Dating site WhatsYourPrice.com is so angry at Amazon's recent cloud outages that it has publicly scolded the Seattle-based company.
It also declared that it has left Amazon's cloud for good.
This is the first time a big Web company abandoned Amazon in such a direct, public way.
“Amazon’s failure has negatively affected our website’s reputation as a reliable online dating destination,” said Brandon Wade, the CEO and Founder in a press release. So the company announced "it is terminating its use of Amazon Web Services EC2 permanently."
To recap, Amazon has had two major outages in the past few weeks. One on June 14 and another last weekend. These outages brought down lots of big Internet sites including Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix and, clearly, WhatsYourPrice.com, a dating site with about 400,000 users. Amazon blamed a failure in backup systems for the first outage and an electrical storm for the second. However, Jack Clark over at ZDNet reported that it wasn't the storm that made last weekend's outage so bad, but bugs in Amazon's software.
Wade said that Amazon added salt to the wound by ignoring calls to customer support.
WhatsYourPrice.com moved to FiberHub, Wade told Business Insider.
The whole press release is a pretty entertaining smack down. Here it is:
Amazon Web Services Loses Dating Website Client Due to Repeat Outages
Amazon Web Services suffered an outage in early June, and again this weekend. The outage affected more than just Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix users. Thousands of lonely singles using dating website WhatsYourPrice.com were also affected. Today, WhatsYourPrice.com, the world’s largest online dating website where members bid for first dates, announced it is terminating its use of Amazon Web Services EC2 permanently.
Cloud computing is sexy. However, as the recent outage at Amazon’s cloud computing services illustrates, it can also produce a lot of unhappy customers. In the past month, Amazon’s Internet-based computing services (AWS) have suffered two major outages. The first occurred a few weeks ago on June 14, caused by a series of problems with generators and electrical switching equipment. And again this past weekend, due to severe thunderstorms in the East Coast.
Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix users aren’t the only ones affected by Amazon’s recent server crashes. In fact, thousands of singles using dating website WhatsYourPrice.com was affected as well.
Today, WhatsYourPrice.com, the world’s largest online dating-auction website, announced that it will no longer be utilizing Amazon Web Services EC2 due to Amazon’s unpredictable datacenter issues.Brandon Wade, the CEO and Founder of WhatsYourPrice.com, states that the online-dating community is least forgiving with downtime.
“Services focused on dating and relationships require constant accessibility,” says Wade who holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree from MIT. “While you can watch a movie tomorrow if you miss it today, dating is all about the serendipity of meeting the right person at the right time. If an online dating service is not available, a user may lose the chance to meet his or her soul mate forever.”
When Amazon’s EC2 service experienced an outage on June 14, WhatsYourPrice.com was flooded with thousands of member complaints. Repeated calls into Amazon’s support team yielded no response. So, when the AWS experienced yet another outage this past weekend, WhatsYourPrice.com decided to permanently move its website over to a Las Vegas-based hosting facility.
“Amazon’s failure has negatively affected our website’s reputation as a reliable online dating destination,” says Wade, who was the IT Infrastructure executive at General Electric. “100% uptime is a required SLA for anyone providing cloud computing services. Amazon’s inability to provide such service levels is the main reason we have decided to quit using AWS EC2 altogether.”
About WhatsYourPrice.com
WhatsYourPrice.com is the world’s premiere dating auction website where over 400,000 members buy-and-sell first dates. Launched in March 2011 by Brandon Wade, the site incentivizes the opportunities for first dates, as well as eliminates the superficial standards created by traditional online dating. Wade, an MIT graduate, envisioned a dating community where sincerity is measured by the generosity of the members, thus “leveling the playing field” and enabling any user to date an attractive member.
