AWS DNS Outage Disrupts Internet Services

Early Monday morning, the internet experienced a major disruption that left millions of people across the world unable to access their favourite apps and websites. Amazon Web Services, the company that powers a huge chunk of the internet, ran into serious problems that started around 3 a.m. on the U.S. east coast and lasted for several hours before getting fixed.

The problem was traced back to something called DNS, which is basically like a phone book for the internet. When you type a website name into your browser, DNS converts that name into a number that computers can understand and use to find the right place. When Amazon’s DNS system stopped working properly, it was like the internet suddenly forgot where to find things. People tried to visit websites and use apps, but nothing would load because the system couldn’t figure out where to send them.

This wasn’t just a small problem affecting a few people. Because Amazon Web Services hosts so much of the internet, the outage created a domino effect that knocked out some of the biggest names in tech. Snapchat users couldn’t send messages. Fortnite and Roblox players found themselves locked out of their games. People trying to use Zoom for work meetings were stuck staring at error messages. These popular apps were not functioning. Long-lasting downtime and outages affected Coinbase, Fortnite, Signal, Zoom, and Amazon’s own services, notably its Ring line of video surveillance devices. Even Amazon’s own Ring security cameras stopped working, leaving people unable to check who was at their door. Banks in the UK and US faced disruptions too, with customers unable to access their accounts online.

What made this situation particularly frustrating for so many people is how much we rely on these services every day. Imagine waking up to find that your delivery app won’t work, your bank account is unreachable, and even your workplace communication tools are down. That’s exactly what happened to millions on Monday morning. Some Amazon warehouse workers even got sent home because the systems they use to clock in and get their assignments weren’t functioning.

The interesting thing about this outage is that the data itself was never lost or damaged. A computer science expert explained it perfectly when he said it was like the internet had temporary amnesia. Amazon still had all the information safely stored away, but for several hours, nobody could find it. It’s similar to having a perfectly organized filing cabinet but losing the index that tells you where everything is kept.

Amazon worked through the night to fix the problem, and by around 6:35 a.m. eastern time, they announced that the main issue was resolved. However, getting everything back to normal took longer because of what they call cached data. Think of cache as temporary copies of information that your computer saves to make things load faster. All those cached copies needed to be cleared out and replaced with fresh information, which is why some services took a few extra hours to fully recover.

This wasn’t the first time something like this has happened, and it probably won’t be the last. Back in 2021, a company called Akamai had a similar problem that took down major websites for several hours. More recently in 2024, a security company called Crowdstrike released a buggy software update that crashed millions of computers worldwide, causing chaos at airports and businesses for days.

What these outages reveal is how much of the internet runs on just a handful of companies. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google together control most of the cloud computing market, with Amazon alone holding about 30 percent of it. When one of these giants stumbles, the effects ripple across the entire internet. It’s become a situation where, as one expert put it, when a major cloud provider sneezes, the internet catches a cold.

For regular people just trying to check their email or scroll through social media, these technical explanations might not matter much. What matters is that their services work when they need them. Monday’s outage served as a reminder of how fragile our digital world can be, even when it feels so solid and permanent in our daily lives. As we continue to move more of our lives online, from banking to entertainment to work, the importance of keeping these systems running smoothly only grows.

Amazon hasn’t yet explained exactly what caused the DNS problem in the first place. They promised to share more details in the coming days once they complete their investigation.