AWS Outage Disrupts Major Websites and Services

A significant internet outage struck on October 20, 2025. It impacted popular platforms like Perplexity, Signal, Coinbase, and Amazon. The disruption originated from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS is a dominant cloud computing provider. Its services support a vast portion of the global internet. According to Reuters, the outage caused widespread accessibility issues for millions of users.

Root Cause and Immediate Fallout

The problem was a DNS resolution failure. It affected the AWS DynamoDB API endpoint in the US-EAST-1 region. This single point of failure had a cascading effect.

Downdetector recorded a massive spike in problem reports. Nearly 15,000 incident reports were logged at the peak. Service errors rippled through countless applications and websites.

Company executives quickly confirmed the issues. Perplexity’s CEO stated their AI search was down due to AWS. Signal’s president also linked their outage to the cloud provider.

Broader Impact on Internet Resilience

This event highlights a critical vulnerability in modern internet architecture. So much of the digital world relies on a handful of cloud giants. A single technical fault can have global consequences.

The outage affected AWS’s own internal operations. Reports indicate 37 internal AWS services also failed. This complicated the company’s own response and remediation efforts.

This incident follows another recent major disruption at Google Cloud. It raises serious questions about concentration risk in the tech industry. Businesses and consumers are reminded of the fragility of always-on digital services.

The AWS outage demonstrates the interconnected nature of our digital infrastructure. Such events force a necessary conversation about building more resilient systems. The reliance on core cloud services remains a double-edged sword for global connectivity.

Info at your fingertips

What is Amazon Web Services (AWS)?

AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing platform. It provides servers, storage, and networking for countless websites and online services. Many major companies depend on its infrastructure to operate.

Which services were affected by the outage?

Major platforms like Perplexity, Signal, Coinbase, and Canva experienced downtime. Even some internal Amazon services were impacted. The disruption was widespread across different sectors.

How long did the AWS outage last?

Full restoration times varied for different services. AWS engineers worked to resolve the DNS issue for several hours. Some users experienced intermittent problems as services stabilized.

What caused the AWS outage?

The primary cause was a DNS resolution failure for a key database service. This happened in AWS’s US-EAST-1 region. The fault then propagated to other dependent services.

Are cloud outages becoming more common?

Major cloud providers have experienced several significant outages recently. This includes disruptions at both AWS and Google Cloud. The trend highlights systemic risks in centralized digital infrastructure.

Trusted Sources

Reuters, Associated Press, BBC