A detailed explanation of this week’s Amazon Web Services outage, released Thursday morning, confirms that it wasn’t a hardware glitch or an outside attack but a complex, cascading failure triggered by a rare software bug in one of the company’s most critical systems.
The company said a “faulty automation” in its internal systems — two independent programs that began racing each other to update records — erased key network entries for its DynamoDB database service, triggering a domino effect that temporarily broke many other AWS tools.
AWS said it has turned off the flawed automation worldwide and will fix the bug before bringing it back online. The company also plans to add new safety checks and improve how quickly its systems recover if something similar happens again.
Amazon apologized and acknowledged the widespread disruption caused by the outage.
“While we have a strong track record of operating our services with the highest levels of availability, we know how critical our services are to our customers, their applications and end users, and their businesses,” the company said, promising to learn from the incident.
The outage began early Monday and impacted sites and online services around the world, again illustrating the internet’s deep reliance on Amazon’s cloud and showing how a single failure inside AWS can quickly ripple across the web.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell addresses the crowd at an Amazon event in 2024. (GeekWire File Photo / Taylor Soper)
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has a message for his city’s tech giants: it’s time to reinvest in the community.
Harrell, speaking at an event Wednesday hosted by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, said Seattle’s large companies have a “moral obligation to give back.”
The mayor specifically called out Microsoft and Amazon, citing their annual profits. “Microsoft … they made $88 billion last year … they have an obligation to give back to society, as does Amazon,” he said.
Harrell also described Seattle as a “city of innovation,” and one that has become a “great launching pad and fertile grounds for large companies.”
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing.”
His comments reflect a delicate balance faced by Harrell and other city leaders — ensuring that Seattle’s global tech corporations continue to bolster the economy and tax base, while addressing the ripple effects on housing, transportation, and communities.
Harrell has delivered a similar message since taking office in 2022.
“What I’ve tried to do as mayor is to say, without ambiguity, that we value their jobs,” he said of Amazon, Seattle’s largest employer, in an interview with GeekWire earlier this year. “We also believe in a culture of accountability.”
During an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in 2022, Harrell urged the business and tech industry to get more involved in civic life to help make improvements in the city.
“There’s just plenty of opportunities for you all to engage,” he said, “and I’m just a call away to facilitate that engagement.”
An Amazon delivery van parked in front of the company’s headquarters campus and The Spheres in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Harrell, a former attorney in the telecom industry, is seeking re-election next month. He’s facing off against Katie Wilson, a progressive community organizer who won nearly 51% of the vote in the August primary.
The race is drawing national attention, in part due to the contrasting profiles and campaigns between the incumbent and challenger.
Wilson was inspired to run after Seattle voters earlier this year approved a measure creating a publicly funded social housing developer, financed by a 5% tax on salaries above $1 million paid to employees working in the city.
The debate over who should pay for city services — and how much — underscores a broader tension between Seattle’s progressive tax ambitions and its reliance on the tech industry’s prosperity.
Harrell briefly spoke about taxes during Wednesday’s event, noting how the city “lost 10,000 jobs from Amazon” following years of friction over tax policy in Seattle. “That’s not a sustainable strategy, just to tax people,” he said.
However, Harrell earlier this year supported a proposal that would shield smaller companies from paying Seattle’s business & occupation tax — while increasing rates for larger companies.
Harrell was city council president in 2018 when lawmakers approved — and then repealed — a controversial per-employee “head tax” on big businesses. The council in 2020 later passed the “JumpStart” payroll tax, which Wilson helped craft.
Katie Wilson campaigning for mayor. (Instagram Photo)
Speaking to GeekWire last month, Wilson — whose platform is focused on raising more revenue “from the wealthiest corporations” — said she aims to have a working relationship with Amazon and other tech companies, calling them “very important players in our city and our economy.”
While tech dominates the Seattle economy, Wilson is interested in diversifying that focus. In a recent post on Reddit, she cautioned that a heavy reliance on the tech sector could pose problems for Seattle down the road.
“We’ve really been blithely riding the tech wave for the past 15 years and I don’t think we can just assume that will continue,” she wrote.
At the event Wednesday, Harrell also discussed public safety and the city’s new high-tech operations center designed to help officers fight crime in real time.
The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) pulls live footage and data from surveillance cameras and other sources into a centralized command room staffed by analysts up to 20 hours a day.
Critics, including Wilson, have raised concerns about the federal government using surveillance footage to target immigrants.
Seattle Police Department Captain James Britt said earlier this year that data requests from outside agencies — including federal law enforcement — are screened and must comply with state and local laws. “We control where all of our data goes,” Britt said at a press event in July touting the RTCC.
Harrell reiterated the point on Wednesday, saying that third parties cannot obtain footage. He also noted other cities that have similar systems in place.
