Amazon restores services after global outage disrupts millions of users

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has restored normal operations after a massive system outage on Monday disrupted thousands of major websites and digital platforms across the globe.

The disruption, which began early in the day, caused widespread service failures across more than 1,000 apps and websites, affecting social media platforms, financial institutions, and online gaming services. Popular apps such as Snapchat, Duolingo, and even major UK banks including Lloyds and Halifax were among those hit.

According to global outage tracking platform Downdetector, user complaints surged to over 11 million reports worldwide during the incident—one of the most extensive digital service disruptions seen in recent years.

AWS confirmed late on Monday night that all services had “returned to normal operations,” after engineers spent several hours identifying and addressing what it described as a DNS resolution issue in one of its U.S. data centers.

The Outage and Its Ripple Effect

Reports of widespread disruption first emerged around 07:00 BST, with users struggling to access basic online functions. By mid-morning, major services—from massive online games like Fortnite to productivity and learning platforms—had been affected.

Even after temporary fixes were deployed, industry experts said the event underscored the vulnerability of the global internet infrastructure, which depends heavily on a few dominant cloud service providers.

Cybersecurity specialist Professor Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey noted that the outage was a reminder of “how deeply interconnected and dependent” the world’s digital systems have become. He said even a minor technical fault could “trigger widespread consequences” when it occurs within a major provider like Amazon.

What Caused the Disruption

Amazon has not yet released a full technical breakdown of the incident. However, a preliminary update on its official Service Health Dashboard attributed the cause to a failure related to the Domain Name System (DNS) in its US-EAST-1 region—a core network that routes traffic for countless online services.

The DNS acts as the internet’s phone book, converting website names into machine-readable IP addresses. Any malfunction within this system can render websites unreachable, effectively disconnecting users from essential online services.

Experts also warned of possible “cascading failures,” a phenomenon where one fault triggers a chain reaction across interconnected systems.

Industry Reaction and Lessons Learned

The incident reignited discussions about overreliance on major cloud providers, which currently include Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, who collectively dominate more than 70% of the global cloud market.

Technology analyst Cori Crider, from the Future of Technology Institute, described the outage as “a collapse of a critical bridge in the digital economy,” calling for greater diversification of service providers to prevent similar disruptions.

Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince also highlighted the scale of dependence on centralized cloud systems. “The cloud offers enormous flexibility and scale,” he said, “but when one provider fails, the impact can be global.”

Other experts placed partial responsibility on the companies that rely solely on AWS for mission-critical operations. Ken Birman, a computer science professor at Cornell University, said firms should invest in redundant backup systems to mitigate the effects of such incidents.

Broader Implications

While Amazon quickly restored its systems, the event has reignited debate over the resilience of the global internet ecosystem. The outage followed closely after other high-profile system failures, including the CrowdStrike outage that cost Delta Airlines an estimated $500 million in losses due to grounded flights and prolonged downtime.

The AWS disruption serves as a stark warning about the fragility of centralized digital infrastructure in an increasingly connected world — and the urgent need for governments, corporations, and cloud providers alike to prioritize redundancy, decentralization, and resilience in the digital economy.