Amazon Web Services (AWS) has restored its systems after a major internet outage disrupted global connectivity on Monday, halting operations across thousands of platforms and exposing the scale of the world’s reliance on a few cloud providers.
The disruption, which affected companies from London to Tokyo, briefly paralysed digital life — from booking airline tickets to processing mobile payments — as AWS’s northern Virginia data centre experienced a fault.
It was one of the largest internet breakdowns since the CrowdStrike malfunction last year, which had disrupted hospitals, banks, and airports globally.
AWS’s core systems disrupted in the US-East-1 hub
The outage originated from Amazon’s US-East-1 data hub in northern Virginia, its oldest and most widely used web services region.
This same cluster has been involved in at least three major outages in the past five years, highlighting an ongoing vulnerability within Amazon’s infrastructure.
Amazon said the problem stemmed from the Domain Name System (DNS) failing to locate the correct address for AWS’s DynamoDB API — a database that stores critical user information and cloud data.
The company later identified an underlying fault in its network health monitoring subsystem used for Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) load balancers.
By 3 pm PT (2200 GMT), Amazon confirmed that all AWS services had returned to normal operations.
However, systems such as AWS Config, Redshift, and Connect continued processing backlogs for several hours after the main recovery.
Millions of users affected worldwide
The scale of disruption was extensive. Ookla’s Downdetector reported more than four million user complaints as major platforms went offline.
Popular services, including Snapchat, Reddit, Roblox, and Duolingo, were hit, as were trading and payment platforms such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Venmo.
Amazon’s own services — Prime Video, Alexa, and its shopping website — were also affected.
Even gaming networks like Fortnite, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans experienced interruptions.
In the transport sector, Uber’s rival Lyft went down in the United States, while video calling site Zoom and digital wallet Venmo struggled to function globally.
Messaging app Signal was briefly disrupted, while Elon Musk confirmed that X (formerly Twitter) remained operational.
Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity also cited AWS as the cause of its service disruption.
Ripple effects across the UK and beyond
The outage’s impact extended into critical sectors in the United Kingdom.
According to Downdetector, services from Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Vodafone, BT, and HMRC’s online portals all suffered interruptions.
The issue underscored how national institutions are tethered to Amazon’s infrastructure for everyday operations, from telecommunications to tax services.
Experts said the incident underlined the fragility of the internet’s architecture, with a handful of cloud providers powering most digital ecosystems.
AWS is the world’s largest cloud operator, followed by Microsoft’s Azure and Alphabet’s Google Cloud.
Disruptions to its network routinely cascade into failures across industries.
Economic implications and investor response
For businesses dependent on the cloud, even brief outages translate into financial losses.
Insurance experts estimate that hours of downtime can cost major companies millions in lost productivity and transactions.
However, Wall Street remained largely calm. Amazon shares closed 1.6% higher at $216.48, as investors focused on its upcoming quarterly results and AWS’s long-term growth potential — still the company’s biggest profit driver.
As digital infrastructure becomes more central to global business, the incident serves as another reminder of the risks of consolidation in the cloud industry.
A single technical glitch, as seen on Monday, can ripple across economies and daily life, momentarily reminding the world just how dependent it has become on invisible networks running quietly behind every click.
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