Websites and services across the U.S. and around the world went offline early Monday after a problem at a major cloud computing service left leading games, publishers and streaming platforms unusable to millions of users.
Amazon Web Services, a major provider of cloud hosting that underpins much of the web and every day online tools, went offline due to a problem with one its core database products, the company said.
The outage underlined the fragility of companies — including financial services — that use cloud-based servers to host their data, and how suddenly businesses across the globe can be impacted by an unplanned outage.
AWS first reported a problem at 12:11 a.m. PT (3:11 a.m. ET) and said it was dealing with an “operational issue” affecting 14 different services in its center in northern Virginia, at its US-EAST-1 Region center.
At 6:35 a.m ET the company said the database problem that caused the outage was “fully mitigated” but warned that there may still be delays.
Social media posts reported problems with cloud-based games such as Roblox and Fortnite; social networks including Snapchat; Amazon.com and Prime Video; the digital Ring doorbell service, among many others.
Messaging services such as Signal were also impacted, prompting Article 19, a nongovernmental organization that promotes freedom of expression, to warn of the democratic consequences of social media relying on cloud services.
“These disruptions are not just technical issues, they’re democratic failures. When a single provider goes dark, critical services go offline with it — media outlets become inaccessible, secure communication apps like Signal stop functioning, and the infrastructure that serves our digital society crumbles,” said Corinne Cath-Speth, Article 19’s head of digital.
Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, said its services was unavailable because of the AWS outage.
Media organizations including Disney and the New York Times were also apparently affected, according to Downdetector.
AWS customers were unable to report the problem because its automated support ticking system was also offline.
The problem stemmed from an error with DynamoDB, a system for managing database tables and indexes, AWS said.
AWS stores customers’ data and offers a range of online activities and is a major player in the cloud computing, having recently invested in AI products. It’s also highly lucrative, making $107 billion in the 2024 financial year, 17% of Amazon’s total revenue.
This is a developing story — check back here for updates soon.