Since early Monday morning, Canvas has been shut down due to an ongoing Amazon Web Services (AWS) technical failure. The impact has been widespread, with many websites and apps reliant on the AWS system that have since shut down including Snapchat, Facebook, Canva, and Fortnite.
Canvas, where Emerson College’s course information is located, is among the sites affected. The site shut down at around 3:05 a.m. according to the status website. It is unclear how this has been affecting classrooms this morning as students rely on the website to access class materials, submit work, track progress, and stay connected to their coursework.
No other Emerson services have been impacted, according to Emerson’s Informational Technology service desk. According to a community-wide email sent out by IT just after 10 a.m. Amazon is continuing to “restore some services,” and Canvas is still down for maintenance, the email said.
The AWS system “sits in the middle of everything,” according to tech experts. AWS is a cloud computing provider that hosts many of the most-used web services. Rather than making the internal internet services themselves, businesses rent them from the AWS system to mitigate costs. While this is efficient, it does have risks if the server goes down. This has previously been seen in July 2024 when a software glitch occurred during an update made by U.S. cybersecurity company Crowdstrike. That shutdown resulted in delays to airlines, hospitals, and businesses as websites went down.
“We’ve designed everything to work with that constant connectivity and when you pull that big plug, everything, basically becomes dumb,” Lance Ulanoff, editor at the technology publication TechRada, told CNN.
According to CNN, the cause appears to be a problem with AWS’s Domain Name System infrastructure that underlies many customer applications. The Domain Name System is an internet location engine, or a “phone book for the internet,” that converts user-friendly web addresses into IP addresses, a kind of code that other websites and applications can read.
The shutdown has had effects on websites ranging from social media platforms to airlines during the roughly eight hours it has been in effect so far. According to CNN, airlines like Delta have seen flight delays as a result of their website and app being shut down. Even government agencies in the United Kingdom, mainly the tax authority websites, experienced a shutdown.
Amazon has reported that the issue is now “fully mitigated.” However, multiple platforms, including Canvas, continue to experience delays.
This is a developing story, check back for more updates
