Huge Amazon cloud crash leaves half the world without internet AGAIN
Two of the world’s largest cloud service providers, Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure, are experiencing simultaneous outages, triggering widespread internet outages at large companies.
According to Downdetector, the problems began around 11:30 a.m. ET, with increasing reports from users unable to access cloud-connected services, websites or applications.
The outage appears to affect dozens of platforms that use these cloud networks, including Microsoft 365, Xbox, Outlook, Starbucks, Costco, and Kroger.
Even popular developer and data tools like Blackbaud and Minecraft show connection issues.
Downdetector shows sharp increases in problem reports for both AWS and Microsoft products, confirming that the outages are not isolated.
The simultaneous failure of AWS and Azure is particularly concerning because the two companies power much of the global internet infrastructure, which is responsible for hosting everything from retail and entertainment to business operations and cloud storage.
Frustrated users flocked to social media, with one post on X reading: “First AWS, now Azure shutting down. I love it when big companies own half the internet!!!”
This marks the second major AWS outage in less than 10 days, reigniting concerns about the fragility of the internet when so much of its backbone depends on a few cloud giants.
This is a developing story… More updates to come.
The problems began around 11:30 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector, with increasing reports from users unable to access cloud-connected services, websites or apps
Engineers from Amazon and Microsoft said they were investigating the cause of the issue, but neither company confirmed whether the outages were related.
DownDetector receives network status updates from social media platforms, reports posted to the website, and other sources across the web.
The website says it ‘only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day.’
One user posted on Downdetector about the AWS outage, saying: ‘This can’t happen again.’
More than four million companies use AWS, including 90 percent of the Fortune 100 companies.
This large user base includes everything from small startups to large organizations such as Airbnb, Disney, and Netflix, which use AWS for a wide range of cloud computing needs.
However, AWS’s service page does not have any incidents listed for Wednesday, only showing an incident that occurred yesterday.
Microsoft Azure released an update stating that customers reported the issues around 12:00 a.m. ET. These problems were caused by a part of the internet system that helps computers find websites that are having problems (called DNS).
‘Customers may experience issues accessing the Azure Portal,’ the alert reads.
This is the second major AWS outage in less than ten days, reigniting concerns about how vulnerable the internet is when it’s so reliant on just a handful of cloud providers.
‘We have taken the action that is expected to solve the portal access problems here in a short time.
‘We are actively investigating the underlying problem and additional mitigation actions.’
Although Microsoft does not publish data on the exact number of companies using Azure, analysts suggest that the number of companies using the platform is more than 550,000.
But the public is still reeling from the last outage that brought down half the internet; Many people are angry about another major service outage affecting their favorite apps and websites.
Dr Milan Milanović shared on X: ‘Looks like there’s another big outage now. I noticed this on Azure, but it looks like AWS is also affected.’
