Amazon Announces Full Restoration of AWS Cloud Services Following Significant Outage

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Amazon said that the system at issue was back to “pre-event levels” and expected it would take two hours to work through the data backlog caused by the problem.

The disruption, one of the biggest since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction that crippled hospitals, banks and airports, has again exposed the fragility of global digital infrastructure.

A huge spike in disruption logged at Downdetector on Monday was followed by an even bigger jump some nine hours later, with the internet trouble tracker posting that it had received more than 11 million reports in total.

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.

AWS provides computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals and is the world’s largest cloud provider, followed by Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud.

Disruptions to its servers can cause outages across websites and platforms — ranging from food delivery apps to gaming platforms and airline systems — that rely on its cloud infrastructure.

AWS said on its status page that Monday’s outage originated at its US-EAST-1 location in northern Virginia, its oldest and largest for web services. The site suffered outages in 2021 and 2020.

According to documentation on the AWS website, the US-EAST-1 site is often the default region for many AWS services.

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.

The problem highlights how interconnected everyday digital services have become and their reliance on a small number of global cloud providers, with one glitch wreaking havoc on business and day-to-day life, experts and academics said.

Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity adviser at European cybersecurity firm ESET, said: “This outage once again highlights the dependency we have on relatively fragile infrastructures.”

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.

Nishanth Sastry, director of research at the University of Surrey’s Department of Computer Science, said: “The main reason for this issue is that all these big companies have relied on just one service.”

Ookla, which owns Downdetector, said over four million users reported issues due to the incident.

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

Ookla reported at least 1,000 companies were affected by the AWS outage.

The disruption also affected streaming platforms, including Amazon’s Prime Video service and Disney+, as well as Perplexity AI, the Fortnite game, Airbnb and Duolingo.

Mobile telephone services and messaging apps Signal and Whatsapp were affected in Europe, according to Downdetector.

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

Although there’s no evidence of a cyberattack, the scale of the breakdown fuelled speculation.

Cybersecurity expert Rafe Pilling said such incidents are understandable given AWS’s vast and complex reach, warning that even minor issues can trigger major global disruption.