Imagine millions of people suddenly unable to send snaps, check bank balances, or play their favorite games. That’s exactly what happened on October 20, 2025, when Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the invisible backbone of the internet – collapsed.
The Day the Internet Stood Still
At 7 AM BST, reports started flooding in. Snapchat users saw error messages instead of friend stories. Lloyds Bank customers couldn’t access accounts. Even Fortnite players got kicked out mid-game.
Within hours:
- 6.5 million outage reports worldwide
- 1,000+ apps and websites affected
- Major services like Reddit and Duolingo offline
| Service | Impact Duration | Users Affected |
|---|---|---|
| Snapchat | 5 hours | 2.1 million reports |
| Lloyds Banking | 3.5 hours | 890,000 reports |
| Fortnite | 4 hours | 1.4 million reports |
Why Did Everything Break?
Amazon later revealed the culprit – a DNS failure in their US-EAST-1 servers. Think of DNS as the internet’s phone book. When it stops working, your device can’t find websites even if they’re still online.
Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey explains:
“This shows how one small error can ripple through our connected world. We’ve built everything on a few giant cloud platforms – and when they sneeze, the whole internet catches a cold.”
The Domino Effect
The outage revealed our dangerous dependence:
- AWS controls 32% of the global cloud market
- Top 3 providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) hold 70% share
- Most apps don’t have backup cloud providers
Matthew Prince of Cloudflare put it bluntly:
“It’s like a bridge collapsing. When essential infrastructure fails, the economy crumbles with it.”
Is This the New Normal?
While Amazon fixed most services by noon BST, the damage was done. BBC reported this was AWS’s third major outage in 18 months. Each incident affects more services as cloud adoption grows.
Tech expert Cori Crider warns:
“We’re playing with fire by relying on American monopoly platforms. We need local alternatives before the next digital disaster.”
What This Means for You
Next time your apps stop working:
- Check Downdetector before blaming your WiFi
- Have offline payment options ready
- Support companies using multiple cloud providers
The 2025 AWS crash wasn’t just about missed Snapchats. It was a wake-up call about how fragile our digital world has become. As we entrust more of our lives to the cloud, we might want to ask: are we building a future or a house of cards?
