Power failure disrupts Internet Archive data centre services
July 2024Published 2 Oct 2026
What happened
On 7 July 2024 the Internet Archive reported a brief power outage at one of its data centres. It said environmental factors then took effect, the Wayback Machine was down and Archive.org was unstable. The data centre location was not reported. A later account said some users were still having problems. How long the disruption lasted was not stated.
Contributing factors
The organisation attributed the disruption to a brief power outage followed by environmental factors. What those factors were, and whether the outage was on the site power system or the wider supply, was not reported.
Lessons learned
- A short loss of power at a data centre can be followed by environmental conditions that extend a service outage.
- Early public notices should say what is known and what is not yet known.
- Until the failed element is identified, operators should not treat a power-outage report as a complete account of the power path.
Source
Published 2026-10-02. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.