Internet Services Gradually Recover as AWS Restores Operations

---

Internet connectivity across several regions is gradually returning to normal following a massive outage that struck Amazon Web Services (AWS) early Monday, disrupting hundreds of websites and digital platforms worldwide.

The disruption, which began around 12:11 a.m. PDT (8:11 a.m. BST), crippled some of the internet’s most widely used services, including Reddit, Snapchat, Venmo, Ring, Pokémon GO, and Amazon’s own Alexa and mobile applications. Users across the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other countries experienced widespread service interruptions lasting several hours.

AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon and one of the world’s leading providers of cloud computing infrastructure, confirmed that the outage originated from its DynamoDB endpoint — a crucial database component that supports many internet-based operations. Engineers identified the fault, traced it to a system glitch affecting database connectivity, and deployed a fix at about 2:22 a.m. PDT (10:22 a.m. BST). The company reported that recovery began shortly afterward and has been progressing steadily, although a few platforms continue to face delays.

• PENGASSAN Strike Disrupts Fuel, Gas Supply as Prices Spike in Lagos

• Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake

“We have deployed a fix to the identified issue and are seeing steady recovery across affected services. Some systems, including Ring and Chime, may still experience intermittent issues as we work through the backlog,” AWS said in a statement posted on its Service Health Dashboard.

While many applications have since returned online, Reddit remains one of the hardest-hit services, with users still encountering access problems as of press time. AWS acknowledged that it is still processing a backlog of technical requests generated during the downtime, which may continue to affect certain services intermittently.

According to data from outage-tracking platform Downdetector, more than 50,000 incident reports were logged during the peak of the disruption. Businesses, content creators, and everyday users were among those affected, underscoring the scale of reliance on AWS’s infrastructure.

By 4:48 a.m. PDT, Amazon reported partial restoration of services, noting that engineers were closely monitoring systems to ensure full recovery. The company emphasized that stability was improving hour by hour and that most key operations had resumed normal performance levels.

Industry analysts say the incident has once again exposed the vulnerability of global internet systems and the risks of centralization in cloud computing. As the backbone of thousands of websites, financial applications, and enterprise platforms, AWS’s brief downtime triggered a domino effect that rippled through multiple industries.

“When AWS sneezes, the internet catches a cold,” remarked technology expert Jide Awe, highlighting how deeply interconnected the global digital economy has become. He explained that the outage serves as a reminder that even the most sophisticated systems remain susceptible to unexpected breakdowns, which can instantly disrupt global connectivity.

The latest incident follows previous cloud-related outages that raised concerns about the resilience of global internet infrastructure. Analysts argue that while AWS and other cloud providers have continued to expand their capacity and reliability, the complexity of digital systems means occasional disruptions may be inevitable.

As of Monday evening, Amazon engineers continued to monitor affected services, assuring users that the situation was stabilizing and that remaining issues would be resolved as the company cleared accumulated data requests and traffic backlogs.

The outage, though short-lived, underscores the extent to which the modern internet depends on a few dominant cloud providers — a reality that continues to shape conversations around digital resilience, redundancy, and the need for broader decentralization of online infrastructure.

---