TikTok and Lazada face prolonged disruption following fire that broke out at data centre

TikTok and Lazada users experienced a prolonged major network disruption on Tuesday following a fire that broke out at Alibaba Cloud’s Availability Zone C datacenter in Singapore. The accident caused a wide net of disruption across both Singapore and Malaysia's servers.

TikTok users reported facing difficulties uploading new content and hosting live video sessions on the platform. Some encountered system error messages on the order page, and screenshots of emails purportedly from TikTok Shop creator indicated that the platform was aware of the technical issues but didn't provide a recovery time.

Lazada also posted on its seller centre that it's currently experiencing a temporary system issue affecting some features in the seller center, including its order processes; customers who placed their orders placed between September 8 and September 13 might expect their package to arrive at their doorsteps late.

Alibaba Cloud: Fire that caused disruption

Alibaba Cloud later confirmed that the issue occurred due to a fire incident in the Singapore data center, triggering an abnormal temperature rise within the data center.

In an official statement, Alibaba Cloud said:

It was reported that Alibaba cloud monitoring first detected network access abnormalities in the available zone C of the Singapore region, which causes some cloud services to function abnormally. "

Luckily, firefighters were quickly deployed to contain the situation. Although most cloud network and security products were successfully switched over to backup systems, several services continued to experience disruptions.

It also said that it is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, adding that it will arrange extensions for order processing between Sept 8 and Sept 13 by five business days.

Alibaba cloud also works with many other big companies like Grab, AirAsia and Miniso, but none of these companies has reported on any disruption at this point of time.

We could only speculate that the data centres of these companies were unaffected by the fire that only occurred in Zone C of the Datacentre; hence, they were unaffected by the accident.

According to a report by Channel News Asia (CNA), Alibaba Cloud has three availability zones in Singapore, which are separate, isolated data centres within the cloud provider's infrastructure.

Prolong efforts to restore services

One day after the fire, Alibaba Cloud updated the media saying that firefighting efforts were still ongoing, but in the effort to put out the fire, water had accumulated in the server room, posing a risk of electrical short circuits.

In a desperate last ditch effort to salvage the situation, the company has enforced an emergency power shutdown for one of the server buildings in Singapore Availability Zone C.

It was also reported that an unmanned firefighting robot had been deployed to cool down batteries involved in fire. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told CNA: "This will likely be a prolonged operation."

The full extent of the damage and the timeline for recovery remain unclear. Alibaba Cloud is working diligently to restore normal operations and minimize the impact on its customers.