A significant disruption in Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday, October 20, 2025, sent shockwaves across the globe, crippling a vast array of online platforms and digital services. The outage, which commenced around 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time, impacted everything from video conferencing tools like Zoom to social media platforms such as Snapchat, as well as Amazon’s own Alexa-enabled smart devices. Initially, the issue seemed resolved, but Amazon later confirmed the problems had reemerged, leaving numerous services offline for hours. AWS engineers worked tirelessly to address the crisis, issuing regular updates to keep users informed. By 11:00 a.m., the company identified the root cause as a malfunctioning internal subsystem responsible for monitoring network load balancers. To mitigate the issue, AWS throttled requests for new EC2 instance launches and implemented additional recovery measures. By midday, Amazon reported progress in restoring connectivity and API functionality, promising further updates by 10:00 a.m. PDT. The outage highlighted the global reliance on AWS infrastructure, affecting universities, businesses, governments, and media organizations worldwide, many of which were forced offline during the disruption.
AWS outage causes major global disruptions to businesses and online services
