Amazon Web Services outage broke smart beds and much more: here is how it happened and what it reveals about our fragile cloud ecosystem

When Amazon Web Services (AWS) went offline on October 20, the headlines focused on how it affected social media and streaming outages. But the ripple effects was more far-reaching. The disruption showed just how our lives have become connected with cloud infrastructure. It even turned some users’ smart beds into useless “wet bags”.

Amazon later confirmed how the problem started. The fault was traced to its US-East-1 region in Northern Virginia. This is where its distributed database service, DynamoDB, got faulty and triggered a chain reaction. The failure prevented new online connections. This disrupted EC2 virtual machines, Network Load Balancers, and dependent backend APIs. In plain terms, one of the Internet’s most critical data arteries got clogged and the world felt it.

Smart beds turned off by the cloud

Among the unexpected victims was Eight Sleep’s $7,000 Pod. The Pod is a smart mattress that uses water circulation and AI temperature mapping to optimize sleep. The AWS server downtime also affected the sleep tech company. 

The Pod system’s reliance on cloud-based machine learning and real-time biometric sync left it vulnerable. Because its algorithms and user data run on AWS servers, the outage rendered it temporarily useless. In fact, one user reported that one side of the bed overheating to 110°F.

Eight Sleep rolls out “outage mode” fix

In response, Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti confirmed the problem on X and promised a fix. Within 24 hours, the company rolled out a Bluetooth low energy fallback they called an “outage mode”. It is a local control layer that bypasses cloud APIs and enables direct device-to-app communication. It allowed users to adjust their beds via Bluetooth when the Internet fails.

Meanwhile, AWS engineers worked for hours to restore service. Once that was achieved, they rebooted core systems until connectivity was re-established. Amazon released a formal apology, calling the outage “a significant event”. They promised to implement architectural safeguards to prevent a recurrence. But this won’t be the first time this is happening.

A recurring weak point in Amazon’s cloud

The US-East-1 region has long been AWS’ Achilles’ heel. Ironically, it is the cloud company’s oldest and most trafficked hub. Nevertheless, it was the epicenter of outages in 2021, 2023, and 2024, disrupting major services such as Disney+, Slack, and Zoom.

Each time, cascading failures within AWS’s internal dependencies magnified what began as isolated system issues. Engineers have since warned that the hyper-centralization of workloads in specific regions poses systemic risk. This could be mitigated by smarter load distribution and regional redundancy.

Cloud dependence: a systemic problem

While the story may sound amusing, it calls attention to a growing issue: the fragility of cloud-dependent hardware. AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure collectively host the backend systems that most connected devices rely on. They are used with various devices, from thermostats to medical monitors. When they go down, so do the devices people assume are independent. 

Consumer advocates say a ‘right-to-function’ standard should be introduced, requiring that core features continue working even when cloud services fail. Local fallback systems, such as on-device AI or Bluetooth controls, can preserve usability and reduce reliance on distant data centers.

The Eight Sleep incident should be a wake-up call that the “smart” revolution is only as reliable as the servers behind it. Until hardware makers prioritize local control, even something as simple as going to bed might depend on a data center staying awake.