“We have actually caught criminals because of the technology,” he said.
Harrell last month announced a “responsible AI plan” that provides guidelines for Seattle’s use of artificial intelligence and its support of the AI tech sector as an economic driver.
The Great Product Owner: Trust and the Sprint Review That Changes Everything
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
"She was like, oh my gosh, I've never seen this before, I didn't think it was possible. I just saw you deliver stuff in 2 weeks that I can actually use." - Alex Sloley
In 2011, Alex worked with a client organization creating software for external companies. They needed a Product Owner for a new Agile team, and a representative from the client—who had never experienced Scrum—volunteered for the role. She was initially skeptical, having never witnessed or heard of this approach. Alex gently coached her through the process, asking her to trust the team and be patient. Then came the first Sprint Review, and everything changed. For the first time in her career, she saw working product delivered in just two weeks that she could actually touch, see, and use. Her head exploded with possibility. Even though it didn't have everything and wasn't perfect, it was remarkably good. That moment flipped a switch—she became fully engaged and transformed into a champion for Agile adoption, not just for the team but for the entire company. Alex reflects that she embodied all five Scrum values: focus (trusting the team's capacity), commitment (attending and engaging in all events), openness (giving the new approach a chance), respect (giving the team space to succeed), and courage (championing an unfamiliar process). The breakthrough wasn't about product ownership techniques—it was about creating an experience that reinforced Scrum values, allowing her to see the potential of a bright new future.
Self-reflection Question: What practices, techniques, or processes can you implement that will naturally and automatically build the five Scrum values in your Product Owner?
The Bad Product Owner: When Control Becomes Domination
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.
"They basically just owned the team. The developers on the team might as well have been mindless robots, because they were being assigned all the work, told how much work they could do in a sprint, what the work was." - Alex Sloley
In 2018, while working with five interconnected Product Owners, Alex observed a Sprint Planning session that revealed a severe anti-pattern. One Product Owner completely controlled everything, telling the team exactly what work they would take into the Sprint, assigning specific work to specific people by name, and dictating precisely how they would implement solutions down to technical details like which functions and APIs to use. The developers were reduced to helpless executors with no autonomy, while the Scrum Master sat powerless in the corner. Alex wondered what caused this dynamic—was the PO a former project manager? Had the team broken trust in the past? What emotional baggage or trauma led to this situation? His approach started with building trust through coffee meetings and informal conversations, crucially viewing the PO not as the problem but as someone facing their own impediment. He reframed the challenge as solving the Product Owner's problem rather than fixing the Product Owner. When he asked, "Why do you have to do all this? Can't you trust the team?" and suggested the PO could relax if they delegated, the response was surprisingly positive. The PO was willing to step back once given permission and assurance. Alex's key lesson: think strategically about how to build trust and who needs to build trust with whom. Sometimes the person who appears to be creating problems is actually struggling under their own burden.
Self-reflection Question: When you encounter a controlling Product Owner, do you approach the situation as "fixing" the PO or as "solving the PO's problem"? How might this reframe change your coaching strategy?
[The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
🔥In the ruthless world of fintech, success isn’t just about innovation—it’s about coaching!🔥
Angela thought she was just there to coach a team. But now, she’s caught in the middle of a corporate espionage drama that could make or break the future of digital banking. Can she help the team regain their mojo and outwit their rivals, or will the competition crush their ambitions? As alliances shift and the pressure builds, one thing becomes clear: this isn’t just about the product—it’s about the people.
🚨 Will Angela’s coaching be enough? Find out in Shift: From Product to People—the gripping story of high-stakes innovation and corporate intrigue.
Alex believes that a great Scrum Master can have a long and lasting impact on people and teams. He is a global agile and product management evangelist, author of The Agile Community, and frequent international speaker. A former Microsoft leader with 15 years' experience, he now trains, coaches, and drives transformations worldwide. Certified across Scrum, ICAgile, and Kanban, Alex energizes communities, guides leaders, and—yes—enjoys good beer.
Step-by-step review on how to upgrade your .NET AI chat app to Microsoft Agent Framework for better architecture, tool integration, and intelligent reasoning.
As you rev up for the weekend, fellow coders, let’s embrace the reflective energy of this fine Friday. Think of it as a pit stop for your mind—refueling with the latest .NET developments before speeding into relaxation mode. In this week’s newsletter, we’re turbocharging your knowledge with insights that promise to power up your projects and refine your circuitry of expertise. So buckle up, and let’s hit the road to discovery!
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We didn’t rewrite our code. We didn’t scale out. We just added one setting — and our cloud app stopped failing randomly. Continue reading on AWS in Plain English »
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders delivers blazing-fast performance, AI-powered coding with GitHub Copilot, and a modern UI. Boost your .NET & C++ development!
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That One Azure Setting That Doubled Our Reliability
