Key Points
- A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) caused widespread internet disruptions on Monday.
- Popular apps like Fortnite, Snapchat, Coinbase, and Robinhood were all taken down.
- Even some of Amazon’s own services, like its shopping site and Prime Video, were affected.
- The outage also hit companies in the UK, including major banks and telecom providers.
A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday caused widespread internet disruptions, taking down popular apps like Fortnite and Snapchat and causing problems for companies around the world. The incident is a stark reminder of how much of the modern internet relies on Amazon’s massive cloud computing infrastructure.
AWS, Amazon’s cloud division, acknowledged the issue, stating it was seeing increased “error rates and latencies” for several of its services. “We are working on multiple parallel paths to accelerate recovery,” the company said.
The impact was immediate and far-reaching. Gamers were unable to access popular titles like Fortnite and Roblox. Financial apps like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Venmo were all experiencing problems. Even some of Amazon’s own services, including its main shopping website, Prime Video, and Alexa, were affected.
The outage wasn’t limited to the U.S. In the UK, major banks like Lloyd’s and telecom providers like Vodafone and BT also reported issues.
AWS is the backbone of a huge portion of the internet, providing the on-demand computing power and data storage that countless companies rely on. When it goes down, the ripple effects are felt across the globe. This is the first major internet disruption of this scale since a malfunction at the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused global chaos last year.
