A huge Amazon Web Services outage has taken out multiple web services including Alexa, Ring, Reddit, Snapchat and many more.
The issues appeared to start at around 7.40am BST when a large spike on Downdetector showed reported problems with Amazon Web Services – which in turn has taken down many services that rely on its cloud computing power.
The exact cause of the issues isn't clear, but the Amazon Web Services dashboard shows an "operational issue" in North Virginia. The AWS dashboard says "engineers were immediately engaged and are actively working on both mitigating the issue" and recently posted that "we are seeing significant signs of recovery".
The knock-on effects appear to be widespread, including many banks.
UPDATE 9:23 AM EDT --
AWS OUTAGE RATTLES THE WORLD - WHAT HAPPENED?
For a few tense hours on Monday, the digital world went dark. Amazon Web Services (AWS) - the backbone of the modern internet - suffered a global outage that knocked out major platforms including Snapchat, Facebook, Fortnite, Roblox, Coinbase, and even AI darling Perplexity.
The problem? A massive DNS failure, which temporarily derailed the cloud empire that powers everything from online banking to memes.
AWS confirmed the issue has now been “fully mitigated,” though some services may still be throttled while systems clear their backlogs.
“Most operations are succeeding normally,” the company said, but a few regions could still see errors - the digital equivalent of post-earthquake tremors.
The outage served as a jarring reminder of the fragility of global connectivity. The last time something this big happened was in July 2024, when a bungled CrowdStrike software update paralyzed airports, hospitals, and corporations worldwide - costing over $5 billion in direct losses.
This time, the damage was more digital than physical, but no less sobering: a few lines of faulty code temporarily silenced the pulse of the modern economy.
For a world that lives, breathes, and buys through the cloud, Monday’s outage wasn’t just an inconvenience - it was a preview of what happens when the sky goes dark.
