Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, two leading giants in the cloud service industry, are currently experiencing outages, leading to significant internet disruptions for numerous major corporations.

As reported by Downdetector, the issues began surfacing around 11:30 a.m. ET. A surge in user complaints indicates difficulty accessing various cloud-dependent services, websites, and applications.

The outage is impacting a wide range of platforms that depend on these cloud services, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, Outlook, and well-known brands like Starbucks, Costco, and Kroger.

Even widely used developer tools and data platforms such as Blackbaud and Minecraft are facing connectivity problems.

The concurrent outages of AWS and Azure are particularly concerning, as these two cloud service providers underpin a substantial portion of the global internet infrastructure, supporting sectors from retail and entertainment to business operations and cloud storage.

The simultaneous failure of AWS and Azure is particularly alarming, as the two companies power much of the global internet infrastructure, responsible for hosting everything from retail and entertainment to business operations and cloud storage. 

Frustrated users have flooded social media to vent, with one post on X reading: ‘First AWS, now Azure goes down. I love it when big companies own half the internet!!!’ 

This marks the second major AWS disruption in less than 10 days, reigniting concerns about the fragility of the internet’s backbone when too much of it depends on a few cloud giants. 

According to Downdetector, problems began around 11:30am ET, with reports surging from users who couldn’t access cloud-connected services, websites or apps

About 76 percent of the more than 6,000 American AWS users reporting outages to Downdetector pointed to problems with us-east-1, the same site that experienced issues on Tuesday

Downdetector gets network status updates from social media platforms, reports submitted to its website and other sources around the web.

It ‘only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day,’ the website reads.

One user posted on Downdetector regarding the AWS outage, saying: ‘This can’t be happening again.’

More than four million companies use AWS, including 90 percent of Fortune 100 companies.

This vast user base includes everything from small startups to large enterprises like Airbnb, Disney, and Netflix, which utilize AWS for a wide range of cloud computing needs.

However, AWS’s service page shows no incidents for Wednesday, only one reported yesterday. Some users speculate that today’s problems may be lingering issues from Tuesday. 

About 76 percent of the more than 6,000 American AWS users reporting outages to Downdetector pointed to problems with us-east-1, the same site that experienced issues on Tuesday. 

Downdetector has received nearly 20,000 issue reports from Azure users in the US. 

Microsoft Azure posted an update noting that customers reported issues around 12pm ET, which were due to a part of the internet system that helps computers find websites (called DNS) being having problems. 

‘Customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal,’ the alert reads.

‘We have taken action that is expected to address the portal access issues here shortly. 

This is the second significant AWS outage in under ten days, raising renewed worries about how vulnerable the internet is when so much relies on just a handful of cloud providers 

‘We are actively investigating the underlying issue and additional mitigation actions.’

While Microsoft has not released data on the exact number of companies using Azure, analysts have suggested there are more than 550,000 using the platform.

But the public is still reeling from the last outage that took down half the internet, so many are furious about another major service disruption hitting their favorite apps and websites.

Dr Milan Milanović posted on X: ‘It seems that we have another big outage now. I noticed on Azure, but it seems AWS is affected too.’