Amazon recently announced that it has addressed the launch failures experienced by Amazon Web Services (AWS) after identifying and resolving a “load balancer health” issue. AWS plays a critical role globally, managing close to a third of the world’s cloud infrastructure and supporting countless apps and websites.

When asked for further details, AWS referred inquiries to its status page, though Amazon has not provided any additional comments on the situation.

In the UK, the issue had a significant impact, affecting major institutions such as Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, and telecom giants Vodafone and BT. The UK tax authority, HMRC, also faced disruptions, as reported by Downdetector’s UK site.

Ryan Griffin, who leads the US cyber practice at McGill and Partners, emphasized the financial impact, stating, “For large enterprises, even a few hours of cloud downtime can result in millions of dollars in lost productivity and revenue.”

The fallout extended beyond financial institutions. Tech start-ups like Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and trading platform Robinhood also suffered outages connected to AWS, along with some of Amazon’s own services.

In the United Kingdom, Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland and telecom service providers Vodafone and BT were all hit, according to Downdetector’s UK website, as was UK tax, payments and customs authority HMRC’s website.

Ryan Griffin, US cyber practice leader at insurance broker McGill and Partners, said: “For major businesses, hours of cloud downtime translate to millions in lost productivity and revenue.”

The websites and apps affected by the AWS outage

Artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity, crypto exchange Coinbase, and trading platform Robinhood also experienced outages linked to AWS, as did Amazon’s own services.