A significant global outage affecting Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing division, caused widespread disruption to numerous popular websites and applications early on Monday.
DownDetector, an online platform monitoring issues and outages, reported that services including Amazon, Snapchat, and Facebook were affected. Additionally, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines faced disruptions within the U.S. However, there is currently no evidence suggesting an impact on air travel.
The AWS outage also had international repercussions. In the United Kingdom, account holders with banks such as Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, and Halifax experienced problems when trying to access their accounts.
While AWS has made considerable headway in restoring its services, some websites and applications continue to report ongoing disruptions.
An AWS statement confirmed, “We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share.”
Key details regarding the global outage and the services affected are outlined below:
What caused the global online disruption?
Numerous applications and websites experiencing outages rely on AWS, Amazon’s internet-based cloud service. AWS initially flagged “increased error rates and latencies” across several of its services early on Monday.
At 4:26 a.m. ET, Amazon acknowledged an escalation of the extensive problem, declaring: “We can confirm significant error rates for requests made to the DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 Region.”
DownDetector indicated that a considerable portion of U.S. outage reports originated from internet users in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. A majority of the global reports were submitted from the East Coast.
Which popular websites and applications have been affected?
Gaming applications and websites faced considerable disruption. Fortnite, Roblox, and Clash of Clans all saw a surge in reports of connectivity problems, with users struggling to access their accounts.
Social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, and Reddit recorded a dramatic increase in connectivity issue reports. At its height, the number of Snapchat-related reports surpassed a significant figure.
According to DownDetector, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, as well as telecommunications giant AT&T, all encountered disruptions.
Microsoft365, Duolingo, the Hinge dating app, and the Ring doorbell application all reported a sharp increase in issues. The video-conferencing service Zoom also faced technical difficulties, highlighting the extensive nature of the outage.
In the U.K., banking customers encountered problems logging into their accounts, with some seeing error messages when attempting to access specific pages on banking websites and applications.
The U.K. government’s tax and customs service also experienced difficulties, as the official U.K. government services website was similarly affected.
A U.K. government spokesperson informed TIME via email, “We are aware of an incident affecting Amazon Web Services, and several online services which rely on their infrastructure. Through our established incident response arrangements, we are in contact with the company, who are working to restore services as quickly as possible.”
Additional popular applications and websites reported to have experienced issues include: Venmo, Hulu, McDonald’s, Coinbase, Signal, Wordle, Slack, Canva, Tidal, PokemonGo, Strava, and Whatsapp.
Amazon’s Response:
According to a service update issued after 5 a.m. ET, Amazon engineers seem to have identified the underlying cause of the problem and are actively working on a resolution.
AWS further indicated that problems at Amazon’s data center in Virginia might also be contributing to global access disruptions. AWS stated, “Based on our investigation, the issue appears to be related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1.” DNS (Domain Name System) is responsible for translating domain names, like Amazon’s website, into IP addresses that computers can read to connect users to websites.
DynamoDB is the Application Programming Interface (API) utilized by Amazon.
What is the Expected Duration of the Outage?
Certain users might still encounter difficulties connecting to websites and accessing accounts on the impacted services.
Amazon has reported that the “underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now,” though “some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution.” Furthermore, some services are “continuing to work through a backlog of events such as Cloudtrail and Lambda, but efforts towards a full resolution are ongoing.”
An Amazon statement reiterated, “We continue to work towards full resolution and will provide updates as we have more information to share.”
The precise cause of the initial outage has not yet been confirmed.