Millions of users around the world were left staring at frozen screens today after a massive Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage crippled some of the internet’s biggest platforms — from Snapchat and Reddit to Roblox, Fortnite, and major banks including Lloyds and Halifax.
The problem? Something surprisingly ordinary. A Domain Name System (DNS) error — one of the most common yet disruptive glitches in the digital world — derailed traffic routes across AWS’s infrastructure, effectively cutting off the internet’s main highway for thousands of services.
“AWS had a bad day,” said the CEO of Cloudflare, one of Amazon’s competitors, noting wryly that this time the problem wasn’t on his end.
AWS, which powers roughly one-third of all internet activity, operates enormous data centres that host and route computing power for companies across the globe. Its servers store files, manage databases, and ensure users can seamlessly connect to websites and apps. But when its Northern Virginia data hub — the company’s oldest and largest — encountered a DNS malfunction, that seamless connection shattered.
The DNS acts like the internet’s phonebook: when you type a web address or tap an app, DNS tells your device where to go. Today, AWS effectively “lost the map.” The websites were still up, but the system couldn’t find them.
AWS has not reported any evidence of a cyberattack, suggesting instead that the issue may have been caused by a misconfiguration, maintenance failure, or server overload.
The incident is now sparking fresh debate about the risks of over-centralization in the cloud computing industry. With AWS dominating the market — followed distantly by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform — many experts say the internet has become too dependent on a handful of U.S. providers.
“It’s a textbook case of putting all your eggs in one basket,” said one industry analyst. “When AWS stumbles, the whole internet feels it.”
Smaller competitors like IBM, Alibaba Cloud, and Europe’s Stackit have tried to challenge Amazon’s dominance, but none operate at the same scale. Some European lawmakers argue that the continent must build its own large-scale cloud infrastructure to reduce dependence on American tech giants.
As one UK government official once put it, when a member of Parliament floated the idea of building a British AWS, the reply was simple: “Why bother? We already have AWS — over there.”
Today’s outage, however, has made it clear that convenience comes with vulnerability — and that the internet’s invisible backbone might be a little too concentrated in one pair of hands.