon’s Ring and DoorDash were impacted.

The second outage lasted an hour and a half and according to the dashboard, the issue “has been resolved and the service is operating normally.”

What This Means For You

For some companies, the AWS outage has been a very expensive lesson in business continuity and disaster recovery.

What are business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR)?

  • Business continuity is the strategy an organization puts into place allowing it to respond with minimal disruption to business operations when a disaster or disruption occurs.
  • Disaster recovery is the restoration of systems to a given point in time when the systems were functioning. Disaster recovery includes both business processes and technology.

Every application is subject to outages caused by internal network issues, internet issues, human error/negligence, or natural disasters.

Natural disasters are a common occurrence, affecting numerous states and regions over the year. FEMA has issued 17 Disaster Declarations (to date) in 2021, many of which are caused by severe weather and fires. 

For example, the Arctic Blast through the Central US impacted data center service providers as well. Rich Miller outlines the impact on the data center service providers community in his article, Texas Data Centers Rely on Generators Amid Power Emergency

Whatever the causes, companies must be ready to work through outages and natural disasters. Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) planning can help customers minimize the effects of significant service-impacting events. 

What You Can Do Now

The time to have a discussion with your customers about business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) is now. Rest assured, someone will sell them on these solutions. We want it to be you. Here’s how you can approach the conversion. 

A large percentage of businesses do not have functional and tested business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans. Set up a quarterly meeting with your customers to discuss their BC/DR plans and determine if they’re ready for a short-term or a sustained outage.

A best practice in the public cloud space (AWS, Azure, GCP) is to have an annual Well-Architected Review. Our AWS Expert MSP Suppliers will identify the risk of an AWS regional outage or natural disaster and make a recommendation for a mediation plan. 

Help Your Customers Prepare for Future Disruptions

The AWS outage highlights that in this digital age, all businesses are vulnerable to outages or natural disasters.

It’s not a matter of if an outage will occur, but when. An estimated 96 percent of businesses have experienced an outage in the past three years. The average hourly downtime cost is between $30,000 and $400,000; but depending on size, the cost can range from $10,000 to over $5 million per hour of downtime. These are significant numbers.

Help your customers create a business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan and review them frequently. If you have ​​AWS customers, now is absolutely the time to talk with them about an annual Well-Architected Review.

Get Started with BC/DR

Our people and platform are here to support you through each phase of the sales cycle.

Learn more about business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans by logging into Intelisys University (iU) and watching the on-demand replay of our SE Webinar: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, Not Just an Insurance Policy with John Themmes, Mike Ratta and Nick Tempesta.

Be sure to check out our additional business continuity and disaster recovery resources that are available to you in iU.

Empower your customers with information on the right technology solutions for their business with the Technology Guide in MyIntelisys. Access disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) for high-level overviews, supplier selections, ideal customer profiles and more.

Our Virtual Sales Engineer tool makes it easy to ask qualification questions about specific cloud technologies, including DRaaS, and collaborate with our Solutions Engineering team to create optimal solutions. Access SupplierScope in MyIntelisys to quickly identify the right Supplier for your customer’s needs.

Need an answer to your BC/DR questions in real-time? Contact the SE team via live chat in MyIntelisys

Our team is here to act as an extension of your business. Reach out to your regional SE and BDM team and let us know how we can support your growth.

Ken Mills

President

Ken Mills serves as President of Intelisys and is committed to driving growth for Intelisys and our partners. As a distinguished technology executive with over two decades of experience, Ken has previously held leadership roles at EPIC iO, Dell Technologies and Cisco, and served as a fellow with the U.S. Department of State. His strategic mindset has been an integral part of launching innovative products and solutions in the fields of AI, IoT, and 5G. Ken is driven by his curiosity and passion for groundbreaking technology and complex problems, and constantly explores new frontiers in the world of technology.

Monica Lutes

Manager, People & Culture, ScanSource, Inc. and Intelisys

As Manager, People & Culture, Monica has worked closely with Intelisys employees and leaders since 2018 and has worked with ScanSource companies since 2016. A Human Resources professional with 11 years of experience encompassing all areas of HR, especially employee relations, recruiting, compliance, and training, Monica approaches her role as Manager, People & Culture from a consultative perspective. Her goal is to provide advice and guidance to leaders so they can focus on growing the best teams for the business while also supporting employees’ goals.

Ansley Hoke

SVP Marketing, ScanSource, Inc. and Intelisys

Ansley Hoke is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at ScanSource, Inc., a role she has held since 2019, and extended her leadership to include Intelisys in 2023. She joined the company in 2001, serving in merchandising leadership roles for ScanSource POS and Barcode, including acting Vice President of Merchandising and then later VP of Merchandising for ScanSource Catalyst and overall VP of ScanSource Catalyst. She oversaw sales, supplier relations, and services. Known for her pivotal role in creating effective marketing strategies, Ansley has been integral in driving demand, enhancing partner programs, and significantly contributing to the company’s revenue growth and channel relationships.

Mike Baur

CEO of ScanSource, Inc. and Interim President of Intelisys

Mike Baur serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at ScanSource. Mike has served as the Company’s President or CEO since its inception, as a director since December 1995, and as Chairman of the Board since February 2019. Mike has developed a deep institutional knowledge and perspective regarding ScanSource’s strengths, challenges and opportunities. He has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry, having served in various leadership and senior management roles in the technology and distribution industries before joining ScanSource. Mike brings strong leadership, entrepreneurial, business building and development skills and experience to the Board.

Stephanie Bouras

Regional Vice President, Southeast

Driven by a partner-first philosophy and a passion for innovation, Bouras embodies a leadership style that’s both compassionate and data-driven. As the Regional Vice President, Southeast, at Intelisys, she’s leveraged her extensive marketing and sales experience to propel her team to new heights. A firm believer in aligning herself with her partners, she sees herself as a collaborator and an integral part of their business. This perspective has allowed her to forge deep connections and drive success. A Florida native, Stephanie’s attention to detail and unwavering commitment to her partners have been key factors in her success.

Michael Raspanti

Regional Vice President, Northeast

Michael joined Intelisys in June of 2020, as a long-time channel veteran. He is responsible for leading the Northeast Region, helping continue the tremendous momentum in one of our strongest markets while also recruiting new up and coming partners that will be the growth engine of our future success.

Kristy Thomas

Vice President, Partner Experience and Enablement

Thomas is responsible for Sales Partner enablement and education for all our technology segments, including CX, managed security, mobility, and connectivity. With over 20 years of executive background in telephony, UCaaS, CCaaS and Cloud services, Kristy enables her customers to think broader and deeper as she guides them through their decision journey. Some of the biggest deals in the channel have become a reality thanks to the expertise and humble excellence Kristy brings to her client’s projects.