The Fastly internet outage shows the fallibility of leaving so much power in the hands of so few

5 min readJun 18, 2021

The main challenge of centralization is the existence of single points of weakness that can cripple entire networks. This has often been explained theoretically; however, it was practically evident a few days ago as major companies experienced a network outage because of a single Fastly user. Fortunately, as technology improves, platforms like Spheron (previously ArgoApp) have working solutions to curb failures resulting from single points in centralized systems by providing decentralized options.

Several major websites including Amazon and BBC were down

On 8th June, Fastly, a cloud computing service, suffered a significant outage that saw internet platforms such as Amazon, Reddit, CNET, and Spotify become inaccessible. The issue was resolved within an hour, according to the blog post released by Fastly following the outage. However, it was concerned that a software bug caused the downtime, which became evident when a single customer performed a valid configuration change.

Several key websites were down simultaneously | Down detector

Despite the quick response time, the network outage took place, and a majority of the market was inconvenienced for the hour that the cloud computing service was down. The real-world effect may not be quantifiable, but it is clear that losses were made and that users were disappointed.

Fastly outage a wake-up call

The Fastly outage is not the first time centralized cloud computing is failing internet users. Numerous events have caused outages that resulted in massive loss of storage data, among other vital losses.

For instance, on 9th May 2016, salesforce.com went offline due to the Silicon Valley NA14 network failure that lasted for about 24 hours. The losses were inevitable for business on salesforce.com, resulting in migrating to Amazon Web Services (AWS) after that sour experience. However, from the experience of Netflix in 2012, one would correctly argue that AWS is not the haven that saleforce.com hoped for.

Thus, this latest network outage experience is a wake-up call that the time for centralized cloud storage services is up. Fastly was not the first and won’t be the last cloud storage service provider to go offline. With the technology present in platforms such as Spheron (previously ArgoApp), it may be time for service providers to consider decentralization as a foolproof way of having a guaranteed 100% uptime.

Services all day, every day

With decentralized solutions such as Spheron (previously ArgoApp), internet users are assured of 100% uptime. In addition, access to services is made possible throughout the existence of the service provider. Furthermore, because Spheron (previously ArgoApp) is built on the blockchain, data stored or hosted is permanent and immutable. Therefore, even after the service provider closes shop, a user can still access data in need.

With Spheron (previously ArgoApp) , there are no single points of failure as the entire network is decentralized. No single user can cause such a widespread network failure due to the blockchain setup. The most damage that can be done in Spheron’s (previously ArgoApp) decentralized setup is on one block, which may cause insignificant damage compared to what is seen in centralized platforms. Moreover, the safety mechanisms in place on Spheron (previously ArgoApp) are numerous, making it even harder for an outage of similar magnitude to take place.

$ARGO token holders have increased benefits

The solutions to decentralization by Spheron (previously ArgoApp) are on top of the basic cloud storage service requirements that all great cloud service providers should have. Fast deployment, unlimited bandwidth, custom domains, and reasonable service prices are all part of Spheron’s (previously ArgoApp) complete package. In fact, on pricing, Spheron (previously ArgoApp) offers the flexibility of choosing the payment model, unlike other cloud storage services that require subscriptions paid monthly or yearly.

Moreover, with innovative usage of the platform, you can pay net fees of zero (0) for Spheron (previously ArgoApp) services. The platform has revenue generation activities such as yield farming, where users can gain $ARGO, which is the preferred currency for transacting any Spheron (previously ArgoApp) related business.

In conclusion, Spheron (previously ArgoApp) provides a seemingly perfect solution to the centralized problems facing current cloud storage options. It is high time internet users take notice.

What Spheron (previously ArgoApp) does

Spheron (previously ArgoApp) makes front-end web deployment easy, effective, and efficient through its blockchain-based platform that takes your web app to the DSNs (Decentralized Storage Networks). Spheron (previously ArgoApp) removes the hurdles of centralization and censorship through blockchain, ensuring that your web app is permanently deployed and experiences 100% uptime throughout its life.

$ARGO ERC20 Contract Address:

https://etherscan.io/token/0x28cca76f6e8ec81e4550ecd761f899110b060e97

Spheron (previously ArgoApp) CoinMarketCap Link:

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/argoapp/ico/

Spheron (previously ArgoApp) DEX Tools:

https://www.dextools.io/app/uniswap/pair-explorer/0xd5fc1a6f75cd465c46e2f15f74b9ac0016b18386

Spheron (previously ArgoApp) CoinGecko Link:

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/argo

Spheron (previously ArgoApp) Tokenomics Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R2RURGtsJcp0fK4elikgyeiEQwlShy5aiW75JOzmRsA/edit#gid=1913920126

You can find $ARGO tokens only on:

DFYN: https://info.dfyn.network/pair/0x643a31689bac403cf5854722e418d3949dc62976

Uniswap: https://v2.info.uniswap.org/pair/0xd5fc1a6f75cd465c46e2f15f74b9ac0016b18386