AWS Outage Causes Global Internet Chaos: What Really Went Wrong
A major AWS outage took down major apps, banks, and gaming platforms worldwide — here’s how one glitch broke the internet.
A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage sent shockwaves across the internet on Monday, disrupting over 1,000 companies and millions of users worldwide. From Snapchat and Reddit to Lloyds Bank and Fortnite, the incident exposed just how dependent the digital world has become on a handful of cloud providers.
Amazon’s cloud arm — often called the backbone of the internet — powers roughly one-third of the world’s online platforms. Its vast infrastructure handles everything from data storage and traffic management to application hosting for companies big and small.
But this time, even the internet’s biggest landlord stumbled.
According to AWS, the issue stemmed from a Domain Name System (DNS) error, a surprisingly common but critical glitch that essentially broke the “map” connecting users to the sites and services they were trying to reach.
As Cloudflare’s CEO put it, it was simply “a bad day for AWS” — and a relief for everyone else in the tech world.
When users tap an app or click a link, their devices send a digital request to locate that service. DNS translates that request into a route — but on Monday, AWS lost its bearings. Platforms like Snapchat, Canva, and HMRC were all online but unreachable, as the system failed to direct users to the right addresses.
The disruption originated at AWS’s Northern Virginia data centre, its largest and oldest hub. Experts say it’s a classic example of what happens when too much of the world’s infrastructure relies on a single provider.
“This is a textbook illustration of the risks of putting all your eggs in one basket,” said one industry analyst.
While AWS remains the dominant player in global cloud computing, it has only a few serious rivals at scale — Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Smaller competitors like IBM, Alibaba Cloud, and Germany’s Stackit exist but operate on a far smaller footprint.
The incident reignited conversations about digital sovereignty, with some experts suggesting Europe should develop independent cloud infrastructure to reduce reliance on US-based giants.
However, others remain skeptical. As one UK government official reportedly said when asked about building a national cloud:
“But what’s the point? We already have AWS, over there.”
Monday’s outage, however, might just be a reminder that even the biggest players aren’t immune to a single point of failure — and the internet, as it turns out, isn’t quite as unbreakable as we thought.
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