Amazon cloud storage failure causes widespread disruption

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon's cloud-computing service, Amazon Web Services, is experiencing an outage in its eastern U.S. region, causing unprecedented and widespread problems for thousands of websites and apps.

"Anything you can think about storing in the most cost-effective way possible," is how Rich Mogull, CEO of data security firm Securosis, puts it.

Since Amazon hasn't said exactly what is happening yet, it's hard to know just how serious the outage is.

"What's really surprising to me is that there's no fallback — usually there is some sort of backup plan to move data over, and it will be made available within a few minutes," said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.