Millions of people around the world faced major disruptions on Monday as popular apps and websites like Snapchat, Zoom, Venmo, and Fortnite suddenly stopped working. The reason behind this global internet blackout was a massive outage in Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud system that powers a large part of the web.
While services have now been restored, the incident shows just how dependent the modern internet is on Amazon’s cloud technology. Let’s break down what happened, and which services were hit, and why it matters.
What is Amazon Web Services (AWS)?
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is one of the world’s biggest cloud computing platforms. It helps companies run their websites, apps, and data storage without needing to buy physical servers.
Think of AWS as the digital backbone of many brands we use daily. Companies like Snapchat, Netflix, McDonald’s, and Zoom all rent Amazon’s infrastructure to operate online smoothly.
According to the Synergy Research Group, AWS controls around 30% of the global cloud market, followed by Microsoft Azure with 20% and Google Cloud with 13%. Together, these three companies are known as “The Big Three” in the cloud industry.
When and How the Outage Started?
The problem began just after 3 am ET (around 12:30 pm IST) on Monday. Users across the world began reporting problems accessing websites and apps on platforms like Downdetector, which received over 6.5 million reports in just a few hours.
At 4:26 am ET, Amazon confirmed the issue, stating, “We can confirm significant error rates for requests made to the DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 Region.”
Later at 11:43 am, AWS updated the situation, explaining that the root cause was an “underlying internal subsystem responsible for monitoring the health of our network load balancers.”
While Amazon said it was working on fixes, many users experienced disruptions for up to six hours. By morning, most services were back online, though some still faced intermittent problems.
Which Websites and Apps Were Hit?
The AWS outage affected a huge number of platforms across different sectors. From banking to gaming to shopping, almost everyone felt the impact.
- Social Media: Snapchat, Facebook, Reddit, and WhatsApp saw major login and connection issues.
- Gaming: Popular games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Clash of Clans were hit, leaving players unable to access their accounts.
- Airlines and Banking: Delta Air Lines and United Airlines faced system delays, while UK bank customers couldn’t log in to their accounts. Even the UK government’s HMRC website was affected.
- Streaming and Work Apps: Hulu, Slack, Canva, and Zoom reported service disruptions.
- Amazon Devices: Alexa and Ring doorbell cameras also stopped responding.
A spokesperson for the UK government said via email, “We are aware of an incident affecting Amazon Web Services, and several online services which rely on their infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, Elon Musk mocked Amazon on X (formerly Twitter), posting, “X works.”
What Caused the AWS Outage?
At first, many speculated that the outage might be due to a cyberattack. However, cybersecurity experts ruled that out.
AWS later clarified that the outage began with a problem in its Domain Name System (DNS) at its Northern Virginia data plant, located in the area known as “Data Center Alley.”
What is DNS and Why It Matters?
The Domain Name System (DNS) works like the phonebook of the internet. It translates human-readable web addresses like amazon.com into numerical IP addresses that computers understand.
If the DNS fails, websites and apps can’t be located, which can lead to timeouts and connection failures. That’s exactly what happened during this AWS disruption.
While DNS failures are not uncommon, the global scale of AWS meant that even a small internal fault had a massive impact worldwide.
How Much Did the AWS Outage Cost?
With AWS powering thousands of online services, the financial losses were significant. Analysts estimate that major websites lose around $75 million every hour of downtime.
Mehdi Daoudi, CEO of Catchpoint, told Al Jazeera, “The financial impact of the outage could easily reach into the hundreds of billions due to lost productivity and halted business operations.”
Though Amazon has not released official figures yet, this outage will likely rank among the most expensive in the company’s history.
Have AWS Outages Happened Before?
Yes — and they’ve caused chaos before.
- 2023: A similar issue caused websites to go offline for hours.
- 2021: The longest AWS outage in recent years lasted more than five hours and affected airline bookings, payments, and video streaming.
- 2017: An employee accidentally typed the wrong command during a debugging process, shutting down far more servers than intended.
Each time, Amazon has promised to improve its systems — but the 2025 incident proves that no cloud network is immune to failure.
Why This Outage Matters
The AWS disruption is more than a technical glitch. It’s a warning about the internet’s over-reliance on a few tech giants. When one system fails, the ripple effect can take down half the web.
As businesses, governments, and individuals depend more on cloud computing, even a small failure can have massive global consequences.
While AWS has since restored full service, this outage is likely to push companies to explore backup systems and alternative cloud providers — just in case history repeats itself.
