4 ms·

Why would they have so much data and so much computing. Would they be really dependent on that? Makes it scary to consider what could happens to their passenger

Why would they have so much data and so much computing. Would they be really dependent on that? Makes it scary to consider what could happens to their passengers if aws is down / hacked.

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago
If AWS went down, we'd be worrying about a lot more than catching a Lyft ride. EDIT: typo
- 0xffff2 8y ago
  Who's "we" and why would they worry? I'm struggling to think of a side-effect of AWS going down that would worry me more than being unable to get a Lyft (which itself doesn't worry me very much).
  - cronix 8y ago
    Maybe a few here would cause some concern. Also note that not all companies/governments using AWS just let everybody know that they are, so they aren't listed and you can only know when the service goes offline. > Adobe, Airbnb, Alcatel-Lucent, AOL, Acquia, AdRoll, AEG, Alert Logic, Autodesk, Bitdefender, BMW, British Gas, Canon, Capital One, Channel 4, Chef, Citrix, Coinbase, Comcast, Coursera, Docker, Dow Jones, European Space Agency, Financial Times, FINRA, General Electric, GoSquared, Guardian News & Media, Harvard Medical School, Hearst Corporation, Hitachi, HTC, IMDb, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, International Civil Aviation Organization, ITV, iZettle, Johnson & Johnson, JustGiving, JWT, Kaplan, Kellogg’s, Lamborghini, Lonely Planet, Lyft, Made.com, McDonalds, NASA, NASDAQ OMX, National Rail Enquiries, National Trust, Netflix, News International, News UK, Nokia, Nordstrom, Novartis, Pfizer, Philips, Pinterest, Quantas, Sage, Samsung, SAP, Schneider Electric, Scribd, Securitas Direct, Siemens, Slack, Sony, SoundCloud, Spotify, Square Enix, Tata Motors, The Weather Company, Ticketmaster, Time Inc., Trainline, Ubisoft, UCAS, Unilever, US Department of State, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, UK Ministry of Justice, Vodafone Italy, WeTransfer, WIX, Xiaomi, Yelp, Zynga [1]. [1] https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws Additional Info: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/when-amazon-web-services-goes-down-so-does-a-lot-of-the-web.html http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/when-amazon-web-servi...
    - 0xffff2 8y ago
      That's a useless list. To take the one example I happen to work for, yes NASA uses AWS, but not for anything terribly important. Without any evidence that one of the handful of groups on that list that have safety-critical infrastructure are running that infrastructure solely on AWS, I maintain my position that Lyft going offline would be a greater inconvenience to me.
      - cronix 8y ago
        Yes, mostly useless. As I stated, and I'm sure you'd probably concur, most companies and governments don't go listing their tech stacks (especially critical tech stacks) for the world to see. That in itself can be a big security issue. For instance, AWS isn't allowed to mention, list or use the name of one of the companies I do work for. I take it you don't use the bank listed. That's fine. Does your bank do transactions with them? Other banks? Other institutions/stores? Do you use NASDAQ? Do others? Since everything is so interconnected, it doesn't take much for one of those services to immediately or eventually affect a bunch of others. It might be relatively trivial if AWS goes down for a few hours, but what about a longer duration and the avalanche effect? Is that impossible? You also changed the goalpost a bit from "worry me more than being unable to get a Lyft," which is the comment I responded to, to "safety-critical infrastructure." I can't give examples of that because no one in their right mind would list that anywhere.
  - mrweasel 8y ago
    Europe tried having a Telia route throw away Amazon traffic a few years ago. The Internet basically stops working if AWS is down.
chemeng 8y ago
There is an incredible amount of data, compute and DB hits required to manage dispatching, route planning, cost estimation, dynamic pricing/LTV optimization, ETA estimation, resource positioning and many other optimizations related to every market and every request within a reasonable response time for the customer. Products like Lyft Line are particularly intensive on this front.

Why would they have so much data and so much computing. Would they be really dependent on that? Makes it scary to consider what could happens to their passengers if aws is down / hacked.

Sohcahtoa82 8y ago

If AWS went down, we'd be worrying about a lot more than catching a Lyft ride. EDIT: typo

0xffff2 8y ago
Who's "we" and why would they worry? I'm struggling to think of a side-effect of AWS going down that would worry me more than being unable to get a Lyft (which itself doesn't worry me very much).
- cronix 8y ago
  Maybe a few here would cause some concern. Also note that not all companies/governments using AWS just let everybody know that they are, so they aren't listed and you can only know when the service goes offline. > Adobe, Airbnb, Alcatel-Lucent, AOL, Acquia, AdRoll, AEG, Alert Logic, Autodesk, Bitdefender, BMW, British Gas, Canon, Capital One, Channel 4, Chef, Citrix, Coinbase, Comcast, Coursera, Docker, Dow Jones, European Space Agency, Financial Times, FINRA, General Electric, GoSquared, Guardian News & Media, Harvard Medical School, Hearst Corporation, Hitachi, HTC, IMDb, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, International Civil Aviation Organization, ITV, iZettle, Johnson & Johnson, JustGiving, JWT, Kaplan, Kellogg’s, Lamborghini, Lonely Planet, Lyft, Made.com, McDonalds, NASA, NASDAQ OMX, National Rail Enquiries, National Trust, Netflix, News International, News UK, Nokia, Nordstrom, Novartis, Pfizer, Philips, Pinterest, Quantas, Sage, Samsung, SAP, Schneider Electric, Scribd, Securitas Direct, Siemens, Slack, Sony, SoundCloud, Spotify, Square Enix, Tata Motors, The Weather Company, Ticketmaster, Time Inc., Trainline, Ubisoft, UCAS, Unilever, US Department of State, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, UK Ministry of Justice, Vodafone Italy, WeTransfer, WIX, Xiaomi, Yelp, Zynga [1]. [1] https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws Additional Info: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/when-amazon-web-services-goes-down-so-does-a-lot-of-the-web.html http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/03/when-amazon-web-servi...
  - 0xffff2 8y ago
    That's a useless list. To take the one example I happen to work for, yes NASA uses AWS, but not for anything terribly important. Without any evidence that one of the handful of groups on that list that have safety-critical infrastructure are running that infrastructure solely on AWS, I maintain my position that Lyft going offline would be a greater inconvenience to me.
    - cronix 8y ago
      Yes, mostly useless. As I stated, and I'm sure you'd probably concur, most companies and governments don't go listing their tech stacks (especially critical tech stacks) for the world to see. That in itself can be a big security issue. For instance, AWS isn't allowed to mention, list or use the name of one of the companies I do work for. I take it you don't use the bank listed. That's fine. Does your bank do transactions with them? Other banks? Other institutions/stores? Do you use NASDAQ? Do others? Since everything is so interconnected, it doesn't take much for one of those services to immediately or eventually affect a bunch of others. It might be relatively trivial if AWS goes down for a few hours, but what about a longer duration and the avalanche effect? Is that impossible? You also changed the goalpost a bit from "worry me more than being unable to get a Lyft," which is the comment I responded to, to "safety-critical infrastructure." I can't give examples of that because no one in their right mind would list that anywhere.
- mrweasel 8y ago
  Europe tried having a Telia route throw away Amazon traffic a few years ago. The Internet basically stops working if AWS is down.

chemeng 8y ago

There is an incredible amount of data, compute and DB hits required to manage dispatching, route planning, cost estimation, dynamic pricing/LTV optimization, ETA estimation, resource positioning and many other optimizations related to every market and every request within a reasonable response time for the customer. Products like Lyft Line are particularly intensive on this front.