| Recurring |
one_organization |
(a) The software failure incident related to Amazon's Alexa crashing on Christmas Day due to server overload is an example of a recurring issue within the same organization. In the past, there have been instances where Alexa has faced technical difficulties or controversies, such as the incident where a customer reported being told by Alexa to "kill your foster parents" [79573]. This indicates that Amazon's Alexa service has experienced software failures or glitches in the past.
(b) There is no specific information in the provided article indicating that a similar incident has happened at other organizations or with their products and services. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident in Article 79573 can be attributed to the design phase. The crash of Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa on Christmas Day was caused by servers being overloaded with questions and requests, leading to Alexa's inability to understand users and causing disruptions in playing music, controlling lights, and providing instructions. This overload issue points to a design flaw in the system's capacity to handle high traffic and user interactions, which was exacerbated by the influx of new users setting up their devices on that day.
(b) Additionally, the incident also involved aspects of operation as some users experienced intermittent connections with their Echo devices in Europe. This operational issue was acknowledged by Amazon's customer service account, indicating that the failure was not solely due to design flaws but also related to the operation or functioning of the system during that period [79573]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system |
(a) within_system: The software failure incident with Amazon's Alexa crashing on Christmas Day was primarily due to servers controlling the digital assistant being overloaded with questions and requests, causing Alexa to have trouble understanding users [79573]. This issue originated from within the system itself, specifically the servers handling the voice commands and requests.
(b) outside_system: There is no specific information in the provided article indicating that the software failure incident with Amazon's Alexa crashing on Christmas Day was caused by contributing factors originating from outside the system. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions, human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident in the article was primarily due to non-human actions. The crash of Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa on Christmas Day was caused by servers being overloaded with questions and requests, leading to Alexa's inability to understand users and perform tasks [79573].
(b) However, human actions were also involved in resolving the issue. Amazon's customer service account acknowledged the intermittent connections on some Echo devices in Europe and later confirmed that the issues had been resolved [79573]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
hardware, software |
(a) The software failure incident related to the overload of Amazon's servers controlling the digital assistant Alexa on Christmas Day [79573]. The servers were overloaded with questions and requests from users plugging in new smart speakers, leading to Alexa crashing and displaying error messages to users. This overload of servers is a hardware-related issue as it originates from the physical infrastructure supporting the software.
(b) The software failure incident also involved issues with the Alexa service itself, where some Echo devices in Europe experienced intermittent connections [79573]. This software-related issue impacted users' ability to interact with the Alexa service, indicating a failure originating in the software implementation or configuration. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
non-malicious |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Amazon Alexa crash on Christmas Day does not appear to be malicious. It was primarily caused by servers being overloaded with questions and requests from users plugging in new smart speakers, leading to Alexa's inability to understand commands and provide responses. There is no indication in the article that the crash was intentional or caused by malicious actors [79573].
(b) The software failure incident can be categorized as non-malicious as it was a result of technical issues and high demand rather than any deliberate attempt to harm the system. The crash was attributed to server overload and intermittent connections affecting some Echo devices in Europe, which were later resolved by Amazon's technical team. The incident was described as a short-term issue impacting some Alexa customers' ability to interact with the service [79573]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
poor_decisions |
(a) The intent of the software failure incident related to poor_decisions:
- The incident of Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa crashing on Christmas Day was due to servers being overloaded with questions and requests, causing the service to become unresponsive to users [79573].
- This overload led to users experiencing issues such as not being able to play music, control smart devices, or get cooking instructions [79573].
- The incident highlights a potential poor decision in the capacity planning or infrastructure management of the servers handling Alexa's requests, leading to the service disruption on a high-demand day like Christmas [79573]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
accidental |
(a) The software failure incident related to development incompetence is not evident in the provided article.
(b) The software failure incident related to accidental factors, specifically server overload, is highlighted in the article. Thousands of people plugging in new smart speakers on Christmas Day caused servers controlling Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa to crash due to being overloaded with questions and requests [79573]. |
| Duration |
temporary |
The software failure incident related to Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa crashing on Christmas Day was temporary. The incident lasted for a short period on 25th December, impacting some Alexa customers' ability to interact with the service intermittently [79573]. The issues were resolved, and Amazon confirmed that the Alexa service was operating normally after the temporary disruption. |
| Behaviour |
crash, omission, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident in the article is a crash where Amazon's voice-controlled virtual assistant Alexa crashed on Christmas Day, causing servers to be overloaded and resulting in users being unable to use various functions like playing music or turning on lights [79573].
(b) omission: The incident also involved omission as users were greeted with responses like "Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you right now," indicating that the system was omitting to perform its intended functions at that instance [79573].
(c) timing: There is no specific mention of timing-related failures in the article.
(d) value: The incident did not involve the system performing its intended functions incorrectly.
(e) byzantine: The incident did not exhibit behaviors of a byzantine failure where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions.
(f) other: The other behavior observed in this software failure incident was the intermittent connections experienced by some Echo devices in Europe, which could be categorized as a connectivity issue impacting the system's performance [79573]. |