Amazon Web Services (AWS) has fully restored operations after a widespread outage that crippled parts of the internet, affecting major platforms including Snapchat, Reddit, Zoom, and Venmo, and disrupting business operations across multiple continents. Amazon said all services were back to normal by 3 p.m. PT, though some functions continued to process delayed data.
The disruption, traced to AWS’s US-EAST-1 data center in northern Virginia, was caused by a network health monitoring subsystem failure within the EC2 internal network. The fault triggered a Domain Name System (DNS) error that blocked applications from locating AWS’s DynamoDB database, affecting millions of users.
The incident marked the third major AWS outage in five years linked to the same region and was described by analysts as a “wake-up call” for global businesses heavily reliant on cloud providers. Cornell University professor Ken Birman said companies need stronger backup plans: “When people cut corners and skip redundancy, they become the first casualties of an outage.”
The effects were widespread — disrupting banks, telecom networks, airlines, and online payment systems. Websites for Lloyds Bank, BT, Vodafone, and HMRC in the UK went offline, while in the U.S., services from Coinbase, Robinhood, Lyft, and Epic Games were impacted. Amazon’s own products, including Prime Video, Alexa, and its retail platform, were also affected.
According to Ookla’s Downdetector, over 4 million users reported issues during the event. Analysts said the outage highlights how “a single point of failure” in a major cloud provider can paralyze global operations.
Despite the disruption, Amazon’s stock rose 1.6% to $216.48, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s long-term dominance in cloud computing. The incident, experts say, reinforces both AWS’s central role in global infrastructure and the risks of over-reliance on centralized cloud networks.
