An Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage disrupted major apps and websites globally, affecting over 2,000 companies. Experts warn this highlights risks of relying on few cloud providers.
AWS Outage Highlights Global Dependence on Few Tech Giants, Experts Warn
A major glitch at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted countless apps and websites worldwide, exposing the internet’s heavy reliance on a handful of cloud computing giants, according to experts.
The outage affected popular platforms such as Snapchat, Roblox, Signal, and Duolingo, as well as Amazon's own services including its flagship retail site and the Ring doorbell system. In total, more than 2,000 companies were impacted globally, as per data from Downdetector, with users submitting over 8.1 million outage reports — including 1.9 million in the US, 1 million in the UK, and 418,000 in Australia.
UK-based services also experienced significant disruptions. Lloyds Bank and its subsidiaries Halifax and Bank of Scotland were affected, along with government websites such as HM Revenue and Customs. Additionally, Ring users across the UK reported doorbell failures on social media.
At its peak, individual apps received tens of thousands of error reports from users in the UK alone. Globally, services including Wordle, Coinbase, Slack, Pokémon Go, Epic Games, Peloton, and the PlayStation Network were also hit by the outage.
The issues began around 8am UK time, with Amazon initially acknowledging increased error rates and latency in AWS services hosted on the US East Coast, particularly in the US-East-1 region based in Virginia. By 10:30am UK time, AWS reported signs of recovery, though it later admitted elevated errors persisted well into the afternoon.
To manage the problem, AWS introduced request rate limits on its platform. The company traced the issue back to an internal subsystem managing its load balancers — key tools that prevent server overload. The affected database system, DynamoDB, is widely used by AWS customers to store critical data. Experts confirmed the incident was likely a technical malfunction, not a cyber-attack.
Security engineering professor Steven Murdoch from University College London stated, “The incident appears to have been caused by some accident within AWS, rather than being the result of any malicious intent.”
The outage reignited concerns about the world's growing dependence on a few dominant cloud providers — namely Amazon, Microsoft, and Google — to keep critical infrastructure running.
Dr Corinne Cath-Speth, Head of Digital at ARTICLE 19, a human rights organization, called for urgent diversification in cloud computing. “The infrastructure underpinning democratic discourse, independent journalism and secure communications cannot be dependent on a handful of companies,” she said.
Cori Crider, executive director of the Future of Technology Institute, echoed the concern, warning that the UK must reduce its reliance on US tech firms. “With Amazon Web Services down, we’ve seen the lights go out across the modern economy — from banking to communications.”
Madeline Carr, professor of global politics and cybersecurity at University College London, agreed. “While large tech firms have the money to build secure and resilient services, placing that much power in the hands of so few companies is inherently risky.”
The UK government confirmed that it had reached out to Amazon over the issue. A spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident affecting Amazon Web Services, and several online services which rely on their infrastructure. Through our established incident response arrangements, we are in contact with the company, who are working to restore services as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee has questioned why Amazon is not yet classified as a “critical third party” in the UK’s financial services sector. Such a designation would bring AWS under direct financial regulatory scrutiny. Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier cited Amazon’s own claims that its services offer “multiple layers of protection” and are used by financial clients to boost their resilience.
This outage follows a major global disruption last year caused by a failed software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which took down Microsoft’s Windows systems and affected sectors including travel, healthcare, and business operations.