On February 28, 2017, the world saw what happens when a giant cloud company’s servers suddenly stop working. It all started around 9:30 a.m. PST when websites using Amazon Web Services’ S3 cloud storage servers noticed that things weren’t quite right. Soon after, some of the biggest applications and websites experienced total crashes.

“S3 is experiencing high error rates. We are working hard on recovering.”

— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) February 28, 2017

Popular websites like Slack, Trello, Giphy, Medium and even Amazon’s own ability to report the problem was partially or completely down for about 5 hours. Were you affected?

If your business uses any of the popular third-party applications that help with collaboration or online storage, then chances are you, too, felt the crippling effects of the crash. This is because Amazon controls 40 percent of the cloud market and has a clientele list that includes some of the world’s largest organizations in the world.

Lessons Learned

Your business’ functioning may have been interrupted through no fault of your own. If you didn’t realize it until that moment, other outside factors could have cause your ecommerce site to go offline. This great AWS crash should serve as a wake-up call. Use it to gain valuable insight about your own storage and server weak spots and vulnerabilities.

1. The big boys are vulnerable, too.

Before you feel sorry for yourself, remember: it could have been worse. Much worse. Those few hours of down time hit some of the S&P 500 companies to the tune of $150 million. Other U.S. financial companies lost around $160 million.

The lesson you can take from this is, sometimes, there’s just nothing that can be done. Even the biggest companies will take a hit – and so will you.

2. Third-party software is only part of the solution.

Businesses that use third-party software like Slack or Trello saw themselves shut out. These websites serve as collaboration tools to bring workers together. For companies that rely on a remote workforce, it meant everything stopped during the hours the AWS servers were down.

If you’re a business that uses such third-party websites and applications, you should realize using them doesn’t mean you’re safe. Always have a backup plan. Make sure you have the full contact details of your workers so you can use temporary solutions like Skype or Google Hangouts to communicate with your workforce.

3. AWS may be the biggest player, but there are other options, too.

While the world was reeling from the crash of the AWS servers, some companies managed to weather the storm without a glitch. Companies like Apple, Wal-Mart, Newegg, Best Buy and Costco managed to function normally. How did they do it? Well, they didn’t put all their eggs in one basket.

AWS controls a huge part of the cloud server market, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only cloud server there. Companies like Google (Cloud) and Microsoft (Azure) have their own versions of cloud storage that you can look into. A smart move would be to use two or more cloud storage companies and servers at the same time. When one goes down, you’ll still have some part of your business up and running on the other server(s). At the very least, if you decide to go with just one company, have your data spread across multiple servers.

4. Disaster recovery experts are necessary.

Any business that thought they could do without a disaster recovery expert on the ground probably realized what a pain it can be to get things back up after a crash. This is particularly true if you happen to be in a business where your clients’ data is constantly being accessed.

You don’t need a doctor until you’re sick. But it makes sense to have a doctor’s number on hand for when it happens. So, too, with your servers; keep data recovery consultants on call.

5. You can have the best technology, but man could be your downfall.

According to Amazon, the AWS crash that was felt around the world was caused by a single typo. Yes, all the technological bells and whistles couldn’t prevent a single keystroke from bringing it all down.

Security experts have always said the most common threat to a business’ data and servers aren’t outside threats, but internal threats – by those who work for the business itself. And they’re not necessarily intentional. Human error has caused more damage to data than attacks from outside the network, so make sure you and your employees have the right training and policy parameters in place before assigning personnel.

The general lesson here after the major AWS crash? Always plan ahead and be prepared for the worst, no matter what.