Global Internet Disruption: Amazon Web Services Outage Knocks Major Sites Offline
A massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage on Monday caused widespread disruption across the internet, taking down some of the world’s most popular websites and apps, including Snapchat, Reddit, Roblox, and Fortnite. The outage also affected several major banks, including Lloyds and Halifax, leaving millions of users temporarily unable to access digital services.
According to outage monitoring platform Downdetector, more than 1,000 websites and applications experienced problems linked to AWS infrastructure in the United States. The platform reported a staggering 6.5 million user complaints globally during the height of the disruption on Monday morning.
While Amazon confirmed that it had resolved the issue by 12:00 BST, experts say the incident underscores a serious vulnerability at the core of the modern internet — an overreliance on a handful of powerful cloud computing providers.
“What this episode has highlighted is just how interdependent our infrastructure is,” explained Professor Alan Woodward, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Surrey.
“So many online services rely on third parties for their physical infrastructure. This shows that even the largest providers are not immune to problems. Small errors — often human-made — can have wide-reaching consequences.”
Widespread Outage Hits Millions of Users
The trouble began around 07:00 BST on Monday, as users worldwide reported difficulties accessing a broad range of digital platforms. From popular games like Fortnite and Roblox to productivity and education tools such as Duolingo, countless platforms were affected within minutes.
By mid-morning, Downdetector had logged over four million outage reports across 500 websites — more than double the number it typically receives during an entire weekday. The situation worsened as reports climbed past six million, affecting additional platforms including Reddit, Snapchat, and major UK banks.
For many users, the disruption caused confusion, particularly since the affected websites and apps were from vastly different sectors. Social media platforms, gaming networks, financial institutions, and entertainment services all rely on AWS’s massive cloud infrastructure to operate — meaning a single point of failure can ripple across the entire internet.
Amazon announced by 11:00 BST that most affected systems had stabilized and recovered, though intermittent problems persisted for some services into the afternoon.
What Caused the AWS Outage?
Amazon has yet to release a comprehensive explanation for what triggered the failure. However, an early technical update posted on the AWS Service Health Dashboard pointed to an issue involving DNS resolution connected to the DynamoDB API endpoint in its US-EAST-1 region, one of Amazon’s largest data hubs.
DNS, short for Domain Name System, acts as the internet’s “address book.” It translates user-friendly domain names (like bbc.co.uk or snapchat.com) into numerical IP addresses that computers use to locate and access servers. When DNS systems fail, web browsers are unable to find or load content — essentially cutting off access to parts of the web.
Although technical details remain limited, experts believe a DNS misconfiguration or propagation error in the AWS network likely caused widespread connection failures across multiple regions. Since countless global companies depend on AWS to host their data and applications, the effects cascaded rapidly.
Industry Experts React to the AWS Crash
Technology analysts say the AWS outage serves as a stark reminder of how deeply modern life depends on cloud-based infrastructure — and how fragile that setup can be.
Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, told the BBC that while cloud technology has transformed the digital economy, incidents like this highlight its inherent risks.
“Everyone has a bad day — today, Amazon had a bad day,” Prince said. “The cloud allows you to scale and innovate quickly, but when something goes wrong, it can take down a lot of the services people rely on daily.”
Cori Crider, head of the Future of Technology Institute, compared the outage to a “bridge collapsing,” emphasizing the systemic importance of cloud platforms.
“An essential part of the economy has fallen to pieces,” she said. “When such a dominant service goes down, it doesn’t just affect websites — it disrupts businesses, communication, and even financial transactions.”
Crider also raised concerns about market concentration in cloud computing. With Amazon, Microsoft, and Google controlling roughly 70% of the global cloud market, she warned that the current system is “unsustainable and risky.”
“Once you have a concentrated supply in a handful of monopoly providers, any single failure can take down a significant portion of the global economy,” she said. “We need to build resilience by encouraging smaller, local cloud services instead of relying entirely on a few American tech giants.”
The Hidden Risks of Cloud Dependency
AWS powers a significant portion of the internet — from small startups to major corporations and government systems. The convenience and scalability of Amazon’s platform have made it the backbone of modern online operations, but that dominance also introduces a single point of failure risk.
A 2024 study by Gartner Research found that 94% of Fortune 500 companies use AWS in some capacity. This level of concentration means that even a minor technical issue at AWS’s end can ripple across industries — halting banking transactions, interrupting social media, freezing online gaming servers, and disabling millions of mobile apps.
Experts warn that this kind of digital fragility is likely to worsen unless governments and companies diversify their infrastructure.
“Cloud computing was designed to improve redundancy and reliability,” said Prof. Woodward, “but over time, consolidation has had the opposite effect. We’ve replaced many smaller risks with one very large one.”
Amazon’s Response and the Road Ahead
Following Monday’s disruption, AWS engineers worked through the morning to restore normal operations. By midday, the company reported that all major services were back online, though some users continued to experience slower-than-usual performance or login issues.
Amazon said in a brief update that the cause “appeared to be related to DNS resolution issues” and that systems had been stabilized. The company promised a detailed post-incident report once its internal investigation concludes.
This is not the first time AWS has suffered a major outage. Similar incidents occurred in 2021 and 2023, each time disrupting millions of users and exposing the vulnerabilities of a cloud-dependent internet.
Industry observers expect renewed scrutiny from regulators following this latest failure. The European Commission and US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have both been investigating market concentration and resilience risks in the cloud sector. Monday’s outage is likely to add urgency to those efforts.
A Wake-Up Call for the Digital World
As global economies continue shifting online, the AWS outage of October 2025 may serve as a wake-up call about the dangers of centralized cloud control. While Amazon’s engineers were quick to restore service, the temporary shutdown revealed just how many systems — from communication and entertainment to banking and commerce — depend on one company’s servers.
For now, most services are back to normal, but experts warn that without greater diversification and oversight, future disruptions could have even more severe economic consequences.
“We’ve built a digital world that’s incredibly efficient but dangerously interconnected,” said Prof. Woodward. “It’s time we start building resilience, not just convenience.”