Don't let your business go down: Lessons from the AWS Cloud Computing Outage

On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a worldwide outage, impacting hundreds of websites that use the company’s cloud hosting service. The outage began around 2:56 pm ET and lasted for several hours, taking out other websites like IMDB, McDonald’s, and OkCupid. The e-commerce giant’s purchasing platform, music, and virtual assistant Alexa were also affected. The outage was an embarrassing blow to the Amazon-owned platform, as these companies, universities, individuals, and governments pay to use its services.

This incident serves as a reminder to insurance executives that outages can happen to any business, and the consequences can be severe. In this post, we’ll list some common statements about outages and explain what to do instead to prevent your business from being taken down.

1. “It won’t happen to us.” Don’t assume that your business is immune to outages. Any business that relies on technology is at risk of an outage, whether it’s caused by a cyber attack, a natural disaster, or a technical glitch. It’s important to have a plan in place to minimize the impact of an outage and to ensure that your business can recover quickly.

2. “We don’t need a backup plan.” Having a backup plan is essential to ensure that your business can continue to operate in the event of an outage. This includes having redundant systems in place, such as backup servers and data centers, as well as a disaster recovery plan that outlines the steps to take in the event of an outage.

3. “We don’t need insurance.” Insurance can help protect your business from the financial impact of an outage. Parametric insurance, in particular, can provide coverage for losses that are difficult to quantify, such as lost revenue and reputational damage. With Riskwolf, you can turn real-time data into insurance. Using unique real-time data and dynamic risk modeling, we enable insurers to build and operate parametric insurance at scale. Simple. Reliable. Fast.

4. “We don’t need to test our systems.” Testing your systems is essential to ensure that they are working properly and to identify any vulnerabilities that could lead to an outage. Regular testing can help you identify and fix issues before they become a problem.

5. “We don’t need to communicate with our customers.” Communicating with your customers during an outage is essential to minimize the impact on their business and to maintain their trust. It’s important to have a communication plan in place that outlines how you will keep your customers informed and updated during an outage.

In conclusion, outages can happen to any business, and the consequences can be severe. It’s important to have a plan in place to minimize the impact of an outage and to ensure that your business can recover quickly. Don’t take chances with your business’s future. Get in touch with Riskwolf to develop parametric insurance for your business today.

Source: Daily Mail