Substantial Online Failure Hits Numerous Online Platforms and Apps

A widespread online failure has impacted many sites and applications globally, and users experiencing problems connecting to the web due to difficulties at Amazon’s online infrastructure system.

The disrupted apps comprise Snapchat, the gaming platform Roblox, the messaging service Signal, and Duolingo, in addition to multiple Amazon-managed services including its primary shopping site and the Ring doorbell company.

Across the United Kingdom, the financial institution Lloyds was impacted in addition to its subsidiaries Halifax and the Scottish bank, and additional accounts of problems reaching the HM Revenue and Customs online portal on the start of the week. Additionally in Britain, multiple Ring customers used networks to complain their doorbells were not working.

In the UK alone, accounts of disruptions on individual platforms totaled the thousands for each platform.

Officials confirmed that the problem originated in the eastern region of the United States at Amazon Web Services, a division that provides essential internet backbone for many businesses, who utilize capacity on the company's servers. Amazon Web Services is the most extensive cloud computing service.

Just after midnight (PDT) in the United States (8 in the morning BST), the company announced “elevated failure rates and delays” for Amazon's platforms in a area on the east coast of the US. The widespread consequence appeared to disrupt platforms worldwide, and the Downdetector site showing problems with the identical platforms in multiple continents.

Cisco’s Thousand Eyes, a service that monitors online failures, further indicated a rise in problems on Monday morning, including several cases situated in the state of Virginia, the location of Amazon’s US-East-1 region where AWS said the issues started.

Deanna Marshall
Deanna Marshall

Experienced business consultant and writer specializing in market analysis and growth strategies.