Amazon Web Services (AWS) said late Monday that it had resolved a major outage that left thousands of websites and apps offline across the globe for much of the day.
Over 1,000 platforms — including Snapchat and major banks such as Lloyds and Halifax — went down due to technical failures in Amazon’s US-based cloud network. Downdetector, a global outage monitor, recorded more than 11 million reports of disruptions during the incident.
Experts said the event highlighted the dangers of relying on a few dominant cloud providers for critical digital infrastructure.
Millions lose access in widespread outage
Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey said the outage showed how vulnerable modern digital infrastructure is. He noted that many services depend on external systems outside their control. “Even small human mistakes can trigger global disruption,” he said.
The problems began around 07:00 BST on Monday, when users struggled to access platforms like Fortnite and Duolingo.
By midday, Downdetector had logged over four million reports across 500 websites — double the typical weekday total. That number later climbed to more than 11 million as additional services, including Reddit and Lloyds Bank, went offline.
By 23:00 BST, Amazon said all AWS systems had returned to normal after engineers throttled parts of the network to address the root cause.
Technical failures cascade across systems
Mike Chapple, an IT professor at Notre Dame University, compared the outage to a regional power failure. Partial restorations may have caused further problems before engineers resolved the underlying issue. “It’s like restoring flickering lights without repairing the faulty wiring,” he said.
Amazon has not yet provided a full explanation. In a brief update, the company said the fault appeared linked to DNS resolution in its DynamoDB API in the US-EAST-1 region.
DNS, or Domain Name System, acts as the internet’s directory, converting website names into numerical addresses computers can read. When it fails, browsers cannot locate websites, cutting users off completely.
Dependence on cloud giants raises alarm
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said the outage demonstrated the risks of relying on a handful of cloud providers. “Everyone has a bad day, and today it was Amazon’s,” he said. “The cloud allows enormous growth, but one failure can impact millions of users worldwide.”
Cori Crider, head of the Future of Technology Institute, likened the outage to “a digital bridge collapse.” She said about 70% of global cloud services depend on Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — a concentration she called “structurally unsafe.”
“When a major provider fails, entire sectors of the economy can grind to a halt,” Crider said. She urged governments and companies to diversify cloud services and support local alternatives to reduce future risks.
Companies warned to strengthen digital defences
Cornell University professor Ken Birman said businesses relying on AWS share part of the responsibility. “Many firms do not design adequate backup systems for their applications,” he said. Outages happen often, though few reach this scale.
Birman added that the tools to build resilient and secure systems already exist. “We know how to prevent failures like this,” he said. “Yet many companies prioritise convenience over reliability.”
Legal and economic consequences loom
Questions of accountability could soon reach the courts. After a major CrowdStrike outage last year, Delta Airlines is still seeking over $500 million in damages. The airline had to manually restart 40,000 servers, causing several days of flight delays.
The AWS outage has renewed global debate over whether the internet has become too dependent on a few tech giants — and whether a single company’s failure could once again cripple large parts of the digital economy.
