A typo that shut down Amazon for 3 hours! More than 20 years ago, a man (we will call him Ken) got a job at Amazon as a systems administrator — someone in charge of managing, monitoring, and maintaining the servers and systems that allow a company like Amazon to work smoothly. The problem? Ken didn’t have much experience with Linux, which was the system Amazon used. But despite being underqualified, he was hired!
Ken was familiar with another system called Solaris, which worked differently. Still, he studied hard, learned quickly, and eventually earned enough trust to handle an important task: updating the software that managed backups — copies of important data saved in case something went wrong or was accidentally lost. So, let’s find out how the typo affected Amazon and how this story turned out.
Everything seemed fine… At first
Ken spent months planning the update carefully. He created new configuration files, which are like detailed instruction manuals that tell a computer how to run certain programs correctly. He ran tests, double-checked everything, and when the big day came, he and his team launched the update. They stayed at work for hours watching everything closely — and everything seemed to work perfectly.
Feeling confident and proud, they patted each other on the back and went home thinking they had done a great job, but…
At 7 in the evening…
Ken’s pager suddenly went off and wouldn’t stop. Something serious had happened: the entire Amazon.com website had gone down, and no one could access it. This was a huge deal. Even Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO at the time, joined the emergency call to figure out what had gone wrong. The situation was urgent, and the pressure was intense.
What had gone wrong?
Ken discovered that the main database — which stores all the important information like product listings, customer data, and orders — had stopped working. Not because of a bug in the software, but because it ran out of space. The reason? A typo in the configuration files Ken had written, so you can imagine how worried he was…
The backup system was supposed to copy log files (files that track every action the system performs) to a tape drive, and then delete the originals to free up space. But due to the small typing error, the logs were never deleted after being saved. Slowly, they piled up until the storage was full and the database shut down.
How did they fix the typo issue?
Ken and a database expert carefully deleted the extra files manually, one by one. Once enough space was freed, the database started working again and Amazon.com was back online. Ken corrected the typo in the configuration file, but he spent the entire night worrying that he was going to lose his job the next day.
Was he fired?
The next morning, he arrived at work and saw his manager standing outside, right where Ken usually parked. Of course, Ken thought he was in serious trouble and he was going to be fired. But after a long silent stare, his manager suddenly smiled, shook Ken’s hand, and said, “Congratulations, you’re no longer a virgin!” — a humorous way of saying he had now officially made his first major mistake on the job.
Everyone in the office joked with him, but Ken kept his job and learned a valuable lesson: Even smart, dedicated people make mistakes. What matters is how you fix them — and what you learn along the way. And always double-check your work before hitting “go”! Have you ever made a typo that led you to big trouble?