Ring founder on ‘tough day’ of AWS outage: ‘We got through it’

The Amazon Web Services outage on Monday led to the shutdown of dozens of websites and online services. Ring was among them.

In an interview with Business Insider, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff described the challenges of the day.

“It was definitely a tough day,” Siminoff said. “You never want to disappoint customers. We call our customers neighbors.”

Siminoff said he strives to be there for Ring customers: “My email is on every box we send. I’m very hands-on,” he said.

Ring is not just a doorbell; it is a home security system, which may have increased customer concerns and online backlash. “It’s like the beginning of a modern horror film,” says one. User job. “I hope no one gets robbed right now.” another job.

Amazon acquired Ring in 2018 for over $1 billion. Siminoff briefly left the company in 2023, before returning in April 2025. His new title is vice president of products for Amazon, where he oversees related home security products: Ring, Amazon’s Blink security cameras, Key home delivery service, and Sidewalk wireless network.

AWS is another subsidiary of Amazon. Siminoff emphasized his connection to the company.

“If you look at the history of AWS, I would say it’s pretty stellar, but I guess things happen, like the sticker says,” Siminoff said.

The AWS outage affected various Amazon businesses. Some shoppers were unable to order from Amazon’s digital storefront. Others were woken by malicious Alexa alarms.

The outage also affected non-Amazon businesses that run on AWS cloud services. Some users could not order their Starbucks on mobile or access their Robinhood accounts. Others feared losing their Wordle streaks.

The outage has since been resolved and AWS services are operating normally. The problem appears to be caused by a domain name system error in the AWS Northern Virginia data center.

Since Siminoff returned to the company, he has taken Ring back to its crime-fighting roots. Ring’s focus on security worried some during the outage: customers posted online that they couldn’t disarm their alarms or receive detection notifications.

“We got through it,” said Siminoff, who is promoting his new book, “Ding Dong” “I’d like to think we’ve done the best for our customers through this, both Amazon as a whole and Ring as a division.”

“I just have to keep riding,” he said.