What happens exactly when services like Google or Whatsapp fall for a certain time?
In: Technology
Google actually was down last month for a few hours.
It basically meant that through my browser I could access sites I’d already visited, but I couldn’t use a Google search to find new ones or use Google owned sites like GMail.
These kinds of services are running on large clusters of servers which are interconnected with Ethernet switches, routers, and other network hardware. In addition, they connect through countless 3rd party network equipment via fiber, cable, and wireless networks. Usually, when a system goes down it’s regional meaning that the network in a portion of an area suffers a failure and it cannot keep up with the demand. So the application itself maybe working but the connectivity to it is overwhelmed with traffic. Other times it could be a maintenance or network upgrade that went wrong and they need to back out the changes and reset servers or network equipment.
TLDR: It could be any of thousands of devices or software at issue and it might not even be the application itself that has failed.
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