A major disruption hit Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday, temporarily affecting a wide range of websites, apps, and cloud-based tools across the globe. The outage, which began early morning (GMT), caused widespread interruptions for businesses and users relying on AWS infrastructure for hosting and data processing. The issue was later identified as a configuration error within Amazon’s core cloud infrastructure.
Major Platforms Impacted Across Regions
Popular services including Netflix, Slack, Disney+, Reddit, and several e-commerce and financial platforms reported partial or complete downtime during the outage. Cloud-based applications, enterprise software, and IoT-connected devices were also affected, underlining the global dependence on AWS for cloud computing and data delivery.
Amazon Confirms Restoration and Investigation
Amazon confirmed that the disruption was due to a technical fault in one of its US-based regions, which later spread to other global nodes. The company stated that engineers worked “around the clock” to restore services and fully resolve the problem. By late evening, AWS announced that all affected systems were back online and functioning normally.
Businesses Count Losses and Seek Redundancy Plans
The hours-long downtime led to productivity loss, delayed services, and financial setbacks for several companies. Many IT experts emphasized the need for multi-cloud strategies and improved disaster recovery mechanisms to avoid single-point failures in the future. The incident reignited debates over the centralization of the internet’s critical infrastructure in the hands of a few cloud providers.
AWS’s Track Record and Market Dominance
Amazon Web Services remains the world’s largest cloud service provider, commanding roughly 30% of the global market share. While AWS has maintained a high uptime record over the years, this incident marks one of its most significant disruptions since 2021, highlighting the fragility of global digital systems dependent on centralized cloud ecosystems